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Sperm Could Power Nanobots

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the make-sure-you-pick-the-best-swimmers dept.

Lucas123 writes "According to MSNBC, scientists are experimenting with using a sperm's flagellum to overcome the problem of supplying energy to nanobots that could be implanted in the body as smart probes that would release disease-fighting drugs, monitor enzymes and perform other medical roles within a patient's body. Powered by a compound called adenosine triphosphate or ATP, a sperm's flagellum can propel it at about 7 inches an hour. Energy from ATP could also power the pumps charged with dispensing the medication at a certain rate from the nanobots."

49 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. Think of the possibilities... by DragonPup · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...of making your insurance provider to cover your porn costs so you can power your nanobots!

    --
    "Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
    1. Re:Think of the possibilities... by pnutjam · · Score: 4, Funny

      You can bet, if insurance cover its, they will find an efficient and unappealing way to harvest. :(

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
  2. That's great an all... by Serenissima · · Score: 5, Funny

    But where on Earth can they possibly find enough sperm?

    --
    Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. But light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
    1. Re:That's great an all... by meringuoid · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sperm-powered robots on the hunt for fuel? Well, somehow I think the anime writes itself, don't you?

      --
      Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
    2. Re:That's great an all... by badran · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well Most people here suddenly find them selves a tad more useful to the world...

    3. Re:That's great an all... by andphi · · Score: 2, Funny

      If by "writes" you mean "ties bedroom scenes together with something resembling plot (in the same way that the heroine of the story wears something resembling clothing)", then yes, it does write itself. But I wouldn't want to be caught dead in the same room with the DVD of it.

    4. Re:That's great an all... by Serenissima · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, naturally, you'd want to be caught alive in the same room! Having someone find your dead body in a room with that playing on the DVD player would raise some interesting questions... Like "What was he doing so furiously that his heart stopped?"

      --
      Give a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day. But light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
    5. Re:That's great an all... by andphi · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can see it now. Gil Grissom and that Assistant ME David are looking down at my corpse. Gil looks at the box, unopened, and the DVD player, which isn't turned on. Gil says: "Well, this is new." David says: "Preliminary cause of death: exsanguination from these explosive contusions on the face, neck, and chest. No other signs of trauma." That new chick who replaced Sara: "This is so weird. What's your theory, Grissom?" Gil: "I don't have theories, just evidence." and then, in voice over: "Go away, new chick, and don't come back without Sara. I want my Sara back you dumb, overly perky evidence-bunny."

      Nick discovers that I didn't order the DVD and don't even own a PAL compatible DVD player. Greg comments on the eclectic but basically porn-free movie collection. "Lots of anime, sci-fi, and fantasy, but no pr0n, unless Ghost in the Shell is pr0n." Greg then tells an unrelated story about being severely embarassed. Nick speculates on the incidence of murder by pr0n and Greg goes off on another Las Vegas underworld history lesson.

      Later, Hodges, in another fit of self-importance, concludes: "He died of embarassment." Gil looks at him with that signature "Thank you, Hodges, for telling me what we already knew" look on his face and then, in voice over: "Go away Hodges, and don't come back, ever. I want Lab Greg back, even if it means having to deal with two Gregs"

    6. Re:That's great an all... by andphi · · Score: 5, Funny

      I probably would be. However, this premise doesn't seem to lend itself to that kind of hentai.

    7. Re:That's great an all... by BillGod · · Score: 2, Funny

      My sheets will be the next oil fields of Saudi Arabia... If only they were worth the same.

      --
      MISSING - Sig file. 2 years old black and white and very funny. If found please email me.
    8. Re:That's great an all... by The+Great+Pretender · · Score: 2, Funny

      I, for one, welcome our new sperm-powered nano-robot overlords.

      --
      A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
  3. In that case by WilyCoder · · Score: 5, Funny

    In that case my ex could run a power plant.

    1. Re:In that case by WilyCoder · · Score: 5, Funny

      The colloquial term is 'cum-guzzling whore', but we can skip the semantics :)

    2. Re:In that case by EnsilZah · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't you mean a Breeder Reactor?

  4. Sperm life? by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How long would sperm be able to live though? I believe it's about 3 days in an ideal environment (vagina), how would it work in a hostile one like a nanobot?

    --
    I like muppets.
    1. Re:Sperm life? by pembo13 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I could be wrong, but the vagina is a hostile environment to sperm -- it produces natural spermicides.

      --
      "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    2. Re:Sperm life? by Bryansix · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, they are all hostile. That is why sperm gels up in the seminal fluid shortly after release and then springs into black-ops when the coast is clear to enter the cervix.

    3. Re:Sperm life? by Albert+Sandberg · · Score: 3, Funny

      .. now this thread is something I thought would never appear on slashdot. And modded informative/insightful all over the place? Hell just froze ;)

    4. Re:Sperm life? by fbjon · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Pregnancy is surprisingly difficult.

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    5. Re:Sperm life? by maroberts · · Score: 5, Funny

      Slashdot readers know all about the scientific details of sex. They just haven't experienced it personally (at least not with a member of the opposite sex).

      --

      Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
      Karma: Chameleon

    6. Re:Sperm life? by thewils · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not so - you do know this is how lawyers are conceived, right?

      --
      Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
    7. Re:Sperm life? by TekPolitik · · Score: 3, Funny

      Pregnancy is surprisingly difficult.

      Nah, you just have to have the right environment. Based on years of intensive research into the matter and the work of the major scholars in this area - Maury Povich and Jerry Springer - the right environment is a trailer park.

