clean the blood with a lazer?

[reverse]

Do you suppose a computer is fast enough to trigger a laser that is being directed by shape recognition software to pick off particular hard to isolate blood viruses?

 

I mean you would have to redirect the blood out of the body past a high res camera/laser set up then re pipe it back in again.

 

just wondered what the speed of a computer versus the number of viruses would be.

[Drug addict]

I don't know about computer speeds, but I do know that the number of viruses would be large. HIV viral load tests measure the number of HIV viruses per ml of blood. A high load can be 5,000 - 10,000 copies, and can be as high as one million copies per ml of blood. A low load is 200 - 500 copies per ml. Given that blood volume for a male adult is about 5 litres, thats a lot of viruses.

 

Because of their small size (10 - 50 nanometres [10^-9 m] compared to 1-100 micrometres for mamalian cells), viruses can only be imaged by electron microscopy, which needs a vacum and the sample to be conductive (usually done by coating with gold), so you couldn't really do it with blood.

[5614]

i think that a computer should be fast enough, i mean its not like viruses and bacteria move at light speed, if you made the blood still instead of flowing it'd be quite easy for a fine laser beem to pick out targets...

 

at the same time to get a camera in that close and a laser too is quite hard, you cant take a pic and then use a laser, it has to be done at the same time which makes it hard.

 

also you would have to spread the blood out to a molecule thin level.

 

there are many problems, i think a computer could read and give out commands quick enough, but it is not practical.

[reverse]

I have seen images of viruses.

 

Are they all done with an electron microscope?

 

A virus has a very distinctive shape.

 

Are there any other ways to see down at that scale?

 

Even if the laser gets it wrong some of the time, no real harm would be done.

[JaKiri]

Electron microscapy is the only plausable way under current technology, I'm afraid. It's quite possible that there will be others, but that involves finding a charged particle of extremely low mass.

 

Oh, and I for one don't want a laser shooting randomly into my bloodstream.

[reverse]

good point.

 

hmm,

 

well, maybe we dont actually need to see it to use it's shape to give it away.

 

I wonder what the sacle of intergrated ccts is compared to that of a virus.

 

perhaps a virus has another signature that can be isolated.

[JaKiri]

good point.

 

hmm' date='

 

well, maybe we dont actually need to see it to use it's shape to give it away.

 

I wonder what the sacle of intergrated ccts is compared to that of a virus.

 

perhaps a virus has another signature that can be isolated.[/quote']

 

How do you intend to shoot it if you can't know where it is?

 

Why not just use some kind of thing that targets the virus, but nothing else?

 

Oh wai

[reverse]

yep,

 

I need location and identification to target my laser.

 

The thing I do have working for me is speed.

 

a computer can go through the most tedious repetitive task with fantastic accuracy and speed.

 

A Ros laser can act with great speed and accuracy.

 

the big problem here is the size of the target.

 

but the good thing is the odd shape of the target.

 

if there was some way to pick out that shape.

[reverse]

I was thinking of a custom integrated circuit,

that read the shape of a virus.

 

A microscopic version of the readers in the early computers that read "OCRa" type face back in the fifties.

[reverse]

I should clarify.

 

Use the technology that they make integrated circuits with to make virus scaled passages or traps or indicators of some type .

Cut straight into the metal and semiconductor at the same scale as the virus.

 

it doesn’t have to be pretty, just functional.

 

 

maybe...

 

imagine an in line filter that was intelligent.

 

a flat ceramic thing.

[Gilded]

Perhaps in the future they'll have nanobots (possibly with tiny lasers ) ) that can be released into your bloodstream, that destroy only particular organisms in your veins, for example HIV. (Or then there's the chance I've just played too much Anarchy Online :< )

[YT2095]

the laser would have to be mind bogglingly tiny!

 

and what would the ablation products be, you can 1000s of viruses on a pin head, each one being zapped with Heat to destroy it, It leaves me wondering what state the blood would be in after?

[reverse]

hmm, it all sounds very far fetched.

 

but then again who would have thought we were going to be talking globally on tiny colour portable phones.

 

or that a thing like the net was possible.

 

Don’t be put off by the number of viruses or the fact that they are so small.

 

just imagine they were as big as a cat.

 

now, how would you design a trap for a cat.

 

here is a link so you know what your target looks like.

http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/mmi/stannard/linda3.html

 

my core idea is the one of shape recognition software applied to removing unwanted items in human blood.

 

before computers, there was no way to screen every milligram of blood one drop at a time.

 

now there is.

 

and now we can do it with enough speed to remove something as prolific as a virus.

 

the only factor that needs to be resolved is what kind of sensory gear do we use to see or locate the unwanted item.

 

previously the chemical ports or keys that a virus uses have been targeted.

that strangely enough on a microscopic scale can be considered a "shape" issue.

 

what say we use integrated technology or some of the newly forming micro technologies to make a flat surface the entices a virus to dock.

 

a micro trap.

 

what say you construct tiny electrostatic pathways to steer certain shaped items to a particular place.

 

the particular small size of a virus may be it's eventual downfall .

 

tx boot,

[YT2095]

my point is nothing to do with identification of such beasties, by computer or otherwise, my point is based on the effects a Laser would have on the blood, I could see rapid Coagulation being an issue with the heat (however local and accurate) and the products of ablation being potentialy toxic

[reverse]

good point.

 

problems with heat can be resolved.

 

if it's just cooling that you are talking about.

 

is there a secondary effect you are aware of?

[YT2095]

yes, the secondary effect would be the toxicology of the ablated virus material, that most certainly CANNOT be good! *BLaaaagh* )

[ffsjoe]

I think that the only uses a laser could have would be for eye surgery, tattoo removal and getting rid of birthmarks like mine! It hurt like hell and doesnt remove it all on the first go. Portwine type on my face.

[reverse]

That sounds like a great use for a laser.

 

How exactly did the laser remove the mark?

what was the mark made of?

 

was there (port colour) live blood vessels just beneath the skin?,

and by adjusting the focal length of the laser (skin is slightly transparent) to just below surface level, where they cauterised?

 

or is there some other effect going on here?

 

tx boot.

 

ps you would be surprised what photons (light energy) can do these days.

[YT2095]

from what I can tell from a mate of mine that had it done, it actualy vaporises the ink, and what they don`t tell you is that the scar that`s left can look worse than the original tattoo >Ouch<

[reverse]

a bit off the subject.

( at least a scar doesn’t have the social stigma of a tattoo )

 

thanks for the info.

[UCF-Forensic]

my point is nothing to do with identification of such beasties, by computer or otherwise, my point is based on the effects a Laser would have on the blood, I could see rapid Coagulation being an issue with the heat (however local and accurate) and the products of ablation being potentialy toxic

 

Finally somebody who thinks like me!!!

 

Lasers....hmm I'm not sure as to their ability to work on something as small as a virus, I posit that there would be more collateral damage than aid being produced, since viruses are so small, and there are so many of them that they would have to be in groups to really make a difference. This brings an idea to mind...Why not put an attractant in the blood as sort of a "buffet for the beasties" and then zap them with a laser. Although far-fetched and slightly twisted, it might make better sense than picking them off individually. If you think about it, we already use that kind of technology. Radiation thereapy for cancer, chemotherapy, all ways of eradicating the little buggers by taking them out in clumps *Tumors*. Suppose you could condense all the HIV or other acceptable virus matter into a few clumps *Tumors* in the body and then irradiate them using conventional cancer therapy, or possibly chemically....