Detecting dangerous chemicals with lasers, exploring the brain's circuitry with light and more

Featured at CLEO/QELS meeting in San Jose

WASHINGTON, April 22—Nearly 6,000 researchers from around the world will present the latest breakthroughs in electro-optics, lasers and the application of light waves at the 2008 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference (CLEO/QELS) May 4-9 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif.

CLEO is the preeminent event for those in the lasers and electro-optics community. It will be held in conjunction with QELS and the Conference on Photonic Applications, Systems and Technologies (PhAST). The meeting is co-sponsored by the Optical Society (OSA), the American Physical Society Division of Laser Science (APS-DLS) and the IEEE Lasers & Electro-Optics Society (IEEE/LEOS).

The following are some of the many technical highlights at the meeting:

• SHINING LIGHT ON THE BRAIN'S ACTIVITY
  
  
• TINY LASER ARRAYS FOR SENSITIVE CHEMICAL DETECTION
  
  
• SECURE COMMUNICATIONS VIA SPACE
  
  
• PHOTOLUMINESCENCE IN NANO-NEEDLES
  
  
• NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY—THE WORLD'S LARGEST LASER SYSTEM
  
  
• CLEO/QELS/PHAST PLENARY SPEAKERS
  
  

Additional research news summaries can be found online at http://www.cleoconference.org/media_center/pressrelease0421.aspx.

SHINING LIGHT ON THE BRAIN'S ACTIVITY

The microscopic structure of the human brain is almost incomprehensibly complicated, composed of trillions of interconnections between tens of billions of neurons. Understanding this circuitry, the aim of modern neuroscience, is a laudable goal for fundamental as well as neurological health care reasons.

Exploring the brain's microcircuitry has traditionally been done by lining up tiny electrodes within or near single neurons to probe their electrical activity. Though well established, this method is invasive and often noisy because of background electrical activity in the brain. A number of alternative approaches use optical probes that can detect neuronal activity with light, but these methods often require labeling neural cells with electrically-sensitive dyes that may be toxic to neurons.