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With heroin growing in popularity and causing a serious public health issue, researchers are looking at new ways to help treat the addiction. At Washington State University researchers were curious to see whether a hyperbaric chamber pressurized with pure oxygen would let people going through withdrawal have fewer of the unpleasant side effects we all remember from Trainspotting.   The investigators had a group of mice hooked on the stuff via a couple morphine injections over four days. On the following day, the mice were split into groups, some receiving…

Medtronic won EU approval to introduce its Guardian Connect continuous glucose monitoring system for diabetics taking injected insulin. The wearable stick-on glucometer wirelessly connects to the Guardian Connect app via a Bluetooth, updating the iPhone with the latest readings on a regular basis. It takes readings every five minutes, which equates with 288 samplings every day. Sugar levels that fall outside preset boundaries raise an alarm through the phone app, and it can also send SMS messages to loved ones and caretakers when that happens as well. The app can upload a complete…

Researchers at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have developed a technique for building “mobile micromachines” inspired by origami that can be controlled and powered remotely using magnets. The goal is to eventually use the technology to create diagnostic and therapeutic devices that can travel through the body and perform specific actions, reaching areas and doing tasks that are difficult with existing techniques. The investigators’ approach allows for a wide variety of tiny robots that change shapes in different ways and respond…

Withings has announced a new touchless temporal thermometer that also connects to smartphones to keep track of the temperature trends. The user of the Withings Thermo simply holds down its sole button and scans the thermometer across a person’s forehead around the temporal artery. As that is done, an array of sensors on the tip of the device takes hundreds of measurements, identifying the hottest temperature during the scan. The results are displayed on the nifty white light-up screen, which also acts as a touchpad which you can use to change…