The Future of Medicine May Be Nano Robots
And they already play soccer! Well, sort of.
In the future, nano-robots may perform all kinds of important jobs for humans, including health-related jobs such as molecular repair. But shelve your sci-fi nerd nightmares about marauding swarms of wicked nano ‘bots romping around in your bloodstream: for one thing, these microscopic critters simply mimic what already exists in nature. After all, living cells are machines. For example, many bacteria come equipped with flagella propellers (something Michael Behe just can’t seem to handle), which are powered by nanomotors. Now, the development of self-replication* is apparently where the ooh-scary teleological debate starts to come in, but remember that the earth has already been ravaged by self-replicating nano-robots many a time: we just call them, um, cells.
Medical treatment at the cellular level, one syringe away! Rad. Nanorobotics may assist in functions related to sensing and detecting, communications, disease, aging, and genetics. We already have Nubots (machines made of DNA). Seriously, read these links if you’re curious about things like nano-robots, one-upping evolution and humans creating living cells. (What is “living”, really? It’s a legit question. Or maybe I’m just bitter about O-chem.) I really dig this fascinating field of science but I won’t haplessly butcher it for you any further.
Web it out, kids:
Darth Nano? The Dark Side of Nanorobotics! This article is a few years old but presents a good overview for the lay person.
Wikipedia on Nanorobotics (but maybe you shouldn’t trust Wiki for science)
Dude, Don’t Tell Me You Missed the 2007 Robocup: Nano Soccer
Synthetic Biology: Not If, But When
*It only takes 300 genes to self-replicate. Extremely complicated, but possible.
7/26/07 UPDATE: FDA issues nanotechnology standards
10/22/07 UPDATE: Really cool nanogels help deliver certain drugs more effectively!
Very good stuff Sara. You broke it down so even I can get it a little.
Thanks, Ray. It is complicated but fascinating. If you are interested I encourage you to check out the links.
More updates: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071116155722.htm
will nanorobts be removed from the body after treatement and how ???
A simple possibility to offset fear of nano’s uncontrollably reproducing is to have nano parents that are directly under the control by the creator. The parents, although having artificial intelligence, there must be a intimate relationship between them and the host/creator/user like that of Love or a mutual connection between the 2 parties for the benefit of both. These nano parent robots will then reproduce and directly control it’s offspring to then conduct essential tasks to carry out in the host/user but in a highly controlled fashion. This benefits the user being that the user only needs to give orders to the parents/a few in order to control the children/the majority. This could be done by a device which could be located on the wrist of the user. Using this method could then stem to multiple possibilities between the interaction of the human body with artificial mechanical extensions. Signaling and communication with bots inside the body could translate to having constant maintenance of cells and other vital organs. A external suit then could be worn by the user and could interact with the body of the user threw the use of the bots in the body. The higher the complexity of the suit and the bots in the body could make the user Indestructible to death and also the external elements of the world. In Example: Think about the suits that the Transformers wore in the movie, if this could be fitted around a human body and designed from the molecular level to the size of which the user decides, the suit could be grown to any imaginable size cell by cell just like any animal or person on the planet. This in results changes the entire concept of war and also human interaction. The user could also be installed with nutrients directly into the body by organics gathered by the bots from the environment. To take it a step further the nano parents could be controlled by the neurological patterns of the user and response data from the bots could also be translated back to the user’s brain to await decision. From this point anything is possible even genetic alterations of the user’s body and even the user’s brain. The user could then artificially expands his/her’s own intelligence threw direct data injection or the capacity of the brain to learn. Old tissue in the body could be replaced with new tissue and also protected against organic invaders like viruses and bacteria. One man becomes a army. This is the FUTURE…..