Lasers aren’t just for sci-fi movies, it turns out they can be used for the treatment of tumors and ultra-fast communications networks. Michael Bass, a professor at the University of Central Florida, is the holder of 34 patents and a 2019 inductee in the Florida Inventors’ Hall of Fame. Bass invented ways to use lasers to treat bleeding in the gastrointestinal system, detect nanoparticles associated with tumors, and amplify light in fiberoptic cables.

TRANSCRIPT:

Intro: 0:01

Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade a podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade, who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We'll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them, we'll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Richard Miles: 0:38

Lasers. No scifi movie can do without them, but it turns out they're good for lots of other things, including the treatment of tumors and advanced communications networks. Welcome to Radio Cade . I'm your host Richard Miles recording at the University of South Florida in partnership with our Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, as well as USF today. My guest is Michael Bass, professor Ameritas at the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He is also the holder of 34 U.S. patents as well as a 2019 inductee into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. Welcome to show Michael and congratulations.

Michael Bass: 1:11

Oh, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here.

Richard Miles: 1:14

So we usually start out the show explaining the inventors technology, but you've got 34 patents. So I'm sort of at a loss where to begin here, but why don't we start with a very basic definition of lasers and the types of things they can be use for, and then we'll move from there and to specific applications that are contained in some of your patents.

Michael Bass: 1:32

Sure. First, a laser is a device that produces a lot of light. It also produces it with very special properties so that you can focus it very carefully and you can select from a variety of lasers to be able to look at different kinds of effects, some effects depend on frequency or wavelength of the laser. Some activities you want to do require shorter pulses. We now have lasers that run continuously and yet other lasers that make pulses as short as 10 to the minus 15 seconds.

Richard Miles: 2:05

Wow. Okay. So there's a lot of power there and a lot of utility and you have managed to figure out a number of different ways in which is sort of harness the power of lasers to do different things that I think people wouldn't ordinarily think of. And I think one of the cool things about talking about inventions is not just the inventions themselves, but how did the inventor think of them? So let's start out with one that I've heard you talk about, and that is using lasers to treat bleeding in the gastrointestinal system. How did you come up with that idea? What led you to that particular use?

Michael Bass: 2:37

All inventions begin with a question in this case, the question was raised to me by two people who are gastroenterologists at the university of Southern California Medical School. They had been using fiber optic endoscopes and could see pathologies bleeding and ulcers in the gastrointestinal system. And the comment both made was it's very frustrat