Dust-Size "Crabs" Can Grab Living Cells

[zelta gaisma]

Source: National Geographic News

New wireless machines the size of dust particles can grab and manipulate tiny objects, a breakthrough that could lead to devices that can perform surgery, a new study says.

The joints of these so-called microgrippers clench when exposed to cues such as chemicals or high temperatures, allowing the devices to grasp objects.

In the new research, the devices were used to pick up a bead and remove living cells at the end of a vein-like tube, similar to a biopsy in humans.

In the old days, large cuts were the only ways a surgeon could access an organ. Today, doctors can sometimes operate using small incisions and tiny, tethered tools such as microgrippers.

Now the "ultimate vision a small machine that can be swallowed or injected that can perform the same function and reduce the invasiveness, so you don't have to cut," said study author David Gracias, a chemical and biomolecular engineer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Read more: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090126-microgrippers-surgery.html

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I wonder what *else* they will be able to make these things do given enough time and money. Ok I know my inner paranoia is showing ...But you go in for your free pap at the low income clinic and then... How many people can be sterilized without realizing it before John Q. Pubic would catch on?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Crabs are difficult enough as it is to

get rid of.... imagine what this is going to be like!!

[Xipe Totec]

2. Oh God, here we go...

[zelta gaisma]

3. ROTFLMAO my thoughts exactly! my paranoia stops just short of medication :P

[Dr.Phool]

4. Will Blue Ointment still work?

Or will we need a prescription for white phosphorous or napalm.

[Politicalboi]

5. When some doctors leave instruments

In patients and remove the wrong limb what happens if the tether breaks?

[JerseygirlCT]

6. Wow. Right out of science fiction! Cool. nt

[Canuckistanian]

7. Perfect size for manipulating Boehner's "package"

His doctor was tired of using an electron microscope and micro-tweezers.

[MilesColtrane]

8. "I wonder what *else* they will be able to make these things do given enough time and money."

Ultimately, replicate themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(nanotechnology)

Of course, if the little suckers get out of hand, we've got a small problem on our hands...the problem of grey goo, otherwise known as the end of all life on Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo