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A Squishy Clockwork BioBot Releases Doses of Drugs Inside the Body (ieee.org)
the_newsbeagle writes: Making micro-machines that work inside the body is tricky, because hard silicon and metal devices can cause problems. So bioengineers are working on soft and squishy gadgets that can be implanted and do useful work. Here's a soft biobot that's modeled on a Swiss watch mechanism called a Geneva drive. With every tick forward, the tiny gizmo releases a dose of drugs. Getting the material properties just right was a challenge. "If your material is collapsing like jello, it's hard to make robots out of it," says inventor Samuel Sia.
It'll be the choice of our squishy clockwork overlords.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
On the plus side, those of us who are missing certain key internal organs (spleen, gall bladder, and pancreas, in my case) would be delighted to have an artificial organ or three to replace the pills and/or injections we have to take multiple times a day just to stay alive....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"