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Nanobots can swim your bloodstream faster by doing the front crawl
With invasive surgery sometimes being a literal pain in the ass, it's no surprise that scientists are working tirelessly to minimize the need for such procedures. Now, however, China's Harbin Institute of Techonology is hoping to bypass fiddly surgery completely, thanks to its new tiny, swimming robots. Inspired by the fastest human method of swimming, the front crawl, these nanobots travel in a similar fashion, with their magnetic arms rotating and propelling them forward as the researchers apply a magnetic field to the bot's arms. This cleverly designed bot is pretty swift too, able to swim the front crawl at an impressive 10 micrometers per second. Thanks to its hefty arms and impressive speed, the bots have a momentum strong enough that they can even pass through thick liquids like blood in order to administer medicine from inside your veins.
Swimming nanobots target cancer cells inside your body
Scientists keep saying they'll put tiny robots into our bodies to cure disease, perhaps not realizing we may not be down with that. But the field is progressing rapidly, and researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) have now found an artful way to propel such 'bots. They created a "nanoswimmer" the width of a silk fiber, made of several links of polymer and magnetic nanowires. After introducing it into a blood-like fluid, they applied an external oscillating magnetic field, propelling the nanobot the length of its body in a second.
Garmin's Forerunner 910XT sport watch begs to become your new swimming buddy
After introducing the Forerunner 610 alongside its lineup of runner-friendly watches, Garmin has introduced a new high tech gadget that's targeted to hardcore swimmers and triathletes: enter the Forerunner 910XT. With a price tag of $400, it's certainly intended for the most dedicated (or affluent) jocks, but for the outlay of cash, you'll find it provides detailed metrics such as swim distance, pool lengths, along with stroke identification and count. It even goes so far as to report one's SWOLF score, which is a measure of a swimmer's efficiency (calculated as the number of strokes to swim a lap, plus the time to travel said distance). The Forerunner 910XT is water resistant to 50 meters, but it's certainly apt for use on dry land, too. For instance, it provides stats about one's elevation, heart rate and speed, and offers built-in GPS. The battery life is limited to 20 hours, although we'd imagine your endurance will give out long before that time. If you've found your new obsession, you'll find the full PR after the break.
