These pills swell in the stomach: why is this cool?

In recent years, medicine has developed veryswiftly. Some robots have already learned how to do surgeries, and their tiny brethren can penetrate inside the human body and deliver drugs to hard-to-reach places. New abilities even get pills - for example, recently scientists have taught them to expand inside the stomach. It would seem that this does not make sense and it is even dangerous - but no, the researchers found a lot of useful scenarios for their use.

Researchers from the Massachusetts technologythe institutes showed how the tiny tablet they created easily turned into a soft hydrogel object the size of a ping-pong ball. It consists of two parts: absorbent sodium polyacrylate and a grid of crystal chains, which does not allow it to rupture in the stomach. The tablet is very durable and is able to retain its shape for several months.

According to one of the researchers Xin Liu,inside such a capsule you can carry medicines and even tiny wireless sensors and cameras. They can be used to continuously monitor body temperature and diagnose gastrointestinal diseases. Also, scientists believe that these pills can help in losing weight - with a full stomach, people may feel less hunger.

Efficacy and safety of pills wereproven during animal tests. In the stomach of a pig, the tablet was able to monitor the temperature of his body for one month. In the future, the researchers intend to test pills on dogs and people. They very much hope that the invention will help create an effective anti-obesity drug.

Only one question remains: How is a huge pill excreted from the body? The developers have provided a very simple way - that it took its original form, a person simply needs to drink a solution of calcium. After that, the tiny tablet is easily excreted naturally.

What do you think, what other application can you find such a tablet? You can share your ideas in the comments or in our Telegram-chat.