Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Surgical Robot Bores Into Brain Like Wasp
A new surgical robot bores into the brain like a wood wasp. I just love biomimetic robots, don't you?
(Wood wasp under scanning electron microscope)
Female wood wasps of the Siricidae family use an ovipositor, a needle-like shaft, to bore into pine trees and deposit their eggs. Two dovetailed shafts feature backward facing teeth. With each oscillation, the ovipositor moves a bit forward.
Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena at Imperial College London noticed that this boring movement is remarkably gentle in its application. He remarks "It can insinuate itself into the tissue with the minimum amount of force."
His team has created a prototype medical probe; the silicon needle consists of two shafts with teeth just 50 microns long. Tiny motors oscillate the shafts to propel the device forward just like the wood wasp.
(Oscillating shafts burrows into the brain)
Researchers hope that it can reduce the number of incisions needed to reach different parts of a brain tumor; it can crawl across the surface of the brain and then burrow in.
This medical team is not the first group to notice the digging capabilities of the wood wasp. In a 1996 paper, a drill with similar inspiration was suggested for interplanetary exploration probes by Yang Gao; Ellery, Jaddou, and Vincent.
(Model of planetary exploration ovipositor drill [pdf])
The woodwasp ovipositor, on the other hand, employs a longitudinal cyclical motion with its twin valves. Teeth on these valves alternately provide the reaction force required for drilling by the other valve. These teeth become pockets on different sides of the valves that enable waste to be transported up the hole.
This device reminded me of the robotic mining worms from Emmett McDowell's 1946 science fiction story Love Among the Robots and the spaghetti-like robot earthworms from Harry Harrison's classic 1962 story War With The Robots.
Seen close it was not completely flexible, but made instead of pivoted and smoothly finished segments. The robot pointed out the parts of int0erest."...At the front end is a hard-edged orifice that drills a hole in the ground. Debris is carried back through the body of the machine and eliminated here: in operation it is not unlike the common earthworm.
(Read more about Harrison's robot earthworms)
Sources: see New Scientist, Deployable wood wasp drill for planetary subsurface sampling (abstract only) and Biomimetics and robotics for space applications: challenges and emerging technologies (pdf).
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 1/21/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 6 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
Health Kiosk Has No Human Doctor
'The electronic body analyzer had been developed...' - Michael Crichton, 1969.
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...' - Iain Banks, 2010.
MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.' - Charles Recour, 1949.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
You Will Eat The Cookies Made From Plastic...
'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
It's A Giant Robot! You Reporters Have Been Warned!
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
Birds Learn To Sing Pictures ala Frank Herbert's Distrans
'We will fight in the time of fighting.'
ElectionSim: China's 'Ender's Game' Battle Sim, Or Lem's 'Kingdom In A Box'?
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Flock Stymied By 'Adversarial Fashion'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
ICE Buys Shock Gloves Like Batman's
What else is the Caped Crusader using?
Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
Sleeper Drones Lie in Wait
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
Warfare Goes Underground In Ukraine
'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
Robot Bees 3D Printed By Festo
'At first I was struck by the large size of these bees..'
3D Printed Organs From Space
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
How To Settle An Argument Between Two Robots
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
The Wind Phone Calls Those Who Have Passed On
'Only I heard that!'
