These microscopic robots can swim through
your eyeball fluids
The
scientists at the beautifully-named Max Planck Institute for Intelligent
Systems aren't quite sure what happens next though
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We've all been hoping and
praying that scientists would one day come up with some microscopic robots that
could swim through our eyeball fluids and help heal our poorly eyes.
Thankfully, that day is almost
upon us.
Give praise to the scientists
at the beautifully-named Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems over in
Germany, because they've won the race.
They've fashioned robotic
scallops so small that they can barely be seen by the naked eye, which is just
as well because that’s where they’re headed.
Alejandro Posada / MPI for Intelligent Systems
The micro-robots have been designed to mimic the movement of live
scallops in water
Our bodies contain viscous
liquids that can grow thicker or thinner, and the scallop swimming method of
moving backwards and forwards is the best way to move through those liquids.
You all knew that, right?
The micro-scallops don’t
require battery power either – they are propelled towards their target area
using an external magnetic field.
So what will the microscopic
robot scallops do?
That's where it all starts to
get a bit vague – the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems scientists
aren't completely sure.
They're hoping that their tiny
inventions will become a reference design for others to use as they develop
medical technologies.
Essentially, we’re halfway
there – we've got the scallops that can swim through our eye fluid, but we
don’t know what they’ll do once they get to the poorly bits.
Science – it’s always moving
and flowing, just like our viscous bodily fluids.
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