Corkscrew-shaped robot swims through blood vessels to clear blockages

A corkscrew-shaped microrobot inspired by the tails of bacteria like E. coli can swim through blood vessels and help unblock clots. Li Zhang at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and his colleagues inserted the robot into a synthetic vein filled with pig's blood, and found it made blood clot-busting drugs work nearly five times better than the drug by itself. "The helical structure is just like a propeller, so [the robot] can deliver the cargo from point A to …