Holy Nanotechnology, Batman!

Sukho Park, of Chonnam National University in Korea, has worked with a team of researchers to affix heart tissue from a rat onto a robot smaller than the thickness of a fingernail. When the cardiac tissue contracted, the bot's six legs pulled together. When the tissue relaxed, the legs drew apart. This motion allowed the robot to move itself forward through a solution at 100 micrometers/second, or about 0.0002 miles/hour. The hope is that this technology will one day lead to other biocompatible bots that could carry dissolving substances, clot-busters, to blocked veins and arteries. The university's motto "Serving the Community with a Global Vision" would truly be well served by such an accomplishment.

You have to wonder how Sukho Park and his team would have done at the Annual Micromouse Contest. I'm betting first prize would have gone back to Korea with them. This contest is held in the spring each year to see which designer of a small microprocessor-controlled, electro-mechanical robot vehicle imbued with sufficient "intelligence" and the capability to decopher and navigate an elaborately contrived maze will take the prize. To do so, their creation has to reach the maze's centre before any other of the fully autonomous mice do so. The allowable dimensions for the mice are strictly enforced as is the rule that no mouse is allowed to have remote controls.
This year's contest will take place on February 25 in Austin, Texas, at the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exhigition. Variations of this contest have made their way into colleges and universities across North America, as well as around the globe. It began in the 70's, and doesn't seem about to end any time soon.
Who knows? Maybe the next great medical step forward will come from this year's contest winner.