This video is an interview of the Intense Laser Physics Research Program.

You're watching WMBD TV. Now News Channel 31 at six continues.
Your health might someday be improved by the efforts of a group at ISU.
Tonight at 10 we will take you into the Intense Laser Physics Theory Unit.
WMBD's Jay Verner takes us into the lab and introduces us to some of the greatest minds in the area.
The lab is on the verge of being named the best Undergraduate Physics lab in the country, and Jay will show us why one experiment being conducted now could lead to major medical breakthroughs. That's tonight at 10.
It will be interesting to see tonight.


I'm Jay Verner. Find out why a lab at Illinois State University could some day improve your health.

This is the 10 o'clock news on WMBD.

Good evening I'm Bob Larson.
Thanks for joining us, I'm Amy Paul.
Someday, your life might depend on what's happening on the campus of Illinois State University.
The American Physical Society has recently named ISU the best undergraduate physics program in the country. WMBD's Jay Verner shows us why the universities work with lasers could lead to a huge breakthrough.

This contraption could one day save your life, but before we tell you what it is, it's important to know how it got here.

Rainer Grobe, ISU Physics professor:
You have to be self driven; you have to be curiosity driven; you're not telling you to do it because some boss tells you "you do this", so it has to come from your own heart.

(Newscaster)

Physics isn't so much of a job as it is a passion for professors Rainer Grobe and Charles Su. They eat and breathe Physics; they even dream about it.

(Dr. Grobe)

...And some times it is very early and you wake up and suddenly you have a great idea. You don't even know where it comes from.

(Newscaster)

The Phyics lab allows them to dream out loud. They're trying to find ways to make this laser into a tool to study the human body. Here's where their research could benefit you.
Right now doctors use x-rays to look at problems inside the body, and doctors really have a love-hate relationship with x-rays because on one hand they need them to find problems, but on the other hand, x-rays could cause health problems. Doctors Grobe and Su hope that lasers could be a safer alternative someday.

(Dr. Grobe)

Wouldn't it be nice if one day a woman would just do her own breast examination on monthly basis without having to go to a doctor? A touching, little device to her, realizing "green light", everything is fine.

(Dr. Su)

Oh, we have a big heart, but were taking also small steps, I think. We're trying to make our own contribution in a practical way.

(Newscaster)

They will rely heavily on computer modeling to help them along.
Right now they're mapping out how a laser reacts when it goes through flesh and bone.

(Dr. Grobe)

In contrast to the x-ray, which would either be absorbed or perfectly transmitted, the laser-light goes in all directions.

(Newscaster)

Undergrads Allison O'Connell and Matthew Narder bring them fresh prospectives.

(Alison)

Eventually what we want to be able to do is put a golf ball inside the tank and figure out where it is by scattering it in different areas of the tank.

(Newscaster)

Which could eventually help them find a tumor in an organ. Matthew said it will be an exciting moment if one day he sees a laser in a physicians office.

(Matthew)

I think it would be fun to think back that I might have had a small part in it. Just having a tiny part in it is real exciting. 

(Newscaster)

In this lab, you never know when a breakthrough will be made. Sometimes a lightbulb goes off in someone's head.  Sometimes its just plain ole long hours.
When breakthroughs are made there is no greater feeling.

(Dr. Su)

It is like you have been to the top of the mountain.  It is a whole new view of the world. It is very exciting.

(Newscaster)

The actual device may be a decade away but these scientists say the possibility of changin the world is worth the wait.
Jay Verner, News Channel 31.