Nano-motors For Microbots

Smivs writes "The BBC are reporting on the development of tiny motors the size of a grain of salt which could power surgical Microbots. Some surgical procedures are hindered by the size or inflexibility of current instruments. For example, the labyrinthine network of blood vessels in the brain prevents the use of catheters threaded through larger blood vessels. Researchers have long envisioned that trends of miniaturisation would lead to tiny robots that could get around easily in the body. The problem until now has been powering them. Conventional electric motors do not perform as well as they are scaled down in size. As they approach millimetre dimensions, they barely have the power to overcome the resistance in their bearings. Now, research reported in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering has demonstrated a motor about 1/4mm wide, about the width of two human hairs."

Seriously.

[Arthur Grumbine]

I for one, welcome our new surgical microbot wielding medical overlo--I mean "doctors".

What would be awesome

[Centurix]

"tiny motors the size of a grain of salt which could power surgical Microbots"

Or, they could power grains of salt. Hours of fun at the dinner table.

Re:Sizes

[Hal_Porter]

In America they have the imperial system. They wouldn't know what fuck a millimeter is. They call them "Eight hairs".

Gumbercules!

[NoobixCube]

Am I the only one who can't help but think of the parasites Fry got from the sandwich?

Worlds smallest singing bass fish

[schwillis]

Now they can make the worlds smallest animatronic singing bass fish.

Re:What would be awesome

[ByteSlicer]

I predict that within 100 years, these motors will be twice as powerful, ten thousand times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them.

Re:bloodwork

[master5o1]

Until the robots shutdown inside your arteries and become artificial-cholesterol.

Then this proves that...

[RuBLed]

(bearing) resistance is futile.

... reading TFA makes better jokes

[troll8901]

You, Sir, have obviously read TFA, and thus is far superior to the rest of Slash... I mean, Collective.

You will be assimilated to serve as a bridge between the hairless apes and the overlords.

You will be named "Rublecutus of Borg".

Re:Sizes

[OneSmartFellow]

A thick human hair is about 0.18 mm, whereas a thin human hair may be as thin as 0.017 mm - , so the thickness of two human hairs may vary by more than a factor of 10 !

That's like saying, it's the size of a common green pea (about 0.5cm diameter) when in fact it's the size of a medium size citrus lime. That's like comparing Jessica Alba [wordpress.com] with This unkown person [weirdspot.com]

Re:Seriously.

[couchslug]

"I for one, welcome our new surgical microbot wielding medical overlo--I mean "doctors"."

Me too. Yessiree.

They will swim in my brain and they carry knives.... That negates even my nicest tinfoil hat. :(

I'm thinking compliance is in order.

Re:Sizes

[quickOnTheUptake]

A 227gramer with cheese?