• NASA for what ails you: Nanorockets could deliver drugs inside the body
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[h2]Nanorockets could deliver drugs inside the body[/h2] [release]NANOROCKETS powered by a benign rocket fuel could one day carry drugs around the body. Nanotubes filled with rocket fuel act like missiles, propelling themselves through liquids at eye-watering speeds. But fuels such as hydrazine are toxic so can't be used inside the body. Now the tiny rockets have been made to work with a less toxic fuel. Samuel Sanchez and colleagues at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research in Dresden, Germany, made nanotubes by rolling platinum-coated sheets of metal into tubes with the platinum on the inside. When the team placed the tubes in a warm, weak solution of hydrogen peroxide, the platinum catalysed the decomposition of peroxide into water and oxygen. This forced bubbles of gas out of one end of the tube, generating thrust in the opposite direction (Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/ja205012j). The result is a nanorocket that travels up to 200 times its own length per second, faster than the quickest bacteria. The team can steer the tubes using a magnetic field and control the speed by varying the temperature of the fluid. The fuel is only 0.25 per cent peroxide but even this isn't entirely safe. So the next step is to develop rockets that work with even less peroxide or a substance that is already present in the body, such as glucose. This is one of the few engines that can operate in blood, urine or saliva, says Joseph Wang, a nano-engineer at the University of California, San Diego.[/release] [url=http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128324.100-nanorockets-could-deliver-drugs-inside-the-body.html]Source[/url]
Can I make them shoot out of my eyes and kill people?
A good way to smuggle drugs then.
But wait, we haven't got robo-arms yet. Aw man, now Deus Ex won't be historically accurate.
[QUOTE=Cone;32592495]But wait, we haven't got robo-arms yet. Aw man, now Deus Ex won't be historically accurate.[/QUOTE] We do, they're called bionics.
"Less toxic" to me implies that it is still toxic.
[QUOTE=Vaught;32592582]We do, they're called bionics.[/QUOTE] I know, they're just not at the level in the games. [editline]2nd October 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=Forumaster;32592592]"Less toxic" to me implies that it is still toxic.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The fuel is only 0.25 per cent peroxide but even this isn't entirely safe.[/QUOTE] They're working on it.
[QUOTE=Cone;32592610]I know, they're just not at the level in the games. [/QUOTE] Well, at that level you'd have to augment the entire skeletal system so the robo arms don't crush your existing bones when you try to do anything 'Deus Ex' :v: Also, pretty interesting development. Turning hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. Sure hope they get it to safer levels as that stuff is no-nonsense on the body.
[QUOTE=Vaught;32592701]Well, at that level you'd have to augment the entire skeletal system so the robo arms don't crush your existing bones when you try to do anything 'Deus Ex' :v:[/QUOTE] Maybe these could help, then? Man, this is pretty great. All kinds of scientific breaks recently.
[QUOTE=Cone;32592727]Maybe these could help, then? Man, this is pretty great. All kinds of scientific breaks recently.[/QUOTE] I'm no medical man, so I wouldn't know if these would help with the 'robo-arm' idea. Still a lovely way to administer drugs, though I still like the nanorobot concept of drug administration.
nasa is going to fly a rocket through your anus
[code]Fuels such as hydrazine are toxic so can't be used inside the body. Now the tiny rockets have been made to work with a less toxic fuel.[/code] I'm not sure "Less toxic" is satisfactory for me...
[QUOTE=Zeke129;32593128]nasa is going to fly a rocket through your anus[/QUOTE] Probing Uranus
[QUOTE=Scar;32593414]Probing Uranus[/QUOTE] Really... Shepard?
I would be more concerned about the little high pressure rocket engine inside my blood vessels.
My question is will we start pissing out rockets?
Damnit NASA, rockets are NOT the solution to everything!
Possible side effects may in include: spontaneous combustion
[QUOTE=fskman;32598451]Damnit NASA, rockets are NOT the solution to everything![/QUOTE] Or are they?
"Rockets? In [I]my[/I] bloodstream?" [sub]It's more likely than you think.[/sub]
Nanorockets, eh? Sounds pretty useful.
Nano...rockets? Nano everything these days.
I can see this being in the butt of many jokes.
[quote]The result is a nanorocket that travels up to 200 times its own length per second, faster than the quickest bacteria. The team can steer the tubes using a magnetic field and control the speed by varying the temperature of the fluid. [/quote] I'd rather not have parts of my body change temperature too drastically.
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