Testing gene function with lasers

Scientists at the University of Buffalo have developed a method to, as they put it:

allow scientists studying "non-model" organisms to test directly the function of certain genes, even in the absence of genome sequencing information

A (large) picture is available here.

Some writers have suggested that the next step will be advertising on the wings of butterflies but I hope more useful purposes will be found for this technique.

"As the laser heats up specific cells on the butterfly wing, genes that sit next to this regulatory sequence get turned on, allowing for specific clusters of cells on the wing to fluoresce," said Monteiro, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University.