Haaretz Report: Scientists at the Technion University, have developed a miniature robot that can move within the bloodstream for the first time in history. Researchers around the world have been trying to develop miniature, remote-controlled robots for minimally invasive medical treatments within the body.
Researchers said that the miniaturization achievement is unprecedented, as is the ability to control the robot’s activity for unlimited periods of time, for any medical procedure.
For comparison, the diameter of a similar robot which researchers at Kyoto University developed is one centimeter. The Israeli robot’s diameter is one millimeter.
The new robot consists of a hub from which tiny arms stretch out, allowing the robot to strongly grip the vessel walls. The operators can manipulate the robot to move in increments, and its special structure allows it to crawl within a variety of vessels with differing diameters.
(Haaretz)
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12 Responses
can the robot push out plaque, thereby clearing a
clogged artery and obviating the need for a stent
or bypass surgery?!?
to hadassa.
it works like the sanitation street sweepers.
they also have alternate parking rules. 🙂
This is a major breakthrough indeed, but probably years away from being released to the public. I hope Mashiach will be here before then.
Who says it’s years away from being released? If they already publicized it, I would think that that means that they’re very close to releasing it – if they’re still not sure it will work then it will be very embarrassing for them if they announce it and then it doesn’t work. So the fact that they announced means that they are pretty confident in it, and probably close to releasing it. No? But I agree with you, I hope Mashiach will be here before then in any case!
I’ve heard that the robot can be programmed to clog or unclogg your arteries based on how many Mitzvos and Aveiros a person does. Amazing stuff.
very nice but what can this robot do? does it have a camra? can it identify cancer cells? can it treat anything?
There is an often-mistold story about how Queen Victoria supposedly asked British physicist Michael Faraday, when he showed her the experiments being done with the then new-born sciences of electristy and magnetics, “But sir, of what use is it?”
To which Faraday supposedly answered, “Madam, of what use is a baby?”
What can this robot do? The article says that it will be good for “minimally invasive medical treatments within the body.” This is much more than merely “very nice.” This has tremendous potential.
And I am sure that eventually they will have cameras for it as well. Doctors are already using fiber optics and even miniature cameras for many operations.
For those interested in true historical trivia, what actually happened with Faraday was that he said more or less those words in a speech he gave about certain natural, gaseous elements in chemistry. (Like I know what I’m talking about.) It was part of the speech, and was not said to the queen, but who cares, right?
Chachmas of Klal Yisroel is so inspiring, and coming from the holyland, where chachma increases. Super!
Here’s hoping that if this can do an important medical, lifesaving procedure, that it will be promptly boycotted by the English professors who want nothing to do with Israeli education & research!!!
here’s the inside scope of how it clears clogs – it checks inside the arteries to determine whether or not the person has eaten at either Dunkin Donuts or Subway (or any other such facilities under Rabbinic supervision) – if the person ate from one of these places. it searches a database filled with all blog postings to see if the person has posted any negative writings against DD or SW. If the person did not, it clears the clog, if the person did write disparingly against DD or SW…
seriously — this is amazing!
They release it in hope of raising the tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars they need from investors to test it and get it approved. A long process.
I wonder what all professors in England who want to boycot Israel have to say to that.