A Robot That Smokes

How do you replicate the effects on lung disease of a multiple-pack-a-day smoking habit in a laboratory setting? Create a smoking robot that lights its own cigarettes, then takes drags of the smoky air. The Harvard researchers who created it say they can program the machine to puff faster or slower and to take deeper or shallower drags. This adjusts the amount of smoke flowing into a lung-on-a-chip, a sensor lined with human lung cells.