This robot drills your brain

A drill-wielding robot that bores into your skull for a quick spot of impromptu brain surgery sounds like a scene from a future sci-fi dystopia, in which AI treats Earth's surviving humans like lab rats. In fact, it's a new research project from the good folks at the University of Utah, who have developed a computer-driven automated drill for cranial surgery. That means safely cutting an opening -- called a bone flap -- in the skull so that the brain can be accessed underneath. While it would take an experienced surgeon 2 hours to carry out this task using hand-drilling, the University of Utah's robot is able to achieve the same thing in just 2.5 minutes. That's 50x faster than was previously possible -- which for some reason makes us all kinds of nervous!