A touchy-feely robot |
Something
creepy this way comes
Baltimore —
With no metal and no electric current to hinder the
MRI, the new PneuStep — an air and light driven
robot made entirely of plastics, ceramics and rubber
— allows doctors to perform biopsies more accurately.
"Our new MRI-safe motor and robot
can target tumours. This should increase accuracy in
collecting tissue samples, reduce diagnos-tic errors
and also improve therapy," says Dan Stoianovici, PhD,
director of the Johns Hopkins Urology Robotics Lab which
developed the device. "We're able to achieve precise
and smooth motion of the motor as fine as 50 micrometers,"
he adds.
The robot is placed alongside the
patient in the MRI scanner and controlled remotely by
a computer. It follows orders while sending realtime
feedback to the computer, allowing for more targeted
MR images.
The Oralflo Pill Swallowing
Cup |
Helps
the Rx go down
Raritan, NJ —
It's not a spoonful of sugar and the inventor looks
nothing like Mary Poppins, but Roger Heilos promises
his Oralflo will definitely help the medicine go down
— without resorting to crushing pills.
The Oralflo Pill Swallowing Cup
has a special grille in the spout of the cup that the
pills rest on. The cup itself is filled with liquid
and the patient can then drink normally, swallowing
the pill along with the liquid.
"Pills often have special coatings
that affect how they are released into the body and
crushing them can mean this complex system is disturbed,"
says Heilos, president of Oralflo Technologies. The
cup will also help people whose trouble swallowing pills
causes anxiety.
A
beacon for bacteria
Sheffield, UK —
Bacteria hunters just got enlightened. Scientists at
the University of Sheffield are developing a sensor
that will raise a fluorescent warning when it encounters
bacteria.
The polymer-based technology will
have the advantage of swiftness over comparatively sluggish
swabbing and culturing techniques. The combined polymers
react when they encounter bacteria, changing their shape
and emitting a light signal through fluorescent Non-Radiative
Energy Transfer (NRET). The sensor will allow for early
detection of bacterial infections.
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