Don’t Mess With the Monkeys – Get the Robots to Do It!

Friday, September 04, 2009 | Posted by: Brian Maguire
Categories: Healthcare, Technology | Tags: Nano-science, Robots, science, innovation, medical, technology, healthcare

Evolution and progress, they’re not always on the same page. This week, cute little simian features announced the arrival of the mammal with two mums. This is not smart science. Some years from now, teenage Cheetah will be confronting three biological parents. Married Cheetah will bring two mother-in-laws to the wedding. Researchers are considering this genetic modification for humans – they think it’s a good idea, but have they really thought it through? Spare a thought for the Yiddish kid from Brooklyn whose two mothers are disappointed he’s not a doctor or a pilot; life should not be this cruel or unusual.

Aside from the complex ethical maze that DNA splicing will bring, there is little to dissuade potential parents from trying to correct malfunctioning genetic material. Preventing damaged DNA from replicating in their offspring is surely a noble ambition, and in the short-term, where is the harm in letting prospective parents select the gender of their offspring? Only the politically naive have argued that genetic selection was never going to happen; ethical concerns are always likely to be obscured, or fudged, in the name of profitable progress. Super-science has much to commend itself, but it obscures a trove of other medical advances.

Nano-science was all the rage for a time. Today, the medical revolution is in nano-robotics. Medical innovation has evolved to present healthcare professionals with an astonishing armoury of new and improving robotic tools. So small are some of these machines, they can be injected into the eye and used to correct internal damage. So smart are the new breed of robots that some can self-assemble inside your intestines, your stomach, your lungs, your heart. This invasion of medical robots is pushing open the doors to less invasive surgery. As robotic technology improves, recovery periods will be shorter, meaning less expense for hospitalisation.

A bacteria-sized robot capable of swimming through liquids has been developed by researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Using external low magnetic fields, the miniscule corkscrew-shaped micro-robot can be used to repair damaged human arteries. The marvellous scale of micro-robots has been achieved by solving crucial issues of directional control and power supply. External magnetism offers a safe, non-toxic power and control system which will be enhanced to leverage precision drug delivery and to enhance investigative sensitivity.

As drug delivery becomes more niche-oriented and tailor-made medicines emerge from the pipelines of pharmaceutical giants, micro-robots will play an important role in the administration of our everyday medical needs.

The supply-side bottleneck may rest with human limitations; a lack of training throughout the medical profession can hinder immediate progress. Despite the availability of a new generation of micro-robotics, an older generation of doctors and nurses may not be geared up to use the new kit. Training will be needed not only for the operational skills required, but new teams of analysts specialised to optimise nano-science are still in the incubator.

The engineer with two mothers may just be the vanguard of medical innovation; and she’ll be all choked up, now he’s a doctor and a nano-pilot. In Brooklyn, that’s better than bling.

Must Watch:
Surgical Robots In Action:
http://www.euronews.net/2009/07/27/latest-surgical-robots-at-work/

Remote Control Scans:
http://www.euronews.net/2009/07/07/remote-controlled-scans/

Medical Robotics – Fantastic Voyage:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Swiss_build_Fantastic_Voyage_micro_robot.html?siteSect=105&sid=10557296&rss=true&ty=st

http://www.iris.ethz.ch/msrl/research/

Monkey Puzzle Genetics:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article6811080.ece