![]() |
Science Fiction
Dictionary Latest By
"The answer to the problem of information overload on the Net is reputations… engineer a system called a reputation server."
|
![]() |
![]() When Brand Fanshaw crash-landed, his injuries were extensive. So much so, that Charlie Masson needed all of his skills - and his microsurgery tool.
Specialized microsurgical instruments were not really created until the 1960's. They were used to reconnect very fine blood vessels on the order of 1 mm in diameter; the very best of surgeons were limited to working on blood vessels 3-4 mm in size.
As far as I know, the first use of the term "micro-surgery" combined with a description of an actual technique was in "Micro-surgery in Chronic Simple Glaucoma" read by Otto Barkin to the California Medical Association in 1937.
He really didn't use a specialized, miniaturized instrument, nor did he use any kind of mechanism to reduce his large hand movements to tiny instrument movements.
The web seems to be full of references to Jules Jacobson being the first person to coin the word "microsurgery" (which is obviously untrue). Jacobson used a microscope (ordinarily used by ENT surgeons working on the inner ear) combined with jeweler's instruments.
Compare to the microrobot from The Scarab (1936) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the ultra-microrobot from Menace in Miniature (1937) also by Gallun, waldo from Waldo (1942) by Robert Heinlein, the golden shuttles from The Mechanical Mice (1941) by Maurice Hugi, the autofac nanorobots from Autofac (1955) by Philip K. Dick, the nanomachine swarm from The Invincible (1954) by Stanislaw Lem, the Christmas Bush robot from Rocheworld by Robert Forward and the robot cells from Robot City (1987) by Michael Kube-McDowell. Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
resources: Microsurgery Tool-related
news articles:
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
|
![]() |
Science Fiction
Timeline
Chaffeur Robot Musashi Will Drive Your Regular Car
'What would you do,' Eric asked the robot cabdriver, 'if your wife had turned to stone, your best friend were a toad, and you had lost your job?'
Space Exporers! Now, You Can Drink Your Own Urine
'those suits they wear -- call them 'stillsuits' -- that reclaim the body's own water...'
SpaceX EVA Spacesuit Tested By Polaris Dawn Crew
'Now, except for weight and heat, the same conditions prevail in this chamber as in space.'
Automatic Bot Traffic Is 38 Percent Of HTTP Requests
'there were so many worms and counterworms loose in the data-net...'
Shanghai Guidelines For Humanoid Robots
'Now, look, let's start with the three fundamental Rules of Robotics...'
Virtual Rat Predicts Actual Rat Neural Activity
'..the synthetic intellects at the Place of Knowledge had far outstripped the minds of men.'
Rizon 4 Ironing Robot
'But after washing and drying clothes had to be smooth - free from fine lines and wrinkles ...'
|
![]() |
![]() |
Home | Glossary
| Science Fiction Timeline | Category | New | Contact
Us | FAQ | Advertise | ![]() Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™ Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved. |
![]() |