This is mind-blowing. Implanted chips, swallow a computer-in-pill, what next? That thing in "Matrix" that dives into your belly-button?

The future is coming and it looks weird.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001612468322797&rtmo=Q0em9amR&atmo=tt tttttd&pg=/et/00/2/21/npill21.html

Video pill will detect cancer as it travels around body

Monday 21 February 2000, By Nick Britten

SCIENTISTS are developing a pill they hope will be able to detect diseases while travelling around the body.

The pill would encapsulate a tiny video camera relaying pictures to diagnostic computers, which would then inform doctors if there is a problem and what it is.

Scientists in Glasgow developed the so-called "lab in a pill" and are now trying to produce a more commercial product. The 15 millimetre wide capsule, similar to those used by Nasa to measure temperatures inside astronauts, contains sophisticated bio-sensors and a microchip 10,000 times smaller than a human hair.

Doctors are particularly hopeful that it can be used in the digestive system to pick up early symptoms of common diseases such as bowel cancer. Dr David Cumming, lecturer in electronic engineering at Glasgow University, said the pill depended on recent advances that allow chips to act as video cameras.

One of the main problems would be how to power the capsule, with battery power or a smart card system the likely solution. Currently the capsule is programmed to store information as it passes around the body, which will be fed into a computer, although scientists are looking at a more advanced model that will relay live data as it goes along.

Prof Jonathan Copper said: "When we started to think about where the 'lab in a chip' was going, we thought of measurements being taken in the most remote places, such as in space. But then we thought the most challenging environments could be the ones closest - inside the human body." Currently intestinal problems are difficult to diagnose as the only tests available are endoscopies, which only reach a few feet into the gut.
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Hhhmmm. One would certainly hope there are no "design" flaws, timebombs, programming errors, etc. in such a pill ...

Pretty freaky. Certainly one can think of many wonderful uses for such a roving "lab," but also many misuses ...

Think we'll pass on popping this pill ... gulp!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 21, 2000

Answers

What was the name of the movie in the 60s/70s that showed a crew of miniaturized scientists travelling through a human body?

-- blast from past (becoming@future.now), February 21, 2000.

This little Goodie will certainly put You Years ahead, to become Part of the steady Income of the medical "Profession".

-- Albert S. (can@U.see), February 21, 2000.

Gee, if it comes out in suppository form, many will be able to see if they are having a bad hair day!

O(:^}`

Hey kids (A&L) Picnic of preps sounds good to me.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), February 21, 2000.

Hi Michael! Define "comes out" ;^)

Picnic yes! Been riding trails, but it's supposed to rain for a few days now.

Ready for Spring ...

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 21, 2000.

What I want to know is this: When a person has a colonoscopy done, many things are done so that the scope can visualize the lining of the bowel, bowel cleaned out, air pumped in, etc. How will this little pill "see" through all the you know what in there? Common sense says that this pill can't work like they say.

-- (formerly@nowhere.zzz), February 21, 2000.

I've always wondered if that President Regan pollop video (colonoscopy)we were all privileged to view on 'prone time ruze', had ulterior motives ie; "see his head really is in the right place," or "see, he really doesn't have a polex (thumb) in there."

-- Michael of upper GI (mikeymac@uswest.net), February 21, 2000.

To blast-from-the-past:

The movie was "Fantastic Voyage", from the 60s. What I remember from it was Raquel Welch, playing one of the world's top scientists.

-- Peter Errington (petere@ricochet.net), February 21, 2000.

1)- Is there a sexual angle here?

2)-"blast from past"-I think the movie was "Fantastic Voyage". I remember because my date went to sleep in the middle.

-- (nemesis@awol.com), February 21, 2000.

Hey there,

Thanks for the post A&L. I like your little guy with the glasses too. =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 21, 2000.

Formerly, yep, there's a "blow-out" ritual involved in prepping for a sigmoidoscopy, and it ain't fun. When the examiner pumps up the air -- ever wondered what a balloon feels like? ;^)

So we weren't the only ones who wondered about the "obscure" issues ...

