Ridicluous patents
New Scientist has been running a column that digs up the most interesting patent applications since the 70s. In that time they have covered new ideas from invisible dogs to - gasp - recordable CDs. Dive into the history of the column and see a slideshow of interesting patent diagrams in their special report.
There are more than a few medically flavoured ideas which have surfaced in this way. Biodegradable hypodermics, a muscle fatigue blocker, RNA treatment for Huntingdon’s disease, drug delivering contact lenses, a combined morphine-cannabis molecule for analgesia and even blood pressure sensing underpants. There are many many others. Worth a look…
Various links are available to patent offices and intellectual property groups around the world.
Paisley podcasts
One of the items which caught my eye at the recent College Triennial Conference was an initiative from several clinicaians in the Royal Alexandra Infirmary in Paisley to get involved in podcast based training. It is still at a fairly rudimentary stage but have a look at what they have done so far. Potential maybe?
Stanza
Stanza is a free application for your iPhone and iPod Touch. Use it to download from a vast selection of over 40,000 books and periodicals, and read them right on your phone. It’s a wireless electronic library that stays open 24/7.
Photosynth
Here is something quite interesting from Microsoft. I can think of a few applications for teaching and training and with a little imagination and preparation all sorts of interesting possibilities emerge. If you have some downtime – have a look.
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