I’ve Seen Cartoons About This …

also it’s been talked about on “Grey’s Anatomy.” This is real, and exciting.

Tiny robots powered by magnets could one day do brain surgery

Robot tools powered by magnets (Supplied)

Most brain surgery requires doctors to remove part of the skull to access hard-to-reach areas or tumours. It’s invasive, risky, and it takes a long time for the patient to recover.

We have developed new, tiny robotic surgical tools that may let surgeons perform “keyhole surgery” on the brain. Despite their small size, our tools can mimic the full range of motion of a surgeon’s wrist, creating new possibilities for less-invasive brain surgery.

Robotic surgical tools (around 8 millimetres in diameter) have been used for decades in keyhole surgery for other parts of the body. The challenge has been making a tool small enough (3mm in diameter) for neurosurgery.

In a project led by the University of Toronto, where I was a postdoctoral fellow, we collaborated with The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Canada to develop a set of very small neurosurgery tools.

The tools are only about 3mm in diameter. In a paper published in Science Robotics, we demonstrated these tools could grip, pull and cut tissue.

Their extremely small size is possible as they are powered not by motors but by external magnetic fields.

Three small robotic tools, one with a blade and two with grippers.
Three magnetic tools: a cutter, a gripper and forceps. Changyan He

Current robotic surgical tools are typically driven by cables connected to electric motors. They work in much the same way as human fingers, which are manipulated by tendons in the hand connected to muscles in the wrist.

However, pulleys smaller than several millimetres wide to control the instruments are weak and prone to friction, stretch and fracture. This creates challenges in scaling down the instruments, because of difficulties in making the parts of the system, assembling the mechanisms and managing friction in the cables.

Magnetic controls

The new robotic system consists of two parts. The first is the tiny tools themselves: a gripper, a scalpel and a set of forceps. The second part is what we call a “coil table”, which is a surgical table with several electromagnetic coils embedded inside.

In this design, the patient would be positioned with their head on top of the embedded coils, and the robotic tools would be inserted into the brain via a small incision.

Diagram showing a patient lying on a table undergoing brain surgery.
Patients would lie on a ‘coil table’ containing magnets which are used to control the surgical tools. Changyan He

By altering the amount of electricity flowing into the coils, we can manipulate the magnetic fields, causing the tools to grip, pull or cut tissue as desired.

In open brain surgery, the surgeon relies on their own dexterous wrist to pivot the tools and tilt their tips to access hard-to-reach areas, such as removing a tumour inside the central cavity of the brain. Unlike other tools, our robotic neurosurgical tools can mimic this with “wristed” movements.

Surprising precision

We tested the tools in pre-clinical trials where we simulated the mechanical properties of the brain tissue they would need to work with. In some tests, we used pieces of tofu and raspberry placed inside a model of the brain.

We compared the performance of these magnetically operated tools with that of standard tools handled by trained surgeons.

We found the cuts made with the magnetic scalpel were consistent and narrow, with an average width of 0.3–0.4mm. That was even more precise than those from traditional hand tools, which ranged from 0.6 to 2.1mm.

Microscope video showing a tiny scalpel slicing some tofu.
The magnetic scalpel, shown slicing some tofu inside a model of the brain, can make cuts more precise than those done with traditional tools. Changyan He

As for the grippers, they could pick up the target 76% of the time.

Microscope video showing tiny grippers picking up a lump of raspberry.
The magnetic grippers (shown here picking up some raspberry) were successful 76% of the time. Changyan He

We were surprised by how well the robotic tools performed. However, there is still a long way to go until this technology could help patients. It can take years, even decades, to develop medical devices, especially surgical robots.

This study is part of a broader project based on years of work led by Eric Diller from the University of Toronto, an expert on magnet-driven micro-robots.

Now, the team wants to make sure the robotic arm and magnetic system can fit comfortably in a hospital operating room. The team also wants to make it compatible with imaging systems such as fluoroscopy, which uses x-rays. After that, the tools may be ready for clinical trials.

