Surgeon Makes Tiny Plane with No Robotic Assist
Who needs a $2 million da Vinci surgical robot to make a paper airplane the size of a penny?
Last week’s VOTW showed Dr. James Porter fashioning a teeny, tiny paper airplane with the help of a da Vinci surgical robot. We were first to admit that though the Da Vinci is an impressive piece of kit and definitely contributed to Dr. Porter’s miniature arts and crafts project, the skill of the surgeon at the helm is of paramount importance when using such a device.
Case-in-point: Our own Alan Dang saw the video and thought, “I can do that with less time, a continuous take and a pair of $1 disposable forceps.”

And he did! Because while Alan has provided us with many wonderful reviews over the years in his role as editor at Tom’s Hardware, by day (and night, and then day again), he’s also an orthopaedic surgeon. Check out his video response below:
Of course, we’re not going to stand around and argue that the da Vinci -- a robot that can offer patients less post-operative pain, a shorter hospital stay, less blood loss, faster recovery time and quicker return to normal daily activities -- is useless. Still, the Swedish Medical Center says that the paper airplane construction video demonstrates “how [da Vinci] gives surgeons greater surgical precision and dexterity over existing approaches.” We’d say that as far as origami is concerned, existing approaches can give the da Vinci a run for its money.
Well, he's an orthopedic surgeon, so there's really no reason for him to be halfway up someone's colon.
Volunteering?
It may be just as accurate, but if you're dabbing in someone's guts, with a laser, and shake as much as he did, you're going to cause some considerable damage inside!
I know. Technically my grungy digits can make a plane smaller than both of them in half the time. However, I don't think anyone would appreciate both my arms shoved half way up their rear.
lucabertone80 5 hours ago
@Prodigit10: We don't use those disposable $0.50 forceps when we do real microsurgery.
The shaking actually reveals an important nuance/secret of surgical technique. When I'm above the piece of paper, you can see that the forceps are very shaky. But as I grab the paper and fold it, suddenly it looks more stable. That's because I'm concentrating a lot more at that point. The same thing is true in real surgery. When you're far away from a nerve, you're pretty shaky but as you get closer, the shakiness stops as you concentrate. Surgery is basically a long series of sequential steps, each step lasting only a few seconds a most, but requiring exceptional precision for that moment in time.
It's the same thing with military/Olympic sharpshooters. They may move and shake a lot initially, but in the moment right before they pull the trigger, suddenly their tremor stops. There was a show on Discovery Channel which demonstrated this phenomenon with a laser sight.
Beat THAT, robot.....
Lovin the Zoolander quote
there was also no reason for him to do this in the first place. what i would like to see him do is do this inside someones sinus cavity, that way when they sneese, the paper airplane will launch out.
this kind of thing with the tweezers is more for stitching people up than cutting them open.
well here, the way the robot works is by taking the actions that a human would normal do, and scaling it down considerably. depending on the scale he may have to move his arm 20 inches to move the robots 2 inches. all the shakiness is still there, but its just scaled down so much that it may as well not exist.