Scientists Working On Device To Travel Through Bloodstream

April 4, 2012 6:18 PM

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STANFORD (CBS13) - In the 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage,” a submarine, full of scientists, is shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the bloodstream of a seriously wounded diplomat.

Forty-six years later, the idea sounds less far fetched. In a Stanford lab, engineers are perfecting their fantastic voyage.

“And then, we can make it smaller,” said electrical engineer Professor Ada Poon, Ph.D.

Poon says smaller is the name of the game.

“We have been in this project for more than four years. So we encounter a lot of obstacles along the way and then we solve them one by one, said Poon.

Instead of a battery, which takes up lots of space, the device that will be used for travel is powered wirelessly with electromagnetic radio waves.

“The prototype we built is 3mm by 4mm. You can see here that we have a 2mm by 2mm receiving antennae,” said Dan Pivonka, PhD.

The result is a new class of medical devices that are so small they can travel through the bloodstream.

“Right now we could go to the arteries. The midsize could go through the arteries, but we want it to even go through some smaller bloodstreams,” said Poon.

These tiny devices may one day change how we perform diagnostic tests, deliver medications, and even do surgical procedures.

“We are pretty excited about it, but this is only the first step. We still have a long way to go in order to realize this fantastic voyage,” said Poon.

Scientists Working On Device To Travel Through Bloodstream

http://public-travel.com/blog/travel/scientists-working-device-to-travel-through-bloodstream-%c2%ab-cbs.html Scientists Working Device To Travel Through Bloodstream « CBS … « Public-Travel

[...] posted here: Scientists Working Device To Travel Through Bloodstream « CBS … Comments [...]
‘Nother son ‘O Ursus

Casn we drop one of these ‘Bio-U-Boats’ into Jo Ratzinger’s blood stream wih a preprogrammed virus…
thereby forcing him to develop a sense of ‘right Vs. wrong’, re adults using children, with their built-in, (‘age & physical maturity-related’), birth control/sexual release functions?

MotherGoose

AHHHH, we were waiting for the made-up story of the day, and here it is, the April 5 distraction-of-the-day, to take away attention from Obabaa’s failed presidency, and most pathetic week yet.

Ken

Mother goose, did you mean Obama, the greatest president in the history of the United States, the president that makes Reagen look like Jimmy Carter?
Maya Ayala

@ Ken:

Seriously? Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like Abraham Lincoln. There has never been a less-qualified and more mediocre mind to grace the halls of the White House.

Obama certainly inherited a bad situation (that Democrats who controlled Congress helped cause), but he made it WORSE. Things are worse today than they were when he was elected.

To compare this current mediocre president with Ronald Reagan is like trying to compare some arrogant bench warmer with Michael Jordan.
Cyborgmind

This is NOT a “distraction” or made up… Welcome to 666…
donald

Ken……you do realize that you’re talking about Obama who, when interviewed and when asked “you do realize that when you REDUCE taxes you get MORE revenue that can be used for social programs” replied “yes” and then when asked “you do realize that when you INCREASE taxes you get LESS revenue” he also replied “yes”. Then when the interviewer asked “if you realize this then why do you still want to raise taxes” to which Obama replied “because it’s the right thing to do”. OK….and THIS is the greatest president in history that you are referring to???? Ken…….only a moron and complete idiot would raise taxes after admitting that lowering taxes gives him and the country more money to spend on social programs, yet this is exactly what Obama said he wants to do. He wants to raise taxes because he doesn’t believe in capitalism and wants to stick a dagger in the heart of what makes America great (capitalism) even though it means less revenue for the country and even though it kills jobs by raising taxes. This man is a socialist who views it as his job in life to destroy that which made this country great and he will drag the entire country to its knees to do so. If you doubt this, just ask yourself this: after having admitted that LOWERING taxes gives him more revenue to spend, why not do a “win-win” for the American people and lower taxes???? It’s a “win” for those of us who actually have to get up each day and work (to pay for the free-loaders who don’t) because we get to keep more of our own money through lower taxes and it’s a “win” for the social welfare weenies because they get more money for their programs so……why didn’t the “greatest President in history” recognize this and implement it? Answer: because as a socialist, it’s his way of providing “payback” to destroy a system (capitalism) that he views as wrong.

