A great advancement. However… Imagine next gen versions of this and the uses beyond the described medical. Inject a few into a prisoner the first day he’s incarcerated. If he starts a fight or tries to escape, paralyze him from within. How about invisible torture? Inject into a subject and let the buggers loose to generate excruciating internal pain. When the fellow is released, the robots dissolve leaving no trace of injury. Drop a cloud of them onto an enemy in the battlefield to be inhaled and let the pain begin.
Oh, the yin and yang of technology.
Scientists from Israel’s Technion University have unveiled a tiny robot, made using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, purportedly able to crawl through a person’s veins in order to diagnose and potentially treat artery blockage and cancer.
The little robot – with a diameter of just one millimeter – has neither engine nor onboard controls, instead being propelled forward by a magnetic field wielded on it from outside the patient’s body.
Controlling the tiny bot externally means boffins have been able to shrink it to a previously impossibly tiny scale, allowing it to crawl its way through the typical human body’s veins and arteries using miniscule outstretched arms which grip the vessel walls. Yes, that made us shudder too.
Scientists reckon the mini bot can even withstand massive blood flow and is able to push forward regardless of the magnetic field actuation direction, doing away with any need for exact localisation and direction retrieval.
A controller can move the little crawly creature in increments, with its speed of up to nine millimeters a second regulated by varying external magnetic field frequencies. Outside control also means the robot can be made to work for an unlimited amount of time, rather than suddenly – not to mention inconveniently – keeling over to die of battery failure in the middle of a medical procedure.
“Drop a cloud of them onto an enemy in the battlefield to be inhaled and let the pain begin.”
Well, it’s being developed in Israel, expect to see news about Palestinians curling on the floor in pain and no one knows why.
Ying and Yang? That refers to the “inherent contradictions” that may be present in certain ideas/concepts/programs/philosophies. Technology is neutral and does not contain a ying/yang component. Technology can be used for good or bad, thats not ying/yang. I could go on, but my point regarding the beauty of subtlety has been made.
MEMS?
Do they mean nano technology but just larger size?
WTF is a “boffin”? is that like an “anorak”? 🙂
#3 -no, smaller. :p (this picture is extremely misleading)
ah..this is technically old news, imo
however, if you think that’s some f’kd up tech..
dig around into MIT’s and the Military’s “Smart Dust” endeavours and you will find this thought line as far back as 2001.
I have been monitoring “smart dust” for years and the most prominent item of notice is that anything major to do with nanotech in this “smart dust” field in relation to the the military, gets scrubbed off the net pretty quickly.
the biological capabilities/potential of this tech is borderline insane.
the big bummer is that, like almost all our technology, this stuff trickles down to consumer level from the military.
-you know, where all the brilliantly warped minds are.
last thoughts,
the past 8-9months i have had my science world turned upside down in a fury of rediscovery.
based on new (old)universe principles, i have surmised everything from the universe down to the atom operates on some very basic (and if you can unlearn what you were taught), extremely simple principles:
(electro)magnetics, electricity and resonance.
thats it.
(throw in fluid dynamics and wave theory for clarity)
understand and learn to manipulate those three and the universe exposes all it’s secrets.
this is part, why they can make nanobots that run off the excess power your body generates.
-nanobots that could effect every emotional and physical state you’ve ever experienced.
your body responds and produces all three of the above, just like everything else.
anyway..if you want to investigate the bots further, stick this into a search engine:
mems+motes+smartdust – a scant 9000+ articles will show up.
IMHO, the reason why we still know so little about the universes (and much within it) “method of operation” is because much of the science we have been taught has been purposefully taught (and shown) to us “inside out” -for if we knew how simple it all really is, we could all operate as individuals to the Nth degree. -not to the mention the potential power if we acted in unison.
why? my two best conclusions are because as a species we are emotionally, children.
the other of course, is greed. (see first reason) -esp where energy is concerned.
my recent travels into ancient history shows this was not always true..something along the way led us astray.
if you wish to start “the unlearning” -i suggest you read about the “electric sun” or simply “the electric universe”
if your an old time science buff with an innate ability to see/understand sub-level patterns (in Life,) waveforms and wave theory, i promise you, learning of the electric universe will give the biggest “Ah Ha!” moment in your entire life.
it’ll blow your mind, completely.
(and eventually, explain why we are kept in the dark on the utter simplicity of everything)
enough babbling, happy googling.
-s
arrgh… why the hell does the formatting
blow up on everything i type? -all the time??
i format for effect, and it always gets shot out of the sky.
-very frustrating.
-s
Just looking at that design… it appears thad the critter can only move forward as the “legs” behave like a ratchet. So, once it’s in there is no turning or going back. Very dangerous for the heart and brain. I would think a better design would be spherical with legs perpendicular to the surface that stiffen when you want it to stop, and a mechanical or magnetic ability to move against the flow.
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#5
That comment was me being sarcastic 🙂 I’m a follower of nanotechology myself and this isn’t news to me at all. It’s made as though that little bug is the smallest there is but it’s not lol, far from it.
got to be better than that nut with the balloon and guidewire in there!
I can imagine that little thing getting stuck somewhere and becoming the basis for a blood clot- we can nickname it “Captain Stroke”.
Will be used against the Gaza children in the upcoming massacre again. Jews, you can never expect anything good from them, especially the one in Israel.