Thanks all who remembered that movie. Think the Drs will let you watch your own body's movie on your home computer while that pill roams around?

The possibilities are endless ... ;^) By that time you can send it via eMail to your friends LOL

Michael, Pollyups?

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 21, 2000.

Hmmm...sounds like a neat idea for a webcam. Let's see...we need lighting (it's dark in there), GPS (so we and the viewers know it's location), a couple of other pills with nanopropellers (remote controlled actors), a good external chef (scenery and casting director)........

-- mush (discovery@shields.up), February 21, 2000.

Ow!! There's something in my eye. Oh... wait a minute...it's just a submarine!

Jimmy

-- Jimmy Splinters (inthe@dark.com), February 21, 2000.

A & L

Had a sigmoidoscopy 10 months ago and there was no balloon- like blow-up involved. However, the "blow-out" prep I had to drink the night before was certainly interesting.

-- JB (noway@jose.com), February 21, 2000.

Anybody seen Innerspace, with Martin Short?

"I'm possessed!!"

-- grannyclampett (notress@pass.ing), February 21, 2000.

A little salty there, eh? :-P

You escaped without the fillerup inner tube pump regime? Oh, you'd certainly remember it if you'd been ballooned!

Watching from inside the heart would be interesting.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 21, 2000.

Do you have to swallow the roach who's carrying the camera on his back? Oh, that's just in Japan. Nevermind.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), February 21, 2000.

Another OMG article:

[ Fair Use: For Educational / Research / Digestive Purposes Only ]

Feb 25, 2000 - 01:44 PM

University of California Researchers Mate Human Cells With Circuitry

By Cliff Edwards, The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Don't look for the Six Million Dollar Man just yet, but researchers say they have found a way to mate human cells with circuitry in a "bionic chip" that could play a key role in medicine and genetic engineering.

The tiny device - smaller and thinner than a strand of hair - combines a healthy human cell with an electronic circuitry chip. By controlling the chip with a computer, scientists say they can control the activity of the cell.

The computer sends electrical impulses to the cell-chip, triggering the cell's membrane pores to open and activating the cell. Scientists hope they can manufacture cell-chips in large numbers and insert them into the body to replace or correct diseased tissues.

The cell-chip also gives them greater control over the difficult process of gene therapy because they can more precisely open the cell's pores, said lead researcher Boris Rubinsky.

"We've brought engineering essentially into the field of biology," said Rubinsky, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, which funded his research. "We can introduce DNA, extract proteins, administer medicines - all without bothering other cells that might be around."

The cell-chip, profiled in the March issue of the journal Biomedical Microdevices, rests on a long-known phenomenon: Cell membranes become permeable when exposed to certain voltages.

Scientists for years have been conducting genetic research in a time-consuming trial-and-error process of bombarding cells with electricity in an attempt to introduce foreign substances such as new drug treatments or genetic material.

Researchers hope eventually they can develop cell-chips tuned for the precise voltage needed to activate different bodily tissues, from muscle to bone to brain. That way, cell-chips could be applied by the thousands to correct a variety of health problems.

"In the past, any electricity applied to the cell was like hitting it with a hammer in the hopes that something would happen, or it would open for us. Now, we know just how to make it work," Rubinsky said.

Mauro Ferrari, director of the Biomedical Engineering Center at the University of Ohio, called Rubinsky's invention a "potentially useful laboratory tool in the early stages of development."

"The method for opening cells has been around a long time, but this makes it more exact and easier to do in large throws," Ferrari said. "It seems to me that we have a ways to go before you'd see a bionic man," he said, but the ability to program cells quickly could accelerate genetic research.
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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), February 25, 2000.

Hmmmn.

Blood isn't transparent, and there are few lights "inside" a view or artery - wonder what this is going to "see" to record? Sonar (ultrasonic) only?

---...---...---

I don't think it is a guy with glasses.

But it does look like Raquel W. doing jumping jacks ..... 8<)

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 25, 2000.