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Tweezer Magnifier Available Now (Bush Robots - Not)
A couple of weeks ago I did a story about bush robots - robots with fingers on their fingers on their fingers right down to the nano scale.
It turns out that Robert Heinlein had some similar ideas. For example, he thought of "ultramicrominiature waldoes as well as "tiny pixy hands, an inch across" to do very fine detail work.
He also thought about manipulating the genes of human beings (in the 1940's!) so they would have a tiny extra hand - with an eye - for detail work:
Well, we're at least fifty years from making bush robots to manipulate tiny objects. And hopefully no one will monkey with the human genome to make an extra hand.
Thank goodness for tweezers with a built-in magnifying glass.
"...Take that extra appendage at the wrist. That's another hand, a miniature one... backed up by a microscopic eye. You can see how useful that would be, once you got used to the idea."
(From Methuselah's Children)
(Tweezer with Magnifier)
Alas, they seem to be available (all together) only in Japan. See the Tweezer Magnifier page; that's two in a row for Red Ferret. Don't forget to take a look at freaky fractal bush robots.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/15/2005)
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