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MRI Powered Pill-Sized Robot Swims Through Intestines
kkleiner writes "Researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel and Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston have collaborated to create a robot that can swim through the intestines. The size of a large pill, the 'microswimmer' is powered by the strong magnetic fields generated by an MRI machine. A tail measuring 20mm x 5mm made of copper and flexible polymer vibrates due to the magnets and propels the little microrobot through the gut."
In other news, the TSA has announced a new screening process involving rubber gloves and an intestinal robot. Americans should be very familiar with the procedure, as one merely has to bend over and take it.
I'm no MRI tech, but the hope is that there would be a low-power non-diagnostic routine to accommodate the little swimmer. The technology is only hype anyway, the article states that they tested it in a fish tank and haven't even tested it in a human. I doubt they'll have much success with it meandering successfully through the gut, and of course it will stop dead in its tracks when it hits that big wall of shit*.
*People who are active tend to defecate only once a day, with either hard pellets or spectacular stool length and thickness depending on how much fiber and coffee they consume.
Only if it has a mustache.
> The most terrifying thing must be knowing (or not knowing) when the shit volcano is finally over.
Would that be Krapatoa ?
Robots get all the shitty jobs!