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NANOROBOTS

Nanotechnology is an emerging field in robotics and holds great potential.  It provides an abundance of problem solving in disease and medicine, in general. These microscopic robots will theoretically have the capability to do things, which may have been presumed to be unimaginable. From constructing objects out of thin air to curing diseases, nanobots can be one of the most important advances mankind has ever seen.

Nano-robotics is a part of the nanotechnology field.  Its main focus is developing robots so tiny that they are nearly invisible to the naked eye. These tiny robots have the potential to do outstanding work when operated to work together.

 

The nanorobots are fully self-supporting and are capable of affecting things at a microscopic level. In fact, the robots can build things with molecules and even differentiate the molecular structure of existing material.  They can, for example, break down materials they locate, extract the necessary parts and then build something entirely new. Although this innovation has been fairly recent, there are already a number of proposed uses for these microscopic little robots.

Medical uses for nanotechnology are numerous.  Since these robots are so small, they can be inserted into a person’s biological system without any side effects. The nanorobots are approximately the size of a red blood cell.  They can either be remotely controlled or pre-programmed for a certain procedure.  

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They could, "theoretically, be programmed to seek out and deconstruct cancer cells and completely eliminate them without the need for lengthy treatments.  They could also be employed to repair and reconstruct damaged tissue on the cellular level.  This would have the effect of drastically increasing a person’s own natural ability to heal themselves.  No matter how damaged a portion of a person’s body may be, these nanobots might be able to repair them." (4.5)

NANOROBOTS FOR CANCER TREATMENT

Cancer is caused when a genetic mutation affects the way cells behave, causing them to grow out of control or abnormally. The goal of any cancer treatment is to remove the infected cells, and the most efficient way to do this, is with nanorobots. "Researchers at California Institute of Technology have already done just that. The Caltech team combined nanobots with Andrew Fire and Craig Mello's Noble Prize-winning discovery RNA interference from more than a decade ago. Fire and Mello used particles called small interfering RNAs, or siRNAs, to cut out negligible pieces of the genetic code in the mRNA." (4.6)

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Ten years later, the researchers at Caltech combined the RNA interference technology with nanotechnology and injected nanobots with siRNAs designed to cut out the genetic mutation for cancer in mRNA into the bloodstreams of cancer patients.

 

If the studies continue to show promise, nanobots could become the leading treatment in the treatment of curing cancer. This may enable us to customize dosages based on cancer type. Furthermore, nanorobots appear to leave good cells alone and work well along side other treatments.

Another pro for the use of nanorobots is how it is an alternative for surgery pain, trauma, and side effects. Instead of feeling all of the pain during surgery or the after trauma of an incident, like we face now, nanorobots can change that because they can easily be inserted by a physician and will already be programmed what action to take, without any pain.

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