We’re excited about the potential for a new era of minimally invasive neurosurgical tools.

Changyan He, Lecturer, School of Engineering, University of Newcastle

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sorry for not posting much today. Update on my fall

As I wrote I fell two days ago.  It was late Monday morning early Tuesday morning.  I couldn’t sleep so I got up and went to my Pink Palace.  I was sitting in my chair and got up then went to take a step and suddenly had no legs, my right leg was totally gone and my left had about 1/4 strength and was not enough to hold me even if I had warning.  See the damage to my spine makes my legs go suddenly dead.  It is why I am supposed to use a cane even in the house.    I went down hard on my right side bruising my ankle, my right hip right at the place of my implant where it goes into my pelvis, coming down hard on my right shoulder, and I threw my hand down in front of me in a fist to break my fall which has given me a swollen hand and bruised knuckles.  It is good I hit my hip where I did, remember I have thin bones osteoporosis.  If I had hit on the bone lower could have broken my leg bone.  A little higher and it could have been my pelvis.  There is a large very dark bruise right in the middle of my still deep very long scar.  The surgeon who did my right hip in 2004 was 74 years old doing his duty for god and his country.  He had been a military surgeon who when he retired from private practice went back to working for the VA.  His office was plastered with posters about the Christian god, and he played Christian radio broadcasts / music while meeting with patients.  Today I would have raised a fuss and made it an issue.  But the guy flayed me, his scar is wide and over 9 inches long.  It runs from my hip across to some of my right butt cheek.  My surgeon in 2017 who did my left hip had a small 1-inch scar.  So I can hardly move the mouse even the small bit required for using the mouse, and my hand hurts too much to really type.  Walking is a real fun exercise right now.

Ron was sound asleep and he said it made a huge boom that woke him.  That may have been the shelf I reached out for support and brought it crashing down on me.  Everything hit the floor including my Xbox One.  Lucky it slid off the shelf as it was tipped to one side as it came off so the box managed to slid down without crashing.  Still works so it is OK.  But as Ron struggled to pick me up, he complained I was not helping much.  I told him I couldn’t control my right leg at all, no muscle control over and could hardly move my left one much less get support out of it.  Looking back he should have gotten my walker.  It has a seat, he could have wheeled me to the bedroom.  He did get me one of my canes which I used to help support me as he supported the other side.  

 

So why not do a video.  The roofing company came this morning to put a new roof on to replace the roof they did that kept leaking.  Now the rep says we need to keep after the company for assistance repairing the ceiling tiles that got wet so that we can secure the skylight they put in.  See it hooks over the inside of the tiles which can’t happen on ours because the skylight kept leaking causing the tiles to swell and then decay away giving the bottom part nothing to hook to.  Plus I got a very important post to go make.  

While the benefit from the steroids is still going the side effects of driving hunger has worn off.  Just in time, I had gained 10 pounds from constant eating.  I think if I can get away with it next month I will not take them.  Plus hopefully the walking and exercising is creating needed muscle.  Anyway to get to the very important post I wanted to make as soon as I get done with this one.  

An update on Ron and his mental decline.  Mornings are the worst for him and some late evenings before he comes to bed.  But lately he has been coming to bed at 8 or 8:30 pm.  This morning he was trying to talk to me about things but it was almost impossible.  He would start sentences with no subject or thing he was talking about, just saying what he heard or saw.  I would have to stop him and gently ask him what we’re talking about, was it a person, place, or thing.  This morning he told me one of the roofers asked him if something was ours, saying Scottie someone dropped stuff off on our lawn.  The roofers had to move it to park their trucks.   Side note I had a stroke in early 2023 and got dysphasia where I could see the word I wanted to say, understood what it meant, but couldn’t get my mouth to say it no matter how hard I worked.  It was so damn frustrating.  My conversations then made more sense than Ron’s lately in the morning.  

