Cool! Original article at http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphoton.2011.99... if you have access (BBC actually linked to the right journal - that is a good start) It is basically a dye laser: you send enough optical energy into a container with some substance that absorbs it, it jumps to a high energy level and it lases. So it is not *too* useful on its own, since you still need the initial laser - and why not use that directly? However, I can imagine that getting some information directly from cells into laser form might enable better optogenetic interfaces. You modify neurons to become light-sensitive and light emitters, and then communicate with them using lasers going through them. Much gentler than electrical electrodes (the tips tend to have nasty big electric fields around them that irritate the tissue).

Quote:

"Lasing cells remained alive even after prolonged lasing action. "

That is reassuring. Of course, they might have acquired superpowers or gone evil, but that is for the biologists to notice...