A round-up of the latest technology news from around the globe.
OW, OW, OW: A traditional vaccination is a pain in the arm. A new tiny Vaccine Patch has hundreds of microscopic needles that painlessly dissolve into your skin. Anyone can apply the patch and there are no needles to dispose of afterwards. No pain, no muss, no fuss. Details at i09.
CHIPPED MUGS: The Smug reusable coffee mug contains an embedded RFID chip. The chip stores information about your account and coffee drinking habits. No need to actually place an order, or hand over cash, as the RFID scanner takes care of everything. Be careful not to lend your mug. More at ReadWriteWeb.
PAPER VIDEO: Nemoptic's e-paper displays text at high resolution, has a high refresh rate, can refresh just part of the screen, can be backlit and even display video. That means it could be an e-book reader like Kindle, yet display video like iPad. It's a page turner. Details at TechnologyReview and a video on YouTube.
NASA ON THE SCENE: NASA's specialised magnetic survey equipment came in handy to scan a suspected crime scene. It took some clever research algorithms to pinpoint where to dig, but they were able to find evidence buried almost 20 years ago that sent a killer to jail. From outer space to underground, you can't hide from NASA.
ANDROID MAGNETISM: Solaris, an Android app, charts solar activity and sunspots, and monitors the Earth's magnetic field in real time using data from satellites. "Flare! Flare!" Details at Gizmodo.
- Miraz Jordan, knowit.co.nz
