Soon, the term "little swimmers" will refer to more than what, um, it usually refers to right now, with the latest development in nanorobot technology — namely nanoswimmers, robots that can swim through the bloodstream to deliver drugs.
This latest advent in nanotechnology would be entirely medical (so, sorry, intravenous drug users, I guess?), primarily used to treat diseases where drugs would need to be delivered to localized points in the body, rather than pumping the entire bloodstream full of chemicals, explained a press release issued by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Headed by scientists Bradley J. Nelson, Salvador Pané and Yizhar Or, nanoswimmers would revolutionize the treatment of diseases like cancer: instead of radiation or traditional chemo, these robots could be preprogrammed like drones to seek and destroy cancer cells (but cute baby drones, ones that probably won't take over the world one day and kill us all).
Nanoswimmers would also "lower the risk of complications, reduce the need for invasive surgery and lead to faster recoveries," stated the release.
There are, however, complications: because the consistency of blood to something as micro as a nanorobot is comparable to molasses, moving through it can prove to be quite difficult. To battle it, the team of researchers linked three rings (polymer and two nanowires), and to test it, inserted the microscopic devices in a fluid with a heavier texture than blood. Activated with a magnetic field, the nanoswimmers propelled themselves in an S-like pattern at the speed of one body length per second.
Cute, right? Models are still undergoing further development and design, with funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Program, the European Research Council and the Israel Science Foundation.
So, little guys, just keep swimming, just keep swimming ...