I went through the security cameras. Turns out the neighbor two doors down from Ohio were going home today and left a bunch of stuff out on trash day.  We have three trash days a week.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  The workers seen it and took the stuff from there to our lawn.  Yes they had to move it because they put it there.   They did not ask Ron if we owned it, Ron asked them why they brought a bicycle with them.  The guy told him where they got it and explained it was being thrown away did Ron mind if they took some of the stuff.  He said no keep it.  Then came in as I said and told me that someone dropped a bike and shelving unit off on our lawn that the roofing guys had to move.  He figured it was maybe stolen because one of the renters of the guy next to us was a person that stole stuff mainly bikes and golf carts.  We saw her on our camera try to steal ours and chased her all the way back into the guy’s house.  

I went through the security cameras and seen the guy show up, park his large work panel truck.  Then he walked up the street he had just driven down, and bring back the bike and several other items back to our lawn.    After I watched the camera then talked to Ron again.  I showed Ron the camera footage, then explained to him what it showed.  So I asked him why the guy asked Ron if it was ours when they knew it was not.  Ron looked at me confused and then explained that the guy did not ask him, that Ron had asked the guy if the stuff was theirs.  Why he would even do that I don’t know.  What do we care as it was not ours? 

This morning knowing these guys were coming I got him up at 6:30 so we could both shower.  After I got mine I told him that he could start his while I got dressed.  I got dressed and still no Ron.  I came out to find him fiddling around with blinds.  I admit I scolded him because I was frustrated.  That was wrong, but I had asked him to get up earlier and he did not want to.  I get up at five am.  I talked to him and asked if he wanted to get up.  No he said.  I said when?  I asked if 6 am would do.  No he was tired.  Ok so I waited to 6:30.  As it was the guys showed up while he was still in the shower because as I figured they came at 7:30.  The same time they came the last time.   

At night when he comes to bed the next time I have to pee I come out to check if he has left food out or forgot to close the refrigerator / freezer.  So many times before I started checking I would come out in the morning to find one of the other totally iced over.  Many times the freezer so iced over the light wouldn’t work until I thawed the switch and the light bulb out.  I can tell if he has set the alarm from the bedroom and set it from there with the keyboard or my phone.  But he is not sundowning as he is far more with it at night than he is in the morning.  In the morning he is struggling hard, he can barely function.  I make coffee, deal with the cats if I have not already, he sits in his chair and often forgets to drink his coffee until I remind him as I am ready for my second cup.  Then he downs his and hands me his cup.

This is my life and how I am trying to deal with it.   Hugs

 

Peace & Justice History for 3/24

March 24, 1616
William Leddra was executed by the Charter government of Massachusetts for being a Quaker. He was the fourth and last of his religion to be hanged with the approval of Governor John Endicott. Though the court did not find him “evil,” he had sympathized with the Quakers who were executed before him; he had refused to remove his hat, and he used the words “thee” and “thou,” which, to Quakers, implied the equality of all people.
(Check out the way the link works for this. Much better than the terrible transcription I read the other day.
-Newsletter author)
Contemporaneous letter describing Leddra’s and other Quakers’ persecution  (starts p.58)
===========================================
March 24, 1918
Native-born Canadian women over 21 (except native, or First Nations, women) won the right to vote in federal elections, but not to run for office for yet another year. Suffrage was not granted to women in Quebec provincial elections until 1940.
Read about Thérèse Casgrain 
===========================================
March 24, 1964

In a sit-down against nuclear weapons at Parliament Square in London, England, 1,172 were arrested.
============================================
March 24, 1965

The first Teach-In on the Vietnam War was held at the University of Michigan a month after President Lyndon Johnson ordered bombing of North Vietnam. The U-M teach-in was among the first of a new form of campus protest that was to spread nationwide, as a means of mobilizing students to examine policies of their government that they previously had taken for granted.

About the 1st Teach-In 
view original leaflets 
Very few Americans had ever heard of the country in southeast Asia, and the event was intended to educate the participants in the history of Vietnam and foreign aggression there.

