| Title | Oscillating Magnetic Fields Can Control Nanobots | |
| Date | Tuesday September 11 2018, @01:23AM | |
| Author | chromas | |
| Topic | ||
| from the nanomachines,-son! dept. | ||
Hong Kong scientists develop new 'nano-swarm' robots
A groundbreaking new method of controlling nano-robots that emulates natural swarm behavior has been developed by scientists in Hong Kong, the first step in what is hoped could lead to a major medical advancement in the treatment of blood clots.
[...] Led by Associate Professor Li Zhang, a team of scientists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong designed and implemented a strategy of using oscillating magnetic fields to create highly reconfigurable ribbon-like swarms of nano-robots, millions of magnetic nanoparticles each less than one micron wide, or one-fifth the length of a red blood cell.
As programmers tune the applied magnetic fields, the "micro-swarm" of nano-robots is capable of performing a wide range of structural changes, including extending, shrinking, splitting, and merging, all with a high degree of accuracy.
[...] It is hoped surgeons could manipulate the nano-robots to pass through highly compact spaces within organs and blood vessels, allowing the nano-robots to resolve blood clots and assist with targeted drug delivery to cells.
Nature article includes ten supplementary movies:
Ultra-extensible ribbon-like magnetic microswarm (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05749-6) (DX)
| Links |
printed from SoylentNews, Oscillating Magnetic Fields Can Control Nanobots on 2023-06-14 03:36:04