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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."
Isn't this too big to be a nanobot?
Anywho, i wonder if they'll hook this sucker up to a joystick for real time control, anyone played ballistics? Like that only instead of breaking the speed of sound, you try not to cripple someone for life, for real!!!
I give it 2 thumbs up... 2 thumbs... well, one thumb and a hand twich...
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
Can you really call something a nanobot if it is 250 microns wide? Seems like this 'nanobot' is a few orders of magnitude too large(Wikipedia says nanobots are typically devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometres).
The article:
The Slashdot headline:
Ya, possibly, but there's no more risk than having your body cut open and worked on by people. Surgery is surgery. :)
I don't reply to Anonymous posts; if you have something to say to me, identify yourself or I won't reply.
No, I haven't seen here lately. Do you realize that most /.ers are probably to young to even know who she is, let alone remember her?
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
However, once the robot is proven, the surgeon who *used* to perform hundreds of these operations, now performs twice as many but uses a fancy remote controller instead of his old wiggly catheter.
Once upon a time, these operations would be performed using a bit of sharp flint after a song and dance round the fire while stoned out of your head on mushroom juice. Things move on, don't worry about them.
Takes on a whole new meaning when your nanobot craps out.
I used to be with IT..now IT seems strange and scary to me.