What can nanorobots be used for? Answered by Discovery Channel

"Nanorobots" are just what you think they are: Really tiny robots, so tiny they're built to nanometer-scale (about one billionth of a meter wide). In fact, scientists and engineers are on a mission to create a robot so small it can fit into a human vein. Such a nanorobot could be used, for example, to target the cause of an ailment or disease and provide medication directly to the infected area. While they're still a work in progress, engineers believe that viable nanorobots may actually be ready for use in the near future -- ones that can help treat a wide range of diseases and conditions, from hemophilia to cancer. Developers are already hopeful that nanorobots will be able to treat arteriosclerosis, break up blood clots and kidney stones and remove parasites and gout.

An interesting challenge that is key to the success of any future nanorobot involves the plucky little bot's propulsion system. After all, it will be a robot on a mission; it can't just hope to get where it needs to go. Nanotechnologists are investigating several ways to propel a nanorobot through a patient's bloodstream, with the underlying necessity, of course, being that the method is safe for patients. Some of the options under consideration include mimicking microscopic organisms such as flagella, which have tail-like structures that allow them to propel themselves in any direction. Israeli scientists have developed a micro-robot a few millimeters long that uses small appendages, manipulated by magnetic fields -- generated outside the patient -- to grip and crawl through the blood vessels. Electromagnetic pumps and vibrating membranes, meanwhile, are a couple of other propulsion methods being explored for piloting nanorobots through our blood.

The possibilities for nanorobots in the medical field are numberless, and it will be exciting to find out which diseases are the first to be helped by medicine's tiny new tools.