Artery Clearing Micro-bot Demonstrated

By | October 23, 2007
4 Comments

South Korean researchers at Chonnam National University have created a tiny robot that is capable of traveling through the bloodstream to clear arteries.

This is not a nanobot. It operates at a much larger scale – it is slightly less than a millimeter in size.

Perhaps it should be called a micro-cyborg. The bot’s locomotion is powered by heart tissue cultivated from the patient. This means that there is no need for a cumbersome battery pack. It runs on the same ATP -> ADP chemical reaction that the rest of the body relies on.

Phil and I discussed how practical it would be to power in-body bots this way in our last FastForward Radio show.

This bot can move 55 yards a week and dispense artery clearing meds where they are most needed.

Faster, please.

  • Jim Strickland

    For once, I am in full agreement with Stephen. Yes, please faster with this. My father died of a CVA (stroke) earlier this month, and such technology might have saved his life and his mind.

    -JIm

  • MikeD

    Do we have any kind of security framework or minimal failsafe? Is there a protocol for eliminating them? Or for preventing conflicts between bots used for different purposes or from different companies? Will GSK bots actively kill Pfizer bots? Of course not today – but what about next generation inter-arterial bots? After all, their primary mission is to eliminate threats to health, right?

    Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for the advancement of science and technology, especially if it can be used for good. I am just wary of the ‘go faster’ attitude when we don’t have clearly stated procedures for not just reasonable safety, but to guarantee safety.

  • Acrinoe

    I’m completely in the “go faster” camp. MikeD’s questions are good ones, but you never get answers unless you push research and development.

    In my view , the future will not be a Utopia nor an apocolypse. It’s going to be a lot like the present, but faster and more complicated.

  • https://www.blog.speculist.com Stephen Gordon

    Mike:

    Medicine has never been about guaranteeing safety. It’s always been about improving the odds.

    Yes, I imagine that there will be significant risks associated with in-body bots. The question is whether the benefit they confer is worth the risk.

    Acrinoe:

    Good philosophy. You don’t have to be a Utopian to be an optimist. Which is good, because Utopians always get it wrong. Sometimes dangerously wrong.