6578737437

I saw that movie as a kid.

Raquel made quite an impression on my impressionable young adolescent mind!
Frank

Any device that is developed is likely to either break blood vessels or clog arteries.
Namey

Dr. Poon? LOLOLOL
Great name for a porn star!

Me

Wonder if she likes TANG?
Jack

Or a James Bond villianess.

Clint

Q: What kind of a name is POON, anyway?

A: Comanche Indian.
http://sebassh.wordpress.com sebassh

Give me Raquel and this technology is then okay
Irwin Fletcher

ADA Poon??? As in “ate a poon”?? Did her parents not like her or something? Geez. LOVE the Fletch comment! haha. Comanche Indian!!
SG-1

the beginning of the Replicators……
http://ny9solyndra.wordpress.com NY9Solyndra

See! I told you so! Look at the great medical advances we can credit to Obamacare!
http://newsbeat1.com/?p=27090 Fantastic Voyage « Newsbeat1

[...] …through the bloodstream [...]
Sobrjns

I managed to shrink myself to the size of a small caplet.; I also miniaturized a 1hp outboard motor and was able to travel 3 feet through 1/2″ copper tubing. I hope to publish this experiment sometime later this year.
sph

Didn’t they do this to Snake Pleskin?… I heard he was dead

Polyphemos

Yeah.. he gets that a lot..

KenyanClown

This story is complete HORSEPUCKY
Way to go C—B.S.
Your employes are such losers they should be working for the Government
rent bounce house

poon??? lol
http://theworldmedia.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/nanotech-in-our-blood/ NanoTech in OUR Blood? « TheWorldMedia

[...] CBS Sacramento 13 [...]
1m2n

When it comes to poon, smaller is better.
http://www.truckingboards.com/forum/washington-dc-holy-land/4136-back-page-news-open-all-post-articles-1039.html#post1024434 BACK PAGE NEWS (open to all to post articles) – Page 1039

[...] [...]
http://scottwilder.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/fridays-reading-room-139/ Friday’s Reading Room « scottwilder.com

[...] Scientists Working On Tiny Device That Can Travel Through Bloodstream… [...]
http://thecarperonline.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/scientist-working-on-inventing-device-that-can-travel-through-your-blood/ Scientist Working on Inventing Device That Can Travel Through Your Blood « The Carper

[...] CBS - In the 1966 film “Fantastic Voyage,” a submarine, full of scientists, is shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the bloodstream of a seriously wounded diplomat. Forty-six years later, the idea sounds less far fetched. In a Stanford lab, engineers are perfecting their fantastic voyage. “We have been in this project for more than four years. So we encounter a lot of obstacles along the way and then we solve them one by one, said Poon. Instead of a battery, which takes up lots of space, the device that will be used for travel is powered wirelessly with electromagnetic radio waves. “The prototype we built is 3mm by 4mm. You can see here that we have a 2mm by 2mm receiving antennae,” said Dan Pivonka, PhD. The result is a new class of medical devices that are so small they can travel through the bloodstream. [...]
Dummies

Hey instead of inventing yet another probing devices, why don’t you egg heads figure out how to feed the planet.

Create a pill to fill them with nutrition.

Parmashaun

The planet can already be fed. It’s called remove dictatorial regimes and instill capitalism around the world. Dummy.
anon

seriously? do you not understand anything?
squiggy9000

“Create a pill to fill them with nutrition”.

Or even easier, stop making us put our food in our gas tanks.
TheRealKingMax

Charleton Heston already did this.

Solent Green. It’s whats for dinner…
Moe Faux

Tell that to North Korea’s Cho Kim Now. Happy Passover.
stan atkinson

Dummies: why don’t you disappear?

The Collective

Sounds like a prelude to Borg nanoprodes. You will all be assimilated. Resistance is Futile.
Parmashaun

I like the idea of creating small devices that can go in and hunt down viruses. They find them, grab ahold of them, and maybe fry them with a jolt of electricity. Unlike a white blood cell, they cannot be attached and taken over. You create an impervious immune system.

bribozo19

Can we make them travel through Pennsylvania Avenue and clean up all the illness and diseases that are prevalent throughout the place??
TheRealKingMax

I don’t mind – make a ship with people inside, shrink it & send it into my bloodstream…

Just get it out of me before it returns to normal size, and I want to nail Raquel Welch for post-op therapy.

