UCLA researcher Chang-Jin Kim has developed a seriously tiny robotic hand. It's a mere 1mm in width, so it's way too small to help you get that stuffed animal for your girlfriend at the arcade. It is, however, also small enough to use in future surgeries, which is a much more important use for the device than your confused romantic advances.

Running on gas pressure rather than electricity, it can be used in both wet and dry environments. That's good news for surgeons who hope to use the tiny tool in future microsurgeries, allowing them to get deep into your soppy insides to fish out that Matchbox Car you swallowed without doing too much damage. Looks pretty cool to us. — Adam Frucci

Technology Review, via Medgadget