Solar Surgery: Sunlight acts like laser

Surgeons may someday use super-concentrated sunlight to burn tumors off major organs. So say Israeli scientists, who have succeeded in channeling sunlight down a fiber optic cable to produce laserlike beams. The device might provide a cheap alternative to medical lasers in countries with limited access to high technology but plenty of sunlight.

TUMOR COOKER. A 200-millimeter-wide concentrator (above) collects sunlight and reflects a laserlike beam into an indoor setting for a mock surgery (below) on a chicken breast.