Bloodstream

Implants and tiny machines could eventually be working inside our bodies to help treat disease or monitor activity, but letting them communicate is tricky. Now scientists at EPFL have developed a system whereby devices can communicate by releasing molecules into a patient’s bloodstream.Biomedical implants play a key role in healthcare, monitoring activity in organs like the heart or brain, while recent research is investigating how nanoscale robots might one day swim or crawl through the body to fight disease. But these…

After someone has suffered a heart attack, their body replaces the damaged heart muscle tissue with non-beating scar tissue, compromising the heart's function. A new injectable biomaterial, however, may help the heart heal better.The material is being developed at the University of California San Diego, by a team led by Prof. Karen Christman.Back in 2012, Christman and colleagues created a hydrogel that was designed to be injected directly into the damaged areas of the heart. It would then form a three-dimensional…

University of Cambridge researchers have found that the London Underground is contaminated with ultrafine metallic particles that are small enough to enter the human bloodstream. These particles are so tiny that they may be underestimated in pollution surveys of the world’s oldest metro system.The London Underground is polluted with ultrafine metallic particles small enough to end up in the human bloodstream, according to University of Cambridge researchers. These particles are so small that they are likely being…

As the world was grappling with the Covid-19 virus which presented…

Australian academics have created a mind-blowing concept that could serve as a proof-of-concept for the future in nanorobotics What if there was a miraculous robot capable of curing any disease? Don’t respond to it. It’s a silly question. Everyone understands that no one machine could accomplish such feats. But can a swarm of hundreds of thousands of tiny autonomous micro-bots? That is the concept advanced by supporters of nanobot medical technology. The big notion in science fiction is usually…

There are many illnesses and injuries, including COVID-19, where the body struggles to get the amount of oxygen into the lungs necessary for survival.In severe cases, patients are put on a ventilator, but these machines are often scarce and can cause problems of their own, including infection and injury to the lungs.  Scientists may have now found a breakthrough, and it's one that that could significantly impact how ventilators are used. In addition to traditional mechanical ventilation, there's another technique called…