Microscopic Robots

At Monash University, the devices being made are too big to be allowed to roam freely around the human body since they are simply too long to navigate safely around some of the tighter turns in blood vessels and could block them. According to Dr Friend, future advancements could be aided by greater collaboration between different disciplines, such as engineering and medicine. "I believe that as time passes, scientists will come to realise that knowledge specific to a particular field is inadequate to understand the complete picture of complex phenomena on the nanoscale, and certainly any larger systems that makes use of nanotechnology," he says.

For more information:

Wired - Fantastic Voyage: Departure 2009
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/medtech/0,72448-0.html

UCLA - Blurring the Line Between Organism and Machine
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/magazine/Spring05/microbots.html

For more information

Video: Fantastic Voyage - Medical Microbots
This documentary takes a trip into the human body and offers an amazing glimpse at the future of medicine.