DOUBLE OR NOTHING: Don't like the pain of an injection? One designer has the answer for you: get two jabs instead of one. The new design of cannula — a tube used in hospitals and doctors surgeries for delivering drugs — has an additional small needle on the front. That needle, so tiny you can barely feel it, delivers a small amount of local anaesthetic. That numbs the spot where the regular injection goes in so you don't feel that either. Twice as cunning. Visit BBC for further information.
PAPERING THE CRACKS: We know only too well that earthquakes shake things up. The side-to-side strain can cause masonry to crumble. Scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology believe they can reinforce walls with a specially designed wallpaper. They start with strong glass fibres woven together to create an elastic covering. Then a flexible soft adhesive of polyurethane beads penetrates the walls and glues everything together. In simulated earthquakes the wallpaper didn't tear and helped stop walls crumbling. That may give occupants time to get out safely, which is good. But it looks as though it'll be harder to tell how dangerous a building is afterwards. Check out Discovery News for more. Video here.
WATCH THE WIND BLOW: Over at Hint.fm they have a real-time map that shows the wind blowing across the mainland USA. It's actually an art project that takes data from the US National Digital Forecast Database. A key shows how fast the wind is blowing according to the map shading. It's all rather hypnotic really, but I want one for New Zealand. Hint.fm explains.
OUR 3D WORLD: Imagine pointing a scanner round your living room and seeing the room assembled as a 3D image on your laptop. That's what the consumer-level Matterport does. Its target market includes real estate agents and architects. The handheld device has a range of around 5 metres, and accuracy varies with distance. Then imagine printing scaled models on your 3D printer. That could be fun. Matterport details.
DRUG PROGRAMS: BIND-014 is a nanoparticle that can be carefully programmed. Its job is to specifically target solid tumors and deliver drugs to destroy them. Human trials are in their early stages, but the drug seems to be much more efficient and at much lower doses than previous treatments. A little can go a long way when it's in the right place. io9 shares the info.
