Painless needle copies mosquito's stinger. The insect's highly serrated proboscis means it can pierce skin painlessly - now microengineers are copying the trick [New Scientist]

Very cool. By imitating the mosquito's needle, they have mocked up one that works in similar fashion. The problem they have is that the needle is very brittle, so there is a good chance that it will break, possibly forming a clot where it inserted, which could then lead to death via stroke in the patient. they would like to be able to make the needle permanantly attached to the patient, for constant analysis in diabetics.

Here I go: Always on drug delivery system, as a backpack IV. Got sick? Run down to the pharmacy and pick up a saline solution bag, lay low for 24 hours with it hooked up and you'll be right as rain. Forget coffee, get your morning dose of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals by IV while on your morning commute. The medicine bypasses the stomach, so less filler is needed in the delivery system, which in turn will cut down onthe amount of medicine that is showing up in the waterways, since less will be needed to get the same effect.

9:34:36 AM