In the movie Star Trek: The Voyage Home, Dr. McCoy is walking by a woman who is suffering. He asks what's wrong with her and she explains she's on kidney dialysis. McCoy, without breaking a sweat, takes out a pill and give it to her. Moments later, she is being wheeled out, shouting "Doctor gave me a pill, and I grew a new kidney!"
That was one of those futuristic things that happens in Star Trek that you can potentially see happen in the not too distant future. Well, that future is getting closer. Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Daniela Rus and her team has created a pill that unfolds after you swallow it, can be guided with a tiny magnet inside of it to a foreign object in the body, or it can find …show more content…
Once the robot is done with its task, it just simply does what food does in the stomach: digests. You don't have to worry about it staying there for the rest of your life or pushing it out and cutting yourself.
The project of this magic pill was funded by a National Science Foundation grant. I can imagine the board members watching the presentation by Rus and immediately jumping on board. How could you not? Plus, Rus says that the components to make the pill are less than $100. This sounds great, but then think about how much it costs to build an iPhone, and then think about how much they cost when you buy them at the store. The medical business in America wants that money.
-1x-1
Now that they have the prototype tested, they now look for approval by the MIT animal care committe to try it out in pigs. Why pigs? If it digests, why not just try it out with a person with something they can treat in their stomach? I know, they have to do this, but it's always fun to see a rogue scientists try that stuff out on themselves, but then you end up getting a supervillain or
That was one of those futuristic things that happens in Star Trek that you can potentially see happen in the not too distant future. Well, that future is getting closer. Director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Daniela Rus and her team has created a pill that unfolds after you swallow it, can be guided with a tiny magnet inside of it to a foreign object in the body, or it can find …show more content…
Once the robot is done with its task, it just simply does what food does in the stomach: digests. You don't have to worry about it staying there for the rest of your life or pushing it out and cutting yourself.
The project of this magic pill was funded by a National Science Foundation grant. I can imagine the board members watching the presentation by Rus and immediately jumping on board. How could you not? Plus, Rus says that the components to make the pill are less than $100. This sounds great, but then think about how much it costs to build an iPhone, and then think about how much they cost when you buy them at the store. The medical business in America wants that money.
-1x-1
Now that they have the prototype tested, they now look for approval by the MIT animal care committe to try it out in pigs. Why pigs? If it digests, why not just try it out with a person with something they can treat in their stomach? I know, they have to do this, but it's always fun to see a rogue scientists try that stuff out on themselves, but then you end up getting a supervillain or