| Out of the Gate: Intuitive Surgical
Shares of Intuitive Surgical Inc., which makes the robotic da Vinci surgical system, were up Friday morning after the company reported a 65-percent jump in first-quarter profit. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said its earnings grew to $23.8 million, or 62 cents per share, on revenue of $114.2 million. Analysts expected 53 cents per share on $111.1 million in sales. Deutsche Bank analyst Tao Levy said the results show Intuitive's business model, which relies on increasing numbers of procedures rather than sales of the da Vinci system, works. He raised his price target to $150. Levy is one of six analyst reporting to Thomson Financial who rate the stock at "Buy" or the equivalent. Three others rate the stock "Neutral"-equivalent. Intuitive shares rose $10.42, or 8.6 percent, to $131.72 in early trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Science students swap ideas
Students Lynn Goodfellow, Adam Capel and Kimberly Cuccia said their studies of human and animal bones may contribute to important scientific research in the future. "In the future, researchers can use it to get more specific data from humans and animals," Goodfellow, 21, said. Goodfellow was one of dozens of students to participate in Friday's 10th annual STEM Symposium at Rowan University. STEM is the acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Rowan students and professors presented research projects in biological sciences, physics, anthropology and engineering. The symposium gave students a platform to share their research findings and ideas. "Through research, students mature individually, professionally and as adults," said Gregory Hecht, associate professor and chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences.
US military increasingly relying on robots in war
The US military -- increasing its reliance on robots in war -- will soon be using explosive-sniffing robots to better detect roadside bombs which account for more than 70 percent of the US casualties in Iraq. Fido is the first robot with an explosives sensor integrated into its body. iRobot Corp is filling the military's first order of 100 in Dayton, Ohio, and will begin shipping the robots over the next few months. There are nearly 5,000 robots in Iraq and Afghanistan, up from about 150 in 2004. Soldiers use them to search caves and buildings for insurgents, detect mines and ferret out roadside and car bombs. As the war in Iraq enters its fifth year, the US government is spending more money on military robots and the two major US robot makers have increased production.
Mini Surgical Robot Crawls Over Beating Heart
US scientists have made a mini prototype robot that crawls over the surface of a beating heart and performs simple repairs without major surgery.
A report in this week's New Scientist magazine describes how the HeartLander, invented by robotics experts Dr Cameron Riviere and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has injected dye and attached pacemaker leads to beating hearts inside live pigs.
The surgeon controls the caterpillar-like device, which weighs about the same as an egg and is half the length of a thumb, using a joystick, and tracks it with a visual monitor that uses either X-ray video or a magnetic tracker.
It is hoped that one day such robots will help heart surgeons remove damaged tissue or even inject stem cells directly into the heart without having to stop it beating.
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