A tiny rocket that delivers medication inside the human digestive system, powered by a chemical reaction … this sounds like the stuff of crazy science fiction.
But instead, it is the invention of a team of California scientists who’ve been working on such devices for years.
The team has developed numerous versions of the rocket for use in a variety of scenarios. All are impossibly small, fitting into the category of nanotechnology and measuring less than a thousandth of an inch long.
One of the rockets, described in a 2012 scholarly paper and at a 2013 meeting of the American Chemical Society, has a zinc coating. Unlike some of the other coating materials the scientists have tried, zinc occurs naturally in the body in small amounts and is not harmful within normal levels.
The zinc rockets are propelled by chemical reactions between acid — in this case, stomach acid — and the zinc. Hydrogen bubbles produced by the reaction hurtle the rocket forward to reach its destination and perform the desired task, the scientists explained at the 2013 meeting.
That task could be delivering medication or checking body pH in tough-to-reach-places.
The same scientists also have worked on developments to use nano-rockets in military applications. Specifically, nano-rockets could be used to deactivate chemical and biological warfare agents.
To get these rockets moving, just expose them to seawater. Then, a chemical reaction, similar to the zinc-and-acid one in the digestive system, propels them along.
Other potential medical uses for the miniscule rockets include honing in on cancer cells within the body.
Although these devices are still in development and not ready yet for clinical use, it’s not a stretch to see how they could turn medicine into rocket science.