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Harvard Scientists Invent Cigarette-Smoking Robot For Better Lung Disease Research (ieee.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the lung-on-a-chip dept.

the_newsbeagle writes: Harvard scientists have invented a nifty lab robot that can smoke 10 cigarettes at a time, lighting up for the benefit of medical research on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The bot channels smoke into a "lung on a chip," a small device with microfluidic channels lined by human lung cells. This setup enables researchers to realistically replicate the action of taking regular pulls from a cigarette, and to watch the effects on the lung cells. Researchers can't achieve the same realism with cells cultured in a petri dish or with lab mice -- which, interestingly, are "obligate nasal breathers" that typically take in air through their noses. The invention was announced yesterday by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

46 comments

  1. Last post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do NOT post after this one. Thank you.

    -The Management

    1. Re: Last post! by PedroPerez · · Score: 1

      Wow! Second

    2. Re: Last post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      scrotum sack on forehead

    3. Re: Last post! by FatdogHaiku · · Score: 1

      scrotum sack on forehead

      Your yoga instructor must be so proud!
      A little more flexibility and you'll never leave the house again.
      Also you're going to want a gigabit connection for the webcam business...
      Not as a show, for private lessons.
      You are gonna be so rich!

      --
      You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
  2. Missing some featurs by dysmal · · Score: 1

    OK they invented a robot that will smoke cigarettes but will it also walk by coworkers to gather fellow smokers every 30 min during the work day?

    1. Re:Missing some featurs by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      And it has to smoke outside by the back door.

    2. Re:Missing some featurs by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      The machine involves real human lung cells, so it's inside of some type of air-controlled incubator. I had a labmate who used to smoke in a fume hood. Kind of stupid given the toxic and flammable chems we had in there. Probably stupid also that we didn't dispose of them properly, but no one died, so... meh...

    3. Re:Missing some featurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OK they invented a robot that will smoke cigarettes but will it also walk by coworkers to gather fellow smokers every 30 min during the work day?

      Shitty genes are shitty bro. Don't be mad if someone who smokes like a chimney outlives you by 40 years. I do not promote smoking btw. Just don't be an ass.

    4. Re: Missing some featurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      smoking is such a social activity. and you can be sure all of your fellow smokers will be at your funeral..unless you've already been to theirs.

    5. Re:Missing some featurs by geekmux · · Score: 1

      OK they invented a robot that will smoke cigarettes but will it also walk by coworkers to gather fellow smokers every 30 min during the work day?

      Shitty genes are shitty bro. Don't be mad if someone who smokes like a chimney outlives you by 40 years. I do not promote smoking btw. Just don't be an ass.

      Guess I'm failing to see how genetics has fuck-all to do with smoker behavior that has been known to be a detriment to productivity, but hey, feel free to keep reaching. I do not promote smoking either, nor do I want to support the companies who have legally killed millions of humans with their one and only product.

      Oh, and I'm not being an ass, I'm merely stating the shitty facts behind one of the worst products humans have ever invented.

  3. Again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why are so many people still researching the association between smoking and lung cancer? Hasn't it been made clear enough by now? Aren't there more important things to think about, new things to figure out?

    1. Re:Again? by turkeydance · · Score: 1

      money

    2. Re:Again? by SirSlud · · Score: 1

      Education.

      --
      "Old man yells at systemd"
    3. Re:Again? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

      To research better lung disease. Said so in the title. The world is ripe for better diseases.

    4. Re:Again? by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's not being used to prove that smoking is bad, it's being used to understand how smoking damages the airways, and probably will eventually be used to look for treatments to reverse it. Given the sheer number of cigarette smokers in the world despite the known dangers, that would be extremely profitable AND would reduce healthcare spending maybe. So, yes, there are new things to think about than is smoking bad, and they are thinking about them.

    5. Re:Again? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Why are so many people still researching the association between smoking and lung cancer?

      Because there are still anti-science jackoffs who try to say smoking is just fine.

      http://www.vox.com/policy-and-...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:Again? by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Why are so many people still researching the association between smoking and lung cancer?

      Because there are still anti-science jackoffs who try to say smoking is just fine.

      http://www.vox.com/policy-and-...

