newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http://www.youtube.com/v/eW_97D0hLBc&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1","customParams":[] ,"width":500,"height":332.5,"ratio":0.615,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube","wrap":true,"agegate":false} );
A swift lob of a Shaolin monk’s sewing needle through a sheet of glass has been slooooowed down for your viewing pleasure, and you know what? After the build-up, I still couldn’t help jumping slightly. [Reddit via GawkerTV]
Once upon a time in World War II, British scientists conceived what may be the cruelest bomb ever developed. Inside the bomb, there were needles like these. Poisonous needles which would have been released in a cloud of death. More »
We don’t write about many tattoo machines here on Giz, preferring to keep our gelatinous arms free from skin-breaching contraptions. But the Neuma Hybrid has an interesting pitch.
Nanobioscience’s AdminPatch sounds like a pretty amazing way to deliver drugs into the body: it’s got a metal surface covered in millions of tiny microneedles that puncture the skin. You may instantly think “Ouch!” but since these are so small and pierce the skin shallow enough to avoid pain receptors, the system is apparently painless.
Most of our childhoods have already been ruined by needles at the doctor’s office, but one Japanese inventor thinks he’s come up with the perfect pain-free, needle-free injection to sooth tomorrow’s lucky kids. Called Mother’s Kiss, the device would theoretically eliminate the need for needles and even existing needle-free devices, which use gas or air pressure to deliver drugs (think primitive Dr. Crusher). Instead, the seemingly simple device uses tiny plastic ampules to deliver life saving meds to the needle-averse. National Geographic has a video, but it doesn’t embed, so check the link for more on inventor Yoshoi Oyama and Mother’s Kiss. [National Geographic]
Scientists at Indian Institute of Technology and Tokai University have taken the natural features of a mosquito’s mouth, and created a new type of needle that promises pain-free blood sample collection and injections.
We’ve brought you inventions that aim to replace the scary-looking hypodermic syringe before, but this new design reinvents the device in a kid-friendly package. Designed by Christopher Holden, a student at Northumbria University in the UK, MediDome combines drug and needle in a stick-on blister, designed for a single use only. So it reduces the risk of needle-stick injury, and looks much friendlier to kids. You simply stick it on, and compress it until the drug is delivered: it’s even got an integrated alert system to check you’ve not ruptured a vein, and a built-in tamper warning. It’s now being patented, so it’s a product we might actually see for real sometime. [Medgadget]
Dutch designer Hån Pham has devised the Urban Needle Box to tackle the problem of used, and possibly infected, needles lying around in public areas. A kind of pocket-sized safety box for sharps, the Zippo-lighter-sized device should be cheap to make, and looks easy to use. The concept might have just one difficulty to overcome: reminding someone who’s brain is fizzing with Smack to actually put needles in it. [Yanko Design]
