Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

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by ibgames

EARTHDATE: October 13, 2013

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REAL LIFE NEWS: MAGGOTS ATE MY BRAIN!

by Hazed

Here’s an innovation that just makes me squirm, even though I can see how useful it will be: robot maggots to eat brain tumours.

Ewwww!

Inspired by real live maggots that munch on dead tissue, a neurosurgeon has been working on a robot that emulates the larvae to remove brain tumours from the inside.

Sorry, I’m still shuddering.

The robot bends like a maggot, and can zap tumours with an electrocautery tool and then suction out the dead tissue. It can be remotely controlled so the surgeon can monitor its progress and direct it towards certain tissue while the unfortunate owner of the brain is having an MRI scan. That’s not possible using conventional brain surgery.

The inventor, J. Marc Simard of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, said, “Here you had a natural system that recognized bad from good and good from bad. In other words, the maggots removed all the bad stuff and left all the good stuff alone and they’re really small. I thought, if you had something equivalent to that to remove a brain tumor that would be an absolute home run.”

No doubt he’s right, but I still find the idea really revolting!

Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/robo-maggots-will-munch-through-brain-tumors

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