Microbot Uses Living Heart Muscle To Move
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 5 of September , 2007 at 3:35 am
By Evan Ackerman
By grafting rat heart muscle to a biocompatible polymer skeleton, researchers from Chonnam National University in Korea have created a six legged microbot that moves itself along with artificial heartbeats. No external power supply is needed; the heart cells derive their energy from the glucose culture medium in which they are grown. Top speed is about 100 micrometers per second (or about 0.000002 miles per hour), but the bot can move continuously for about a week during which time it can cover 50 meters. When you’re talking about something that can crawl around inside your blood vessels, that’s pretty prolific. The designers think that the microbots may eventually be able to carry dissolving agents into your veins to clear out any blockages, which means I can go back to scarfing down cheeseburgers without having to worry about a heart attack… Unless these little guys decide to turn on me.
[ Robots With A Heart ] VIA [ ZDNet ]
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Category: Medical
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