    8. Re:Sperm life? by Lost+Race · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's only difficult if you want it. If you don't it's ridiculously easy.

  5. Close the door! by Benanov · · Score: 4, Funny

    Leave me alone, I'm trying to save sick children in Africa!

    fap fap fap

    (Yes, I know they wouldn't be using actual sperm, merely copying it. But it's still a funny mental image.)

    1. Re:Close the door! by JContad · · Score: 3, Funny

      Leave me alone, I'm trying to save sick children in Africa!

      I am pretty conflicted on whether to laud or loathe you for thinking of the children.

      --
      Hopscotch - an online comic.
  6. Obligatory... by doi · · Score: 2, Funny

    I for one welcome our new, sticky, nano-robotic overlords!

    --
    A man's reach must exceed his grasp, or what's an erection for?
  7. Robotic structure wrapped in living sperm. by Bruce+McBruce · · Score: 5, Funny

    'Come' with me if you want to live.

  8. One problem.... by edwardpickman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How do you train them to run in a nano hamster wheel.

  9. Masturbot by Foofoobar · · Score: 4, Funny

    I call dibs on the name Masturbot (c) 2007

    --
    This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    1. Re:Masturbot by Foofoobar · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah but I whipped out that trademark last year and been beating it for the last month til this post came onto the scene.

      --
      This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
  10. A bugfix to y'all slashdotters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    --- slashcode.orig 2008-01-02 21:36:25.174107170 +0200
    +++ slashcode 2008-01-02 21:36:55.919425508 +0200
    @@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
      a) wank
      b) wipe keyboard with tissue
    -c) throw tissue into garbage bin
    +c) sell tissue to pharmaceutical company
    1. Re:A bugfix to y'all slashdotters by jalet · · Score: 2, Funny

      You forgot :

      +d) Profit !

      --
      Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
  11. Powering Fembots (Movie with Tilda Swinton?) by StCredZero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about sperm powered fembots? They could remake this movie!

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0270688/plotsummary

  12. Sperm as an energy source won't work by Bloater · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is just another crackpot perpetual moisten machine.

  13. Come again? by Doomstalk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, I guess it's worth a shot...

  14. Funny... by EvilSporkMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    I seem to be able to propel sperm about 7 inches in the space of a few seconds.

    --
    -insert a witty something-
    1. Re:Funny... by Curze · · Score: 4, Funny

      All I know is this puts an entirely more hilarious spin on "Transformers, More than meets the eye!"

    2. Re:Funny... by SoulRider · · Score: 3, Funny

      Damn, your quick. It takes me about 6 minutes.

  15. Already exists... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 4, Funny

    The plot didn't involve nanotech directly, but it did have quotes like "I need your active molecules! Please, deposit them in the front slot!"

    Ahem... or so I'm told.

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  16. What a moronic story. by jonnythan · · Score: 4, Informative

    This isn't about powering nanobots with sperm. It's about looking at sperm's locomotive method and adapting it to nanobots.

    I'm not really sure why the article talks about sperm, specifically, but ATP is used all over the human body to do virtually everything, including move muscles.

    1. Re:What a moronic story. by LanMan04 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not really sure why the article talks about sperm, specifically... Maybe because sperm are the only cells in the human body use flagella to locomote, which is what these nanobots are supposed to do?
      --
      With the first link, the chain is forged.
  17. Sperm isn't the fuel. ATP is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ATP is the fuel for muscles. Trying to use ATP to power nanobots has absolutely nothing to do with sperm in particular.

    1. Re:Sperm isn't the fuel. ATP is. by calcapt · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is incorrect; using ATP to power nanobots is analagous to using ATP to power sperm. If you think about it, sperm are really just small biological machines, utilizing ATP to power the movement of their flagella. And, ATP isn't JUST for powering muscles; it's required to power numerous cellular functions not limited to DNA/RNA/protein synthesis. Hydrolysis of the third phosphate from ATP producing ADP releases energy required to power biomolecular machinery that make our bodies work. To say that ATP is fuel only for muscles is saying that electricity can only power light bulbs. Not true.

      In addendum, one could possibly consider the protein machinery within our cells as the first true, all natural nanobots.

  18. The good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    is your cancer is completely gone.

    The bad news is you're pregnant.

  19. Move 7 inches in an hour? by Bimkins · · Score: 4, Funny

    If this is the same measuring of 7" that most guys use, then these things will probably top out at about 4" or 5"...

    --



    If you smoke after sex, you're doing it too fast.
    1. Re:Move 7 inches in an hour? by Chosen+Reject · · Score: 4, Funny

      True, but if it's the same measuring of one hour that most guys use, then these things will do that 4" in about 60 seconds, so it turns out for the best.

      --
      Stop Global Warming!
      Just say no to irreversible processes!
  20. cookie cutter science by Goldsmith · · Score: 3, Informative

    Makes one (1) Tenured Professor:

    1. Find proteins.
    2. Attach to a surface (his tags work well).
    3. Make link to nanotechnology (half-baked links are easier).
    4. Put out a press release claiming to be the first person to put proteins on a surface.

    Congratulations, you're tenured!

  21. I'll do my part. by talksinmaths · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Kif, clear my schedule."
     

    --
    Don't you have someone you'd die for?
  22. Probable Conversation .... by PPH · · Score: 3, Funny
    ... at the average Slashdotter's house.

    Mother (yelling down basement stairs): "What are you doing down there?"

    Slashdotter: "Recharging the robots!"

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.