VIDEO: NANOBOTS COULD DIAGNOSE YOU FROM THE INSIDE

Tiny robots, known as Nanobots, are promising a breakthrough in medicine by letting doctors study and treat you without invasive surgery or relatively ineffective drugs. 

The Nanobots, however, face a couple of key problems: it is not easy to steer them to where they're needed, and getting rid of them is difficult when they are finished with their initial job. 

Researchers might have a solution: to make the Nanobots out of natural materials that are guaranteed to break down. They have crafted Nanobots using the sort of spirulina algae you can find in health food stores. The natural composition not only lets them biodegrade gracefully but makes them relatively easy to control. 

The bots have a magnetic iron-oxide exterior that both lets doctors control how quickly it degrades and makes it possible to guide them using magnetic resonance imaging. Since they are naturally florescent inside, they are easy to spot. They'd only have to stay in your body for as long as necessary, and they'd save time getting to those places where they are actually useful. 

The researchers say they would need to be flexible and, while the Nanobots can be used to deliver medicine to targeted parts of the body, they can also sense environmental changes that reflect an oncoming illness. Diagnoses for certain conditions could be more accurate, especially for parts of the body that are normally hard to reach. 

Do not expect to slip these tiny machines into your body anytime soon though. The scientists still want to refine their effectiveness, tracking, and compatibility with your body before they start a trial in humans. Their very existence shows that Nanobots should be genuinely practical to make and use. 

Have a look at the video below to see how Nanobots are fighting cancer – for now at least!