Geek: Knows How to Fold ’Em

By James Ross Gardner

JUST HOW PRECISE are the tiny pincers on the da Vinci surgical robot? Enough to conduct heart valve surgery with an unobtrusive exactitude that permits patients to go home in just three days. But as Dr. James Porter, director of surgical robotics at the Swedish Medical Center, demonstrated in a stunning three-and-a-half-minute video released this spring, the million-dollar ’bot can fold a piece of paper into an airplane the size of a penny. Next, we’re going to ask the doc to tweeze our eyebrows.