Swallowable microgrippers could make surgery more / less invasive

While the scientists that developed these newfangled ingestible microgrippers call them minimally invasive, we're not so sure that swallowing minuscule devices that can cut and grab tissue when chemically activated fits our definition of keyhole surgery. Nevertheless, tiny "handlike grippers" are currently being shown off to highly intelligent professionals in the medical realm, and if proven feasible, they could one day be used to perform biopsies from within. More specifically, the devices could reportedly "react to the biochemicals released by infected tissue by closing around the tissue, so that pieces can be removed for analysis." Yeah, we reckon this is a bit less painful than actually going under the knife, but the mere thought of having blade-wielding microorganisms floating around our innards spooks us just a wee bit. Go on, fling your "pansies!" this way -- we can take it.

[Via medGadget]

[Juxtah @ Sep 1st 2008 7:35AM]

One step closer to death swarms of nanobots!

[Naomi @ Sep 1st 2008 8:20AM]

FOXDIE

[Spork @ Sep 1st 2008 12:14PM]

Sorry Naomi, but FOXDIE is an engineered retrovirus.
But Oo! nano machines!

[Rynth @ Sep 2nd 2008 5:36AM]

Pansies!!!!

*ducks*

[Bobjim @ Sep 1st 2008 10:49AM]

"We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

[John @ Sep 1st 2008 12:14PM]

sigh.

[Blastar @ Sep 1st 2008 12:38PM]

I read a lot of "could" in this article.
The real thing is far away from the labs tiny super controlled environment.
I don't think that something like that could work that easy in a real body without having the fear that these tiny scissors could get loose and crazy and start killing instead of just helping.
Telling me that its ok to swallow this is like telling me that its ok to swallow glasses or maybe a bit worse.....!!!

[Josh @ Sep 1st 2008 3:11PM]

Presumably the idea is that they aren't powerful enough to cause serious damage, but just grab onto tissue - rip a bit off (they'd be "programmed" to react to certain chemicals only) and then you pass them in a stool to be retrieved. They're not like little chainsaw blades going around your body =P

Sadly though, there is a lot of "could" as surrounds most of nanotechnology. It's a nice idea, but we probably won't hear about it again for another 5 years!

[Colin Potter @ Sep 1st 2008 1:03PM]

Will it hurt, Doctor Calvin?

[Rick @ Sep 1st 2008 2:47PM]

Just call it the "Ginzu You".

[Steve @ Sep 1st 2008 4:49PM]

Oh that's just wonderful! What happens when these Microgrippers become self-aware?

[Capissen @ Sep 1st 2008 5:35PM]

Anyone remember the "cookie-cutters" used early on in The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson?

"It took about seven minutes...for the cookie cutters to be randomly distributed throughout the victim's organs and limbs. A cookie-cutter was shaped like an aspirin tablet...two tiny centrifuges. Detonation dissolved the bonds holding the centrifuges together so that each of a thousand or so ballisticules suddenly flew outward...The victim was just a big leaky sack of undifferentiated gore at this point and, of course, never survived."

[ybd @ Sep 1st 2008 6:01PM]

This could be Cyrax's fataility in the next Mortal Kombat.

[SCORPION_5 @ Sep 1st 2008 8:52PM]

What if the biopsies that need to be taken are not in the digestive tract. Does this thing dig its way to it and back?....Like the bug in "THE MUMMY"

[Trickatrog @ Sep 2nd 2008 1:22AM]

Terrifying. Just terrifying. Capissen's got it right... We're just one step closer to becoming some random planet on an episode of Star Trek.

[dlef @ Sep 2nd 2008 10:48PM]

will it blend?

[DeusExMach @ Sep 2nd 2008 12:18PM]

Aren't ALL surgeries "more or less" invasive?