Robotic pill drills intestinal lining to deliver medicine

boing
1

Originally published at: Robotic pill drills intestinal lining to deliver medicine | Boing Boing

…

1 Like
2

I guess tiny robots drilling holes through your intestines is slightly better than tiny robots drilling through arterial walls…

3 Likes
3

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this movie before…and it does not end well.

5 Likes
4

Ugh, my excitement over important medical advances is now completely polluted by thinking about how right wing grifters will take advantage of the new possibilities for conspiracy.

2 Likes
5

the pill start to vibrate and spin as the motor is activated. RoboCap begins drilling through the mucus that lines the small intestine,

That probably feels really weird…

But is it really more practical than just injecting the stuff to begin with? It’s certainly not going to be cheaper. The article talks about anti-cancer drugs that have to be administered by IV in a hospital. I can see them being used at home to deliver a series of doses over several days instead of a lengthy hospital stay.

1 Like
6

Oblig:

2 Likes
7

It’s the wave of the future.

2 Likes
9

It’s probably about precise targeting. I imagine there’s a fine line between injecting the intestinal wall and just squirting some stuff inside where the mucus can shield it. Also I’m visualizing trying to pin down a piece of spaghetti through a plastic grocery bag.

10

It’s a motor with a weight, a gelatinous substance, and various greebles, but hey, that’s totally the same thing as a “robot”, innit? :roll_eyes:

1 Like
11

didn’t the prototype involve shrinking Raquel Welch to microscopic size and injecting her, the crew and a wierd “spaceship” into a person?
glad to see it refined a bit, she may be retired from that work now.

2 Likes
12

Yikes! What’s to stop this thing from drilling clear through your intestinal wall by accident?

13

They are perfectly within their right to deny their own life-saving treatments… high-tech or not. More for the rest of us.

1 Like
14

The motor is the vibrator from a phone, along with a hearing aid battery. What happens to the battery after it corrodes, though?

15

I look forward to the day I can get a tiny little Roomba cruising around my arteries sucking up all that plaque I inherited from my dad.

1 Like
16

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.