Young protester in Chicago march, photo Jo Freeman
=============================================
March 24, 1967
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. led an anti-war march for the first time in Chicago, opposing the Vietnam War by saying:
“Our arrogance can be our doom. It can bring the curtains down on our national drama . . . Ultimately, a great nation is a compassionate nation The bombs in Vietnam explode at
home—they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America . . . .”

Reverend King addresses rally at the end of the Chicago march, photo: Jo Freeman
==============================================
March 24, 1980


The Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) was founded, electing as their first president Olga Madar, a vice president of the United Auto Workers.
The convention adopted four goals: organize the unorganized; promote affirmative action; increase women’s participation in their unions; and increase women’s participation in political and legislative activities.

CLUW history 
CLUW today
=============================================
March 24, 1980

The archbishop of San Salvador, Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez was assassinated while consecrating the Eucharist during mass.
Monseñor Romero had become a well-known critic of violence and injustice and, as such, was perceived in the right-wing civilian and military circles of El Salvador as an enemy, and criticized by the Roman Catholic church. Romero had exhorted the police and soldiers to disobey orders to kill innocent people, refusing to be silenced. Worshippers had interrupted, with ovations, his homilies condemning the terrorism of the state.

The ongoing legacy of Monsignor Romero (The Fransiscans have scrubbed him away. Here’s another place to read about him)
==============================================
March 24, 1989
The most environmentally damaging oil spill to date began when the supertanker Exxon Valdez, owned and operated by the Exxon Corporation, ran aground on Bligh Reef in southern Alaska’s Prince William Sound. An estimated 11 million gallons of oil (257,000 barrels or 38,800 metric tons) eventually leaked into the water.Attempts to contain the massive spill were unsuccessful, and wind and currents spread the oil nearly 500 miles from its source, eventually polluting more than 1300 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and thousands of sea mammals were lost in the disaster.

A dead murrelet, one of the hardest-hit sea birds in the Valdez spill.
25 years after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, read more

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march24

To Those Who May Observe-Ron?

Janet? Come on in-the water’s great here!

Ostara 3.20.25 by Dishkitty

Equinox Read on Substack

Happy Ostara and Spring Equinox! It started with snow this morning, which was a bummer, but you know – in like a lion and all that. I’m ready for the lamb!

Build your path with patience. Small steps are progress. XOXO

Share this comic with your favorite pagan.

Have An OT Comics Post This New Spring Friday AM! 🌞

Here’s one for Ollie, and for all the hopeful squirrel chasers.

Bliss by Harry Bliss for March 21, 2025

Bliss Comic Strip for March 21, 2025


Dark Side of the Horse by Samson for March 21, 2025

Dark Side of the Horse Comic Strip for March 21, 2025


Frazz by Jef Mallett for March 21, 2025

Frazz Comic Strip for March 21, 2025


Heathcliff by Peter Gallagher for March 21, 2025

Heathcliff Comic Strip for March 21, 2025

Slightly political but funny (or maybe I’m weird!🌞)

Last Kiss by John Lustig for March 21, 2025

Last Kiss Comic Strip for March 21, 2025

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for March 21, 2025

Non Sequitur Comic Strip for March 21, 2025

Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 21, 2025

Pearls Before Swine Comic Strip for March 21, 2025


Scary Gary by Mark Buford for March 21, 2025

Scary Gary Comic Strip for March 21, 2025

For all of us undergoing or who’ve undergone:

Sherman’s Lagoon by Jim Toomey for March 21, 2025

Sherman's Lagoon Comic Strip for March 21, 2025

Ten Cats by Graham Harrop for March 21, 2025

Ten Cats Comic Strip for March 21, 2025

I hope everyone’s Friday the 21st is really nice. Enjoy all you can! 🌞

Why I have been a bit off line

The last few days, I have been driving Ron from different stores to other places he wants to go.  Yes he can still drive, but since the doctor talked to him about possible dementia he wants me to drive him everywhere.  Plus I have caught him in several forgetful moments the last two days like forgetting to lock a door or forgetting to do something else important, he now shrinks like I hit him when I remind him of it. 

