This video is sponsored by our friends over at the Foresight Institute!
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Imagine a world where, if you get sick, doctors inject tiny robots into your body that seek
out the source of the problem and cure your illness.
While this technology is still in the developmental stages, scientists have been hard at work
making machines small enough to be able to do this.
They are called nanobots and come from the field of nanotechnology.
I have a lot of friends that are nanobots because I can get as small as them.
They throw incredible parties!
Some of the things that would go on at these parties, I mean...
Nevermind.
That's not what this video is about!
Nanotechnology is any science, engineering, or technology that is done at the nanoscale,
which is from 1 to 100 nanometers.
And that is tiny!
To put that into perspective, a sheet of paper is about 1 million nanometers thick, a human
cell is 10,000 nanometers, a bacterium is 1,000 nanometers, and a DNA molecule is 2.5
nanometers.
Plenty of nanoparticles already exist in everyday things like sunscreen, agriculture, and electronics.,
But they are also used in medicine, inside your body.
They are mainly used as a contrast agent in medical imaging techniques, improving their
sensitivity and detection abilities, as well as a vehicle for delivering drugs to specific
parts of the body.,
But these particles aren’t controlled externally.
They get to the desired location in the body with the help of an attached ligand, which
is a molecule that binds to a very specific receptor, like one that is located only on
tumor cells.
To be considered a nanorobot, or nanobot, they must be able to be externally controlled.
And this is challenging.
Especially when you want to enter the body, which has a whole host of natural defenses
against foreign invaders, like mucus and immune cells.
Mucus and the Immune Cells sounds like a great band name.
I'm gonna keep that in mind!
One popular propulsion method being explored is the use of a magnetic field.
Since magnetic fields are not influenced by tissues in the body and are considered safe,
many scientists are developing tiny robots that can be controlled inside the body when
a magnetic field is applied outside of the body.
So far, all of these robots are larger than 100 nanometers, so can’t really be considered
a true nanobot, but they are extremely cool.
Like the fish-shaped microbots being developed to deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to
cancer cells, the slope-climbing millibots being made to medicate the nervous system,
and a 400-nanometer surgical robot with propellers that can drill through an eye without harming
the tissue.
But the smallest one is a 120 nanometer robot that can transport payloads like medicine,
as well as penetrate cell membranes to deliver it, which most nanoparticles struggle to do.
The creators hope to use it to treat cancer, remove blood clots, and even repair brain
cells.
Other potential applications include collecting internal information about the body, correcting
bleeding or oxygenation issues, and for many uses in dentistry.
There are still many challenges that need to be overcome and risks that need to be addressed
before these technologies will make it into the clinic, but perhaps one day soon these
tiny robots could be saving our lives.
At the very least, they'll get a very weird vacation
So would YOU ever have nanobots swimming around like the magic school bus in your body?
Let me know how you feel about this in the comments!
Are you for or against it?
Thanks so much to our friends at the Foresight Institute who sponsored this video.
To find out more about the work they do to advance technology for the long-term benefit
of life, click the link in the description.
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As always, my name is Blocko, this has been life noggin, don’t forget to keep on thinking!