{"id":217858,"date":"2025-07-14T18:14:29","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T23:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/these-microlasers-light-up-your-food-and-then-you-can-eat-them"},"modified":"2025-07-14T18:14:29","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T23:14:29","slug":"these-microlasers-light-up-your-food-and-then-you-can-eat-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/these-microlasers-light-up-your-food-and-then-you-can-eat-them","title":{"rendered":"These microlasers light up your food \u2014 and then you can eat them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/these-microlasers-light-up-your-food-and-then-you-can-eat-them.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have reimagined the meaning of a \u201clight meal,\u201d creating microlasers that use natural products to emit illuminated beams through food. And they\u2019re completely edible. These mini lights, the first demonstration of laser emission from an entirely edible system, could be harnessed for everything from environmental sensors to food safety trackers and bio-barcodes.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists from Slovenia\u2019s Jo\u017eef Stefan Institute have successfully created \u201cedible <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/newatlas.com\/styla-microlaser-cordless-dental-laser\/9332\/\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">microlasers<\/a>,\u201d which are exactly what they sound like \u2013 tiny optical devices, smaller than a grain of sand, that emit a beam of coherent light like normal lasers. And they\u2019re made out of biocompatible and digestible materials like gelatin, sugar and dyes, including additives already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), meaning they\u2019re perfectly safe to ingest.<\/p>\n<p>Why, you may ask? Because they\u2019re tiny and safe to eat, with fluorescent compounds such as chlorophyll (from olive oil) and riboflavin (vitamin B2), they could be widely applicable for use in food safety to track supply chain data, detect temperature changes and spoilage, prevent counterfeit goods or even act as QR or bar codes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have reimagined the meaning of a \u201clight meal,\u201d creating microlasers that use natural products to emit illuminated beams through food. And they\u2019re completely edible. These mini lights, the first demonstration of laser emission from an entirely edible system, could be harnessed for everything from environmental sensors to food safety trackers and bio-barcodes. Scientists from [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1506,1635],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-materials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}