It tears the shit out of me.  I have never hit or abused Ron, but to see him cringe like I did as a child waiting for the blow … It is killing me.  I find my self talking very gently around him, which then bothers him.  I find myself checking up behind him like tonight he is cooking supper and I helped him get sauces out and small dishes.   Then he noticed me checking the setting on the stove and oven. 

That set him off, you don’t trust me.  My response was Ron love you asked me what stuff we should get out and have with our supper.  I feel this is a rollercoaster I am not prepared for as with my own memories of abuse hitting I go in and out of that same roller coaster.   I can not have two of us cycling at the same time.   

I have changed how I do my pills so it is clear and no doubt when I take them.  I have added a note suggested by Suze to my desk reminding me to take my evening insulin.  Again thanks to Suze I added a phone alarm to both Ron’s phone and mine that alert him to take his pills.  It worked today, as I walked around trying to figure out why that sound was playing and Ron told me … it is time for me to take my pills.   

Right now this is the best I can do. To say I am worried or scared is a large understatement.  Please keep suggestions coming.   Hugs

Oh a major issue has developed with my computers that I need to dump them and reset them to fix.  But not today, not now, and hopefully I have a few days to do it.  Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 5AM to get us ready for Ron’s brain scan first thing in the morning.   Love to all that care about us, best wishes for all, and hugs for those that want them.   Scottie

Peace & Justice History for 3/19

March 19, 1911
The first International Women’s Day was held in Germany, Austria, Denmark, and some other European countries. This date was chosen by German women because, on that date in 1848 the Prussian king, faced with an armed uprising, had promised many reforms, including an unfulfilled one of votes for women. A million leaflets calling for action on the right to vote were distributed throughout Germany.
March 19, 1963

The blacklisting of Pete Seeger (and other members of The Weavers) from the folk music television show “Hootenanny” prompted a boycott by 50 folk artists (The Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary, among others).
Seeger had become a cultural hero through his outspoken and joyful commitment to the anti-war and civil rights movements, and helped popularize the anthemic “We Shall Overcome.”

Pete Seeger bio from Encyclopedia of the American Left 
Pete singing and talking about the music with Hugh Hefner on TV in the early ‘60s 
March 19, 1978
50,000 marched in Amsterdam to protest U.S. deployment of the neutron bomb in Europe. The neutron bomb was a tactical (artillery shell) enhanced-radiation weapon. It killed people with a neutron flux that penetrated armor but was effective only over a limited area, leaving little fallout or residual radiation. It did minimal damage, however, to physical structures.
More about the Neutron Bomb 
March 19, 2003
U.S. and coalition forces launched missiles and bombs at targets in Iraq including a “decapitation attack” aimed at Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and other top members of the country’s leadership.


Baghdad, Iraq under attack
There were nearly 300,000 American, British and other troops at the border.
President George W. Bush warned Americans that the conflict “could be longer and more difficult than some predict.” He assured the nation that “this will not be a campaign of half-measures, and we will accept no outcome except victory.”

Read about the cost of this war 
March 19, 2011
In response to widespread peaceful demonstrations for political change in Syria, the government sealed off the city of Deraa. Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad claimed his country would not be affected by the movement for more democracy across the Arab world that had already toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt. His regime was composed almost entirely of ethnic Allawites in a country more than 80% Sunni.
Mourners at the funerals for five shot dead by security forces in Deraa chanted, “God, Syria and freedom only.” Demonstrations had been held in at least five cities, including the capital of Damascus.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march19

Peace & Justice History for 3/17

Enjoy your St. Pat’s, in your own fashion! ☘

March 17, 1966
Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association left Delano for Sacramento, the capital of California, a 340-mile march which would take three weeks. They were calling public attention to the plight of farm workers and for their struggle for the right to organize a union.
March 17, 1968
In London’s Trafalgar Square, at the largest anti-Vietnam War protest in Britain to date, 25,000 people marched. They were demonstrating against American action in Vietnam and British support for the United States policy.
Some then attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy, resulting in 200 arrests and fifty taken to hospital, nearly half police officers.


