MRI Powered Pill-Sized Robot Swims Through Intestines 98
kkleiner writes "Researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel and Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston have collaborated to create a robot that can swim through the intestines. The size of a large pill, the 'microswimmer' is powered by the strong magnetic fields generated by an MRI machine. A tail measuring 20mm x 5mm made of copper and flexible polymer vibrates due to the magnets and propels the little microrobot through the gut."
Re:Crohns Disease (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not exactly going to call this a "win".
Let me explain....
Being older, I had my first colonoscopy this last year. Not eating for a whole day sucked. Drinking the laxative (understatement; it creates an ass volcano of shit), was far worse, but none of the paperwork prepared me for the hospital.
I was checked in and then wheeled into a "room". Those semi-flexible tubes you refer to look like Borg conduit tubing 3 meters long. Hung up on the wall like tools in a workshop by the dozens. Huge interconnects at either end. I swear I though David Copperfield was going to assist because I don't know how they were going to make those fucking tubes disappear if you know what I mean.
The anesthesiologist gave me a choice. One of them was full knockout. I asked him if he thought I wanted to remember "that" and pointed to the wall. He understood and gave me something that made me not remember anything. Should of given me that before I saw the room.
All of that being said......
This is a pill being shoved up your ass guided by a magnet machine built by companies that have huge insurance premiums and instances of technicians screwing up. How many things could possibly be wrong with that picture?
I honestly don't which is worse. Scary Borg conduit tubing or robot pill being shoved in your ass controlled by "interesting" and error prone methods.
Either way, you're getting something shoved up your ass.
It's not a "win".