David B. Phillips

A light beam passing through a piece of glass usually just bends slightly. But if you engrave ultra-fine patterns inside the glass with a laser, you can make the light split into separate beams, much like white light fans out into a rainbow after rain.

A surgeon removes a breast tumor, but how do you know no cancer cells are left at the edge? Right now, the tissue goes to a lab, and the answer comes back days later. If the margin is not clean, a second surgery is needed. The new method promises to give the answer right in the operating room, while the patient is still on the table.