Monday, November 17, 2008

Brennan Monday: We All Live in a Medical Submarine

Friday night, I was reading the 2002 Guiness Book of World Records about medical stuff - most heart transplants, most reattachments after amputation, etc. Then I read this:

Smallest submarine for medical use: In 1999 German company microTEC produced a microsubmarine just 0.157 inches in length with a diameter of 0.025 inches. Made with computer-guided lasers, it will be used to travel to sites of blockage or damage in blood vessels and repair them from within the body.

I think: How cool that technology has come that far... submarines small enough to travel down blood vessels! How tiny must that submarine be!

I said out loud to Brennan: "Cool, they've got a submarine for medical use."

He says: "Cool."

(Pause)

"How do they get in it?"