For many years now I have been pioneering the use of laser induced fluorescence in paleontology and cave formations. Most people are familiar with UV lamps that make things glow. We used UV lamps to look for fossils at night since mammal teeth will glow bright orange. See our publication for details here. While it worked well for mammal teeth and bones, it did not work for dinosaur teeth which are the much preferred target. Lasers can also stimulate fluorescence, but the bright laser must be blocked with special filters for you to see it. I soon discovered, a strong enough laser will make almost all fossils fluoresce. I have since developed a machine that will sort out micro-fossils from gravel, made bones beneath the surface visible my making them glow, and traveled as far as China to fluoresce the famous Chinese Feathered Dinosaurs. I have a video of one of the talks I presented available online here that explains things in more detail.
Recently I have also applied the laser to cave formations. Changes in the brightness or color of cave formations signals past changes in ground water etc. It can also tell us things about the growth rate of the formations.
