Only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum is visible light ranging from blue/violet light to red light. Ultraviolet light has a higher frequency than blue light, whereas infrared has a lower frequency than red light; however both are invisible to the human eye. Like radio and TV waves, light waves can be used to carry information if it suitably coded. Our eyes can detect only a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum, called ‘visible light’. This means that there's a great deal happening around us that we're simply not aware of, unless we have instruments to detect it. Light waves are given off by anything that's hot enough to glow. This is how light bulbs work - an electric current heats the lamp filament to around 3,000 degrees, and it glows white-hot. White light is actually made up of a whole range of colours, mixed together. We can see this if we pass white light through a glass prism - the violet light is bent ("refracted") more than the red, because it has a shorter wavelength - and we see a rainbow of colours. Light waves can also be made using a laser. This works differently to a light bulb, and produces "coherent" light. Lasers can be used to treat a wide number of disorders i.e. unwanted hair, eye treatment, skin problems, cosmetic surgery and so on.An endoscope is a device with a light attached, used to look inside a body cavity or organ. It uses two fiber optic lines. A "light fiber" carries light into the body cavity and an "image fiber" carries the image of the body cavity back to the physician's viewing lens. There is also a separate port to allow for administration of drugs, suction, and irrigation. This port may also be used to introduce small folding instruments such as forceps, scissors, brushes, snares and baskets for tissue excision (removal), sampling, or other diagnostic and therapeutic work. Endoscopes may be used in conjunction with a camera or video recorder to document images of the inside of the joint or chronicle an endoscopic procedure.An optical fibre is like a “tunnel” with extremely reflective walls. By packing a bundle of these fibres together (several hundreds, if not thousands), each can transmit part of an image back to either a microscope or a digital camera to be magnified. Note that some of the fibres can be used to carry illumination down to the far end, too. The fibres used in an endoscope are generally made either from glass or from a special kind of plastic that can be extruded very, very thin – only a few millionths of a meter in diameter. At that thickness, glass becomes surprisingly flexible. (cont)