      I have no desire to come to the defense of Mike Pence. However, it should be noted that he didn't say smoking is "just fine" -- in fact he said "smoking is not good for you." But in the same piece, he also said that "smoking doesn't kill." And well, facepalm.

      Maybe he was just nostalgic?

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    7. Re: Again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Smoking is bad. I don't smoke but my dad did and lived for 92 years. I believe he died because of old age and not because of smoking. I sincerely believe smoking kills please dont smoke.

  4. Futurama by sunderland56 · · Score: 1

    And, once again, real life is striving to catch up to Futurama.

    1. Re:Futurama by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Will it say Bite my shiny metal ass?
      will it have a shiny metal ass?

    2. Re:Futurama by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      He's referring to this guy.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    3. Re:Futurama by Snotnose · · Score: 1

      In 18 years the law will have caught up enough that the robot can sue the tobacco companies for damages, much like the talcum powder damages against J&J today.

    4. Re:Futurama by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

      http://www.theanimationblog.co...

  5. Smoking robot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is going to stand *right* outside the front door and blow smoke onto people walking by/entering the building?

    1. Re:Smoking robot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I made a smoking robot 30 years ago. Stuff a cigarette on the end of a cars intake manifold vacuum hose and light it up. It sucks it down in about 5 seconds leaving a 4" cherry.

  6. Have to wait 18 years by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    But they have to wait 18 years until it is legally allowed to smoke.

    1. Re:Have to wait 18 years by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Why don't they just pass out cigarettes to kids at school? The kids who want to smoke will be delighted, the researcher will get real useful data they need. No need for expensive robots. win-win.

  7. For what purpose. by freeze128 · · Score: 1

    Uh, OK. I think everybody already knows that smoking is bad for humans, and can lead to all kinds of maladies. Do we really need this research?

    1. Re:For what purpose. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm assuming this testing method may open up possibilities for other applications, so yes, we need it.

    2. Re:For what purpose. by sheramil · · Score: 2

      The research isn't to determine how bad smoking is for humans. With the Singularity just around the corner (as it has been ever since Vernor Vinge coined the phrase), we need to determine how bad smoking is for robots.

  8. Because You'd Be in Jail! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    https://web.archive.org/web/20...

  9. Already done by gringer · · Score: 1

    A colleague of mine was working on cigarette particulates for her PhD research about 10 years ago, and used the smoking machines from Labstat, Canada:

    http://www.labstat.com/equipme...

    --
    Ask me about repetitive DNA
    1. Re:Already done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But not with 10 separate cigarettes at a time.

    2. Re:Already done by mridoni · · Score: 1

      This idea dates back to the '60s, I watched a documentary that demonstrated dozens of cigarettes being "smoked" at the same time through some cloth filter that was then analyzed (it was still the time when tobacco companies pretended to be interested about your health). It was a simple timed vacuum pump, they were not replicating patterns, but the basic idea has been there for decades.

  10. Robots taking our jobs by thegarbz · · Score: 1

    Well shit there goes another career path which from what I can gather many Europeans and Americans seem to be aspiring towards.

  11. I've such a robot at home by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    I call it 'Dad'.

  12. I hope it comes with a voicebox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do smoking robots get throat cancer

  13. Outdated by avandesande · · Score: 1

    vape-bot!

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  14. From the shiny-metal-ass dept. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I miss the snarky joke dept lines. Why do we even have them anymore?

  15. Futurama... by trabby · · Score: 1

    Surely they named it Bender?

  16. Re:Robots creating our jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Given the decline of smoking among humans, smoking robots will save the tobacco industry!

  17. 10 at a time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wouldn't it be cheaper to have the robot smoke Pall Mall non-filtered?

  18. AI Winter over by Lije+Baley · · Score: 1

    With this breakthrough, robots are cool again!

    --
    Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
  19. That'll save me time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Awesome. If they can price it low enough for Joe Public, I'll be able to save lots of time getting my daily allowance of cigarettes smoked!

  20. Everyone will die by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A few days one way or the other a difference does not make.

  21. Welcome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I for one welcome our new hacking and wheezing overlords.