'Living' robot implants are nothing to be squeamish about

I think it's safe to assume that Shogo Shimada, a thoracic and cardiac surgeon at the University of Tokyo Hospital, did not start his career thinking he might one day be implanting robots into living animals. Yet that is just what Shimada and a team of surgeons and roboticists from around the world have now achieved. Their work is the latest in a long line of attempts to solve problems in biology using robots. When I hear about this sort of research, it usually involves micro-robots. And then there's talk of smaller, nano-size robots that can swim through the bloodstream and deliver drugs or make repairs, as referenced in the 1966 sci-fi film "Fantastic Voyage."