Laser Barbecue (2) The SMAP team defeated O-157

Barbecue is a pretty beautiful word to hear. In our lab, we all are fond of it. When you feel the softness and the delicate taste of a perfectly-balanced meat filling your mouth, your heart seems like rising to the skies. Are there other divine pleasures such as an endless barbecue party starting today and extending on tomorrow, the day after and so on?

We all share the same main centre of interest: laser barbecue. Hey, don’t tell me you don’t know what it is! It is of course the principle consisting in enjoying a barbecue using lasers. We are currently realizing what no one could do before in the whole history of humanity. The name of our team is Super Meat by Advanced Photons, a.k.a. SMAP. We are endeavouring intense research in order to be the first team to develop laser barbecue. Just between us, there are unfair rumours saying that we are spending too much time on this laser barbecue project. Our SMAP meeting are however very serious and dedicated to research and no private matters are allowed. “Hey, the beef sold at that supermarket is crazy cheap today”, “yeah but the freshness is quite poor”, “what matters is quantity, not quality, let’s go for it”. The one and only motto of the SMAP team is: “an army marches on its stomach”.

But, by the way, why should we need a laser to make a barbecue? Maybe it is because some people say that traditional fire is not enough? That’s not the reason. The reason is that fire is not a technology worth of our 21st century. In order to eat healthy meat, the need for laser has risen throughout the world. And if you still wonder why, the answer lies in the fact that lasers have destructive effects on the bacteria present in raw meat. The bacteria O-157, that was spreading widely some time ago can be eliminated with the laser barbecue technique, so don’t worry any more.

But why is it so? The bacterium O-157 infects the large intestine, causing enterohemorrhagic effects. In 1996, such cases were very numerous even in Japan but it initially started from food poisoning in hamburgers in the US in 1982.

When this bacterium infects the large intestine, usual symptoms are diarrhea, blood in the feces and hemolytic uremic syndrome. In addition, toxoids are created (vero toxoid), resulting in a weakening of the body’s defenses, potentially leading to death.

However, as surprising as it may appear, the research results achieved in the SMAP team show that we can relatively easily get rid of this bacterium by irradiating the meat with UV beams. The UV radiations close to 265nm are strongly absorbed by the nucleic acid, causing an ionization process to occur and prevents the DNA of the bacterium to reproduce, eventually killing it. By using this method exploiting the absorption properties of the bacteria, the meat piece in its whole can be disinfected, and not only on its surface, as it is the case when cooking with fire.

When bacterium O-157 was spreading, orders of rare meat in restaurants would plummet as the cooking method using fire would not disinfect the inside part of the meat. With the laser barbecue technology, we can offer healthy and delicious rare meat without losing its benefits. We use a KrF laser, emitting at 248nm, the perfect wavelength to eliminate the bacteria. Moreover, one single pulse contains enough energy to reach several units of J/cm2, assuring a clean and total eradication of the bacteria.

The challenges for the SMAP team never tarry. You may remember this epidemic affair of the mad cow disease in England a few years ago? It was a disease that appeared in cows fed with mixtures based on sheep brains and that could be transmitted to humans who ate infected beef. People would then fear that their brains would be changed into a spongious consistence. This disease is termed the Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) and the incubation time can last between several months and several years so that people may not know they are infected before it is too late to react. In most cases, people would die in one year’s time after the disease be detected. It affects the neural cells of the cerebrum and the cerebellum, causing the grey matter to get spongy with wholes appearing in it. Consequences of it are dementia and excessive nervousness. The exact origin of the disease is still unclear and the techniques for cooking the meat by heating or irradiating it with UV rays are not enough to prevent the proliferation of the disease and enjoy healthy barbecues.

But our creed in the SMAP team is “nothing is impossible”. So whatever happens, we won’t get discouraged. In the SMAP team, our lasers are not just mere UV lasers: we are currently thinking about using their high coherence and energy properties in order to propose a technique to implement laser barbecues safe from the mad cow disease. In recent years, the prion protein has been the focus of pretty much attention as a possible origin to the mad cow disease. In consequence, we are planning to investigate the absorption properties of this protein. If we manage to make the infected meat good for eating, we will be able to save the 30% part of the English beef production that is currently unfit for human consumption due to the mad cow disease. The practical economic effects resulting from it could stand over all expectations. From an academic point of view, this would at least deserve a Nobel Prize.

In the current times, laser barbecue is the technology that will sweep away the worldwide threats represented by still unknown diseases for humans. Offering you and your family healthy and tasty meat is the mission which we, the SMAP team, are engaged into. We are spending countless nights and days of efforts dedicated to this research. In the walls of our lab where the delicate smells of beer and meat never fade, our serious research discussions resound: “this one is dam good!”, “next I’ll go for a piece of juicy tongue”,”keep this one for me”…

Why don’t you join the SMAP team too? We are currently recruiting, so this is your chance! We have new sofas and everything. Don’t hesitate and join us! If you see people with red roses pinned on their chests, make yourself know to them, it is the mark of the SMAP team. The password is “There is no pleasure higher than barbecue” So come on and let your sense of curiosity change the world!!