For this reason an extensive review is presented here of the entire field of russian applications of lasers in medicine and biology although the author dr gamaleya has not worked directly with many of the applications he has a general background in laser usage and has received much help from his colleagues in assembling the material. Laser applications in medicine and biology if a basic advance in physics has any practical applications among the first are those in biology and medicine this is quite striking when one considers even such unlikely things as the mossbauer effect and x rays. Trial runs have been made e g of laser based supermarket checkout devices and as commercial exploitation of this item begins cer tainly many more similar adaptations will follow however the shift in emphasis from research usage of lasers to de velopment and production has been relative rather than absolute. This is particularly useful in medicine where less invasive ap proaches to surgery and diagnosis are always helpful however as rol and his colleagues explain the power handling capabilities ofoptical fibers limit many applications particularly for short duration high peak power laser pulses