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Surgical Microbot Developed
An anonymous reader writes to mention a Wired article about the first surgical nanobot developed for practical use. No wider that two human hairs, the machine is intended to swim through arteries and the digestive tract, and can perform surgical procedures in spaces no bigger than 250 microns. The article also addresses safety concerns; the bot will swim upstream from blood flow, so if something goes wrong it can be retrieved on its way back. Likewise, for the most delicate procedures it can be fitted with a tether, to ensure it doesn't get lost. From the article: "The tiny robot, small enough to pass through the heart and other organs, will be inserted using a syringe. Guided by remote control, it will swim to a site within the body to perform a series of tasks, then return to the point of entry where it can be extracted, again by syringe. For example, the microrobot might deliver a payload of expandable glue to the site of a damaged cranial artery -- a procedure typically fraught with risk because posterior human brain arteries lay behind a complicated set of bends at the base of the skull beyond the reach of all but the most flexible catheters."
I for one welcome our surgical microbot overlords.
Just keep Donald Pleasence away from the controls.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
use Jokes::Std::Beowulf;
use Jokes::Std::Overlords::Robotic;
Do you have ESP?
Nanomachines have already been used to perform surgery. For example, Dr. Victor Niguel developed them to attack the Pempti strain in 2018.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
You mean Slashdot articles are sometimes inaccurate and sensationalist. Quickly, inject me with some nanobots to calm my central nervous system before I go into paralyzing shock.
Nothing is impossible. We just haven't quite worked out how to do it yet.
Thirty years or so ago I loved the idea of having Raquel Welch swimming around in my body. Have you seen her lately? She's probably the reason I need my arteries un-clogged in the first place.
My user name was a mistake. Input wasn't restricted, my bad.
So, they expect things to be hairy to begin with and then turn bulletproof? And it's modeled after one of our most problematic bacteria? Guess we all better eat our spinach.
Yeaah,
But do they run Linux?
Could not resist the urge...
If you don't like my sig then don't read it.
"While others have tried and failed to create microrobots for arterial travel, Friend believes his team will succeed because they really need the money and have already spent far too much time on the project to just give up."
Yes, but not yet. You have to wait for them to be invented first. Unless you're a slashdot editor.