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A laser that predicts when you are going to die has been invented by scientists.

The beam is painless and can also be used to test for diseases including cancer and dementia.

It comes in a wrist watch-style device that analyses tiny cells inside the ­capillaries – the smallest blood vessels – to work out how quickly the body will age.

The laser examines how well these cells function and generates an estimate of how long a person will live.

Grades, rated from 0, meaning death, to 100, equalling optimum function, are then used by scientists to calculate how long a person has left to live.

It has been patented by Aneta Stefanovska and Peter McClintock, physics professors from Lancaster University.

Professor Stefanovska said said: “I’m hoping we will build a database that will become larger and larger, so every person measured can be compared against it.

“We will then be in a position to tell them the values [that] predict a certain number of years.”

The device is expected to be available to doctors within the next three years.

