By Peter Weiss
Roving microscopic machines may someday battle illness inside bodies. Taking a step in that futuristic direction, researchers in New Mexico have invented a minuscule device that seizes individual red blood cells in its jaws.
Demonstrating that micromechanical gadgets (SN: 7/22/00, p. 56) can manipulate individual cells is an important milestone for biomedical research, says Jay Jakubczak of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, a manager of the group that made the device. The gadget, announced by the team in August, should offer researchers a new tool for studying cells, he adds.