Innovative Capsule Endoscope and DNA-Reading Chips Transform Medicine

As large as an aspirin, it contains a camera, a radio transmitter, a lamp, and a power source. It will be used to record images of the digestive system. The discovery is credited to Israeli inventor Gavriel Iddan and gastroenterologist Paul Swain.

Traditional endoscopy is a complicated procedure, requiring patient sedation. In contrast, the “capsule endoscope” is completely painless. It is swallowed and, like a peanut, naturally traverses the entire digestive tract.

Technological Innovations in Biotechnology

Researchers at IBM have developed a comb-shaped chip, whose electronic receptors can read human DNA at astonishing speeds or detect potential diseases.

Nanotechnology, the discipline that has miniaturized instruments to the incredible, if it establishes the necessary prerequisites, will open broad horizons of application in biomedicine: for example, micropumps to clean blood of infected cells.