If lasers could talk

     If you have been following my posts, you have found that there are many applications for lasers.  I have provided a list of medical applications and I have alluded to industrial applications.  I have even shown that lasers are similar to cute little ducks.  You may think I am just a laser enthusiast, claiming that lasers are completely amazing, useful, and awesome.  But I have shown that lasers are being considered for use as weapons and I have remarked on a story of laser misuse.  So maybe lasers are not so appealing.  Maybe the technology should be avoided due to the dangers that are associated with it.

     I found a news article that showed another medical/cosmetic application of laser technology: an anti-aging laser technique.  The report describes how lasers can be used to eliminate bulging, unsightly veins.  The article emphasizes its use on older women and, especially, celebrities.

"A small ‘pinhole’ puncture is made into the vein and a tiny catheter - no larger than one millimetre in diameter - is inserted along the length into which more anaesthetic and the laser is placed. The laser is activated and slowly pulled out of the vein. The heat from the tip of the laser seals the vein closed, diverting the blood supply to other, deeper, less prominent vessels below the skin’s surface.... After a few days and weeks the treated vein is reabsorbed into the body and disappears completely."

     From this description, I cannot decide which category this application should be placed into.  Cool app?  Or body ravager?  I am of the opinion that those veins are in your body for a reason.  Wouldn't destroying them result in poor circulation to your limbs, or possibly have some side-effect like lack of feeling near those areas?  If those effects don't result from this technique, then I could see the appeal of this application.  Cosmetic operations are all the rage now, so this might be another one, not to mention a possibly safe one, to add to the list of ways you can change yourself.

     What is your opinion of this application? I find it hard to decide how to classify this one.  For me, it's kind of in the gray area between useful and dangerous.  Maybe that is the thing about lasers, or science in general;  not every technology has to be clear-cut right or wrong.  If lasers could talk, they would probably say, "I'm a laser, not a saint."