The Cellulite Zapper

If your thighs resemble cottage cheese and your derriere is more orange peel than peach-like, then you won't be looking forward to summer.

It's a condition which affects us all - even the rich and famous.

Demi Moore, Paris Hilton, Jodie Marsh and Jerry Hall have all been pictured with wobbly thighs, while Penny Lancaster claims she lost her cellulite through exercise and drinking water.

But it's time to stop sobbing into your detoxifying green tea.

Help could finally be at hand, thanks to a laser beam that blasts away layers of fatty tissue without even scratching the skin.

Scientists have invented a fat-seeking laser that melts away unsightly cellulite.

Not only that, the hi-tech breakthrough can also be used to target fatty plaques that build up in the arteries and lead to heart attacks.

An experiment conducted on pig fat found that infrared beams zapped through skin for about 16 seconds broke down fat.

Professor Rox Anderson, a dermatologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, who led the experiment, said the results shows that heating tissues with light could have medical implications in the future.

He said: "We can envision a fat-seeking laser and we're heading down that path now.

"If successful, new laser capable of producing the appropriate wavelengths can be commissioned to target fat or plaques in patients."

It is also hoped that the laser could be used to treat acne.