Anti-scar bandage

Keloid scars are angry red lesions that sometimes form after surgery or injury when the skin "overheals" creating an extra tough region of new skin.

Dermatologists believe that one factor in their formation is stretching during healing caused by the patient moving, or by the tissue beneath swelling.

So Geoff Gurtner and colleagues at the Stanford University Medical Center in California have developed bandages that can prevent this kind of stretching.

Their bandages are made of "shape memory" polymers that set into a rigid shape after being applied to the wound. They are fixed into place using powerful adhesives, or sewn or stapled over the wound during surgery.

The team has tested the idea on mice and says it can significantly reduce the amount of scarring by holding the healing tissue firm.

Read the full anti-scar bandage patent application.

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High-pressure tooth spray

Cars have been cleaned for years using high-pressure hoses that rely on water droplets moving at high speed to displace dirt. A number of people have thought of trying the same idea with teeth to remove food, bacteria and plaque from the teeth.

But treading the line between damaging the mouth and having no effect at all relies on the distance between the spray head and the teeth, says consumer electronics company Philips.

The company has designed a spray head with a couple of probes that project out in front of it. The user simply places these against their teeth to ensure that the head is the optimum distance away.

The company seems to be planning toothbrushes with the sprays built in. A separate Philips patent describes a sensor for a spray toothbrush that reflects a light beam off tooth enamel to measure how clean, allowing the user to be told exactly when to stop.
Another patent describes a version of the spray that can have its temperature controlled by the user.

Read the full high-pressure spray toothbrush, clean tooth detector and temperature-controlled tooth spray patent applications.

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Mind-mapping light pulses

In recent years, neuroscientists have begun to explore the connection between mind and brain using techniques including functional MRI and magnetoencephalography to show how specific brain regions "light up" during particular activities.

But these techniques have limited spatial resolution and result in images that lack detail. Also, fMRI – which measures the oxygenation of blood rather than the activation of neurons directly – is rather slow.

Injecting neurons with voltage-sensitive dyes that change colour when the brain cells "fire" provides a faster read-out. But the dyes can only be injected into small regions, and the process often damages the tissue.

Now Martin Fischer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, US, has developed a new imaging technique. It exploits the fact that the passage of a light pulse through neurons is altered when the neurons fire.

By zapping the brain with carefully chosen light pulses, and observing how they are changed by the tissue, it is possible to read out the neuronal activity. Fischer says that this entirely new form of imaging has a spatial resolution on the submicron scale and takes snapshots just milliseconds apart.

However, light will likely only be able to penetrate at best a few millimetres into a brain. Fischer says this is enough to investigate much of the cerebral cortex where the brain's higher function lies. It should also be enough to image entire mouse or rat brains.

Read the full mind-mapping light pulses patent application

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Gaze-tracking shop windows

Eye tracking software has become a mature technology that works effectively in many real situations. So the consumer electronics company Philips hopes to apply it to displays in shop windows.

The company's idea is to track the gaze of window shoppers to determine which items in the window they are staring at, then to display enlarged pictures, a slide show or other information about those items on nearby computer screens.

Philips says that the system could also be used in museums and art galleries to provide visitors with extra information as they need it

Read the full gaze-tracking display patent application.

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Portable explosives detector

The threat of terrorism has made reliable detection of explosives an important goal. While there are many methods for doing the job quickly and reliably, few of them are truly portable.

This is because, before an explosive can be detected, many techniques require significant preparation of a sample, such as dissolving explosive residue in a solution, or collecting large volumes of air containing explosive vapour.

Now, Rolf Hummel and colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville, US, have developed a portable technique that requires little or no sample preparation, based on the way explosives absorb and reflect light.

Their device shines ultraviolet, infrared and visible light onto two sample areas at the same time then calculates the difference in reflectance between them for each part of the spectrum. If explosives are present at one sample area, but not the other, the characteristic signature of reflected light should show up clearly in this difference measurement.

The explosive can then be identified by comparing the signature with a database stored in the detector. Hummel say his device is quick, simple to operate and requires none of the care and attention needed by of the current best portable explosives detectors – sniffer dogs.

Read the full portable explosives detector patent application.

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Sterile nano cosmetics

The pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry is hugely interested in "nanoemulsions" – oil-in-water emulsions in which the particles of one liquid are just a few nanometres across.

The idea is that drugs or nutrients in nanoemulsion form should be much easier for the body to absorb. The conventional way to make a nanoemulsion is to grind a mixture to make particles successively smaller.

Now Robert Nicolosi and a colleague from the University of Massachusetts, in Lowell, US, claim to have developed a better method.

Their idea is to pass the mixture of liquids through a kind of atomiser at a pressure of over 1700 atmospheres. This creates turbulence that rips large bubbles of liquid to into smaller, nano-sized bubbles.

Curiously, the resulting nanoemulsions also turn out to be sterile. Nicolosi thinks the turbulence rips apart any bacteria that might be present. This would be a boon to manufacturers because any product made from this kind of nanoemulsion should have a much longer shelf life than a non-sterile equivalent.

Read the full sterile nanoemulsions patent application.

Source: www.newscientist.com

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