Scientists aren't just interested in making robots which look like us. 科學家不只對製造出長得像我們人類的機器人感興趣。
They wanna... want them to get right under our skin, too. 他們想……也想要讓機器人進入到我們的皮肉底下。
Bring on the nanobots -- miniature medics and pharmacists able to get right to where they're needed, even inside our own bodies. 有請奈米機器人——它們是一群迷你的醫護人員和藥劑師，能夠準確抵達需要它們的地方，甚至是我們的身體裡面。
In this week's Make, Create, Innovate, Nick Glass discovers that while these little guys may be small, they are extremely powerful. 在本週的《製造、創作與創新》單元中，尼克．葛拉斯發現，儘管這些小傢伙可能個頭不大，卻是威力十足。
When we think of robots, we think of factory floors and science fiction movies. 當我們想到機器人，就會想到工廠廠房和科幻電影。
Or, as we've shown you on past episodes of Make, Create, Innovate, the Roomba vacuum cleaner, or Bob the security guard. 或者，就像我們在之前的《製造、創作與創新》單元中曾介紹的吸塵器 Roomba 或警衛鮑伯。
In these underground research labs in Zurich in Switzerland, the approach has been radically different -- 位在瑞士蘇黎世地底下的這些研究實驗室，裡頭的研究方向卻是截然不同——
robots so small, so miniature, they're barely visible to the eye and able to go places almost beyond our imagination. 機器人如此之小、如此微型，肉眼幾乎看不見，而且可以去到一些我們幾乎想像不到的地方。
We're making micro- and nanorobots that are guided by externally generated magnetic fields for use in the human body. 我們製造微型以及奈米機器人，由外部產生的磁場來導引，運用在人體內。
Brad Nelson is a mechanical engineer that likes to think small -- very small. 布萊德．奈爾森是一名喜歡往小處思考的機械工程師——非常小的地方。
He's a pioneer in a field that's only existed for the last decade or so -- nanorobotics. 他在一門過去十年左右才問世的領域中是一名先驅——奈米機器人。
[To] give you an idea of how small these are -- if I had a teaspoon, I could fit about 3 billion of them in a teaspoon. So, ... 讓你瞭解一下這些東西有多小——如果我有一根茶匙，我可以把大約三十億個這些東西裝進這根茶匙裡。所以說……
Three billion? It's kind of unimaginable. 三十億個？有點難以想像。
It is kind of unimaginable, yeah. 的確有點難以想像，沒錯。
Well, the first challenges were how to make these things move. 首先要面對的挑戰就是如何讓這些東西移動。
The inspiration comes from nature, the E. coli bacterium in particular, which is propelled along by a rotating tail, or so-called flagellum. 靈感來自於自然界，特別是大腸桿菌，它靠著一根會旋轉的尾巴推進，即所謂的鞭毛。
Now, we can't make that motor. We don't have the technology for that. 目前我們無法製造出那樣的馬達，我們沒有能做到那種程度的技術。
But, what we brought in were some lessons we'd learned about magnetic fields and using magnetism to move these things. 但是，我們引用了從磁場中學到的一些知識，利用磁力來移動這些東西。
So, we actually take these flagella and we magnetize them, 所以說，我們確實採用這些鞭毛的運作機制，並加以磁化，
and then we have a special rotating field -- a special type of magnetic field we generate -- which allows them to swim. 於是我們就有了一個特別的旋轉場域，一個我們製造出來的特殊磁場，這可以讓他們游動。
Having cracked propulsion, Nelson and his team worked on refining how the nanobots moved, 解決了推進方式後，奈爾森和他的團隊開始研究優化奈米機器人移動的方式，
how they danced -- a waltz, orchestrated on a nano scale. 它們跳舞的方式，像是在奈米的規模上編排跳華爾茲。
The nanobots are all manufactured in ultra-clean rooms like this, specially lit for the purpose. 奈米機器人全都是在像這樣的超淨室內製造生產，為了這個用途有特殊照明。
Machines to maneuver them about are also being designed and built. 用來操作奈米機器人的機器也在設計和建造中，
The target market is health care. 目標則是鎖定健康照護市場。
What you see on the screen here is an image through our ophthalmic microscope of an artificial eye, and in the middle of that is what we call a microrobot. 你在這個螢幕上所看到的，是一張透過眼科顯微鏡看一只人造眼睛的影像，位在正中央的就是我們所稱的微型機器人。
It's about a third of a millimeter in diameter, about a millimeter or so long. So, very, very tiny. 它的直徑大約是三分之一毫米，長度大約是一毫米，所以說，它非常、非常小。
So, this particular device [is] made to carry drugs. 這個特殊的裝置是為了運送藥物而打造的。
And so, we can move it to any location on the retina, and then as it sits there, cause it to diffuse drugs off of it to [a] very particular location. 所以我們可以將它移動到視網膜上的任何地方，然後趁它固定在那邊不動的時候，讓它釋出藥物到一個特定的定點。
As well as our eyes, Nelson is targeting our hearts. 除了我們的眼睛，奈爾森也鎖定心臟。
An operation to repair damaged heart tissue is already planned for later this year. 修補受損心臟組織的手術已經列入了今年稍後的計畫中。
And from one vital organ to another, he hopes his machines could be used in the brain. 從一個維生器官到另一個重要器官，他希望他的機器能運用在腦部。
So, we've looked at applications, for instance, in deep brain stimulation and implanting electrodes in the brain, and we've looked at putting catheters within the vasculature of the brain. 舉例來說，我們也探究了應用在腦部深層的刺激以及在腦中植入電極，我們也研究過在腦部的血管中置入導管。
And this could just be the beginning for Nelson's nanobots. 這可能只是奈爾森的奈米機器人的牛刀小試而已。
He believes they could help us environmentally, something microscopic to tackle. something massive, like an oil spill. 他相信這些機器人能在環保方面幫上忙，用微小的東西來解決巨大的問題，比方說漏油事件。
These are very small. 這些機器人非常小。
If we can create swarms of them that can go out, they can cover a broad area. 如果我們可製造出一堆能派上用場的微型機器人，他們就能涵蓋廣闊的區域了。
Water treatment, environmental cleanup, where you might be able to put hundreds, thousands, millions of these devices 改善水質、環境清潔，你也許可以在那些地方放上幾百、幾千、幾百萬個這種裝置，
and have them swim through polluted water, catalyze pollutants, and then collect them [back] later back. 讓他們游過污染的水域，催化污染物，稍後再將他們回收。
That's a particular application that's exciting and that we're certainly focusing on here. 那是一種讓人感到興奮的獨特應用，而且我們肯定會鑽研這一方面。