She STILL is hot!

Frank Serpico

I think youre confused about capitalism, and its parallax gap. Just like in the United States, for ever extremely wealthy individual you have is opposing poor counterpart. For every “great deal, too good to be true” you get at walmart, there is a sweat shop creating these goods. Youre also speaking of capitalism that has ushered in companies like Monsanto, which now have almost completed their entire annihiliation of free seed farming. Think of the economy that Capitalism brings as if it were a cookie jar (we all understand inflation) This cookie jar has 10 cookies in it, take out 9 1/2 and give it to the top 1%. Take that last half of a cookie and break it up between the remaining 99%. If money was an everflow you’d be right, but this isn’t wonderland. saying “everyone should be capitalist” is fine and dandy when youre mental compacity doesn’t exceed childhood. But truthfully this could never happen. Otherwise it wouldn’t be capitalism, it would be communism. Milton Friedman says greed is good. To agree with capitalism you must follow suit. Make sure you also throw away all of your children’s books… because they all have the same basic moral premise “sharing is caring”

squiggy9000

Whose cookies are they anyway? What person put his hard work into making cookies only to have them stolen and given away? And why are you taking their cookies and giving them to someone else anyway? How do you know he’s not a poor person trying to get ahead in life (only to have his dreams stolen by self-styled do-gooders who think it’s good to steal his ambition, lest he hurt someone else’s feelings). Seems to me YOU are the one whose “mental capacity doesn’t exceed childhood”.

I’m sorry, but you are incoherent. If the “top 1%” own 95% of everything, how do the “99%” survive? I guess we owe the “1%” our very lives!
Sensible One

Totally wrong and full of hooey. First, and economy is not a cookie jar with finite wealth in a capitalist society. I t is more like a magic cookie jar where when you give a cookie to the 1% they make 50 cookies for every one else.
Monsanto is feeding the planet with their innovations, in spite of idiots who want to take food resources to make fuel when there is PLENTY of oil to make fuel with.

s

OMG… I have never seen a post that was completely wrong on EVERY single point they made until now…

There You Go

I agree that sweat shops should go. Other than that, your reply is pretty naive and displays a lack of perception and a basic understanding of economics. First, your Monsanto example is an excellent case study in what happen with a LACK of capitalism in a given market, not the other way around. Your cookie jar metaphor is frankly absurd. You have obviously never spent a significant amount of time abroad. Travel to countries which have no capitalism to speak of and you will see a real gap between the poor and the wealthy. The poorest Americans would be considered upper-middle class in many other countries. It’s true that capitalism rewards big winners with insane amounts of money but those people only get rich by providing competitive goods and services to the populace as a whole which increases everyone’s quality of life. Contrast that with socialism/communism and you still have the “haves” and “have nots,” but the main difference is that there is no chance for upward mobility in the latter systems.

Frank Serpico

poor derelect northern europe
Parker

Serpico,

Northern Europe gets HUGE income for small populations from a gigantic North Sea oil industry.

We could afford a lot more “free” stuff for the people if Green fascists would stop banning access to our natural resources.

Ian

This is called the Zero-Sum Fallacy. If Wealth was fixed then we would all starve, but somehow there is more of everything. Capitalism incentivise creating wealth. (or in your example, cookies)
hebramleigh

Your entire belief system is based entirely on envy and personal greed. You assume that if someone does well, then it is because they force someone else into poverty. You assume that there are only 10 cookies in the cookie jar, and it is a finite number that must be “shared.”

You have absolutely no grasp of economics or how the real world works. People become wealthy because they work hard, save, and make wise decisions. They take NOTHING from anyone. They earn it. People can create wealth independent of any arbitrary number you might put in your “cookie jar.” Your hatred of the rich is based upon your own personal greed; if you can’t have something, then those who do must have stolen it.

Put down Karl Marx’s book (which has all the accuracy of a Grouchy Marx biography) and get out in the real world. Take care of your own family instead of insisting that others do it. Make your success a personal responsibility. But most of all, save your condescending preaching of a failed ideology and stop trying to push a form of government that spreads murder and misery everywhere it has been tried.
deiangus

duh!