It sounds like something out of a sci-fi film: microscopic robots that can be injected into the bloodstream to perform surgical procedures. This futuristic concept is closer to reality than one might think. Researchers at Australia’s Monash University have created tiny surgical microbots to treat conditions including stroke and arterial blockage. The robots run on piezoelectricity and are small enough that four of them can fit into a millimeter. These microbots can perform surgery in previously unreachable places such as cranial arteries, which are considered too narrow for surgeons to safely catheterize. Microbots are the latest development in the trend toward minimally invasive surgery.