By Bill Freeman
Scientists have used the latest laser technology to create the world’s smallest sculpture by etching a 3-D image of a bull onto a red blood cell. The Japanese scientists used two lasers linked to a computer programme to create the sculpture, which measures just 10 by 7 micrometers across. Professor Satoshi Kawata, who is head of the Laboratory for Scientific Instrumentation and Engineering at Osaka, believes that the same technology “could be used to create micromachines small enough to run inside blood vessels.
Scientists have used the latest laser technology to create the world’s smallest sculpture by etching a 3-D image of a bull onto a red blood cell. The Japanese scientists used two lasers linked to a computer programme to create the sculpture, which measures just 10 by 7 micrometers across. Professor Satoshi Kawata, who is head of the Laboratory for Scientific Instrumentation and Engineering at Osaka, believes that the same technology “could be used to create micromachines small enough to run inside blood vessels.” He speculates that such micromachines could be used to deliver drugs to specific body tissues or to work as sensors in order to measure physiological parameters such as blood flow.
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.bbc.co.uk on the 16th August 2001