I have no idea how we'd make them wave to eject sputum up, which is the point. I could conceive of such a thing, but it's pretty sci-fi at this point--something involving nanorobotics with some kind of embedded electronic circuitry to keep them powered? A big ask for a disposable bit of single-use plastic! And they'd likely break every time you put anything like a suction catheter or a bronchoscope down the tube past them. Nature is hard to replicate sometimes.
> the tube goes right past them and contains no such hairs.
I assume there's a good reason you can't make tubes with hairs like this?
I have no idea how we'd make them wave to eject sputum up, which is the point. I could conceive of such a thing, but it's pretty sci-fi at this point--something involving nanorobotics with some kind of embedded electronic circuitry to keep them powered? A big ask for a disposable bit of single-use plastic! And they'd likely break every time you put anything like a suction catheter or a bronchoscope down the tube past them. Nature is hard to replicate sometimes.