 
Actress Vanessa Redgrave was allowed to enter the embassy to deliver a protest
Read more and watch footage of the demo 
March 17, 1978
The oil supertanker Amoco Cadiz ran aground and, in the worst oil spill ever, lost its entire cargo of 1,619,048 barrels (223,000 tons).A slick 18 miles wide and 80 miles long polluted approximately 200 miles of France’s Brittany coastline.

The Amoco Cadiz disaster was the first marine environmental catastrophe to be covered by the world’s media in real time.

one of the victims 
Read more 
March 17, 2003
President George W. Bush warned U.N. weapons inspectors to leave the Iraq within 48 hours. They were in country searching for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), conducting 900 inspections at 500 locations in four months.Bush had given Saddam Hussein the same amount of time to step down from power or suffer the consequences of the planned invasion.
Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, and Mohamed El Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the inspectors had found no WMDs, or any evidence of a renewed Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Despite increasing cooperation from Iraqi authorities relenting to international pressure, the inspectors were unable to complete their work due to the American threat of war.

U.N. weapons inspectors in Iraq before they were forced to leave by President George W. Bush
Hans Blix’s report to the UN Security Council just ten days earlier 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march17

May You Have Pi(e), and a Great Pi Day!

It’s fun to observe. For instance, my local grocery store sells all their bakery pies for 3.14 (which is a bargain on some of them.) I like to buy 3, and then put them in the store’s breakroom. I started that several years ago; they said someone would eat them if they were in there, so I did it, and brought home an apple pie. Now I do it each year, because it’s fun to observe with pie. I bet everyone knows someone who’d like some pie today!

If you work with people who enjoy math, and especially if you work with learners of math, well, have a great time today! It’s Friday, it’s Pi Day, and a fine day to play with pi and with the rest of math, too!

You can even make a pie. Enjoy the day!

(This car photo is my favorite!)

Celebrate Pi Day with Chocolate Cream Pie March 14, 2012 

Peace & Justice History for 3/12

The very first execution of a Conscientious Objector, and more in today’s items.

March 12, 295
Maximilian of Thebeste (near Carthage in North Africa) was beheaded by Romans after refusing military service because he said his Christian beliefs did not permit him to become a soldier.
March 12, 1912
Workers led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) won the Lawrence, Massachusetts, “Bread & Roses” textile strike after 32,000 workers (mostly young female immigrants who spoke 25 different languages, half between the ages of 14 and 18) stayed out for nine weeks. They were striking for a wage increase, double time for overtime and safer working conditions: the equipment was dangerous and the air quality caused lung disease in about one-third of the workers before the age of twenty-five.

IWW organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addresses a strike rally
Background 
“Bread and Roses” became the strikers slogan and inspired a poem by by the same name.
 
Bread & Roses victory parade
March 12, 1930
Gandhi’s Salt March began from Ahmadabad, India, with 76 followers to protest the salt tax. Great Britain’s Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple of the Indian diet.

Gandhi leading the Salt March
Citizens were forced to buy it from the British, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also exerted a heavy salt tax. Defying the Salt Acts, Gandhi reasoned, would be a simple way for many Indians to break an unjust law nonviolently (civil disobedience), increasing the pressure for independence from the British Empire.
By the time Gandhi had covered the 241 miles to the coastal city of Dandi on the Arabian Sea, the number of marchers had grown into the thousands.

More on the Salt March 
March 12, 1978
150,000 demonstrated against construction of a nuclear power plant in Lemoniz, Spain, part of the Basque region. No fewer than a dozen plants were planned in a relatively small, densely populated area, Lemoniz being only 12 km (5 miles) from Bilbao, a city of a million.
The opposition was concerned about the possibility of accidents.

Lemoniz protest
March 12, 1990
Sixteen disability-rights activists from ADAPT (American Disabled for Accessible Public Transit)were arrested at the U.S. Capitol demanding passage of what would become the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Capitol Crawl

More on the status of the disabled
The Capitol Crawl Zinn project

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymarch.htm#march12