Radiation-blocking underwear keeps you hidden from TSA: Those not convinced by the safety of backscattering X-ray machines being rolled out throughout our airports can seek peace of mind from Rocky Flats Gear, a company manufacturing undergarments for blocking radiation shining at private parts. The non-lead lined underwear and bras can also be helpful for individuals worried about dental X-rays and radiologists working the foot pedal on a fluoroscope. The company says, “Our emphasis is on protecting the traveling public, airline, medical, and security professionals from radiation generated by security and medical imaging equipment. Our novel products can protect tissues from a broadband of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation generated by imaging equipment and natural sources. For the first time, radiological shields are attractive, durable, affordable, fun, and comfortable to wear.” 
Scientists develop 5-minute biopsy machine: Typically, interpretation of surgical biopsies is a time-consuming, subjective process, based on a pathologists’ visual interpretation. A group of researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign designed a microscopy technique called nonlinear interferometric vibrational imaging, or NIVI, that produces color-coded images of tissue outlining clear tumor boundaries with 99% accuracy — in less than five minutes.
Artificial tissue looks, feels and bleeds like skin: The Colorado State University veterinary department has developed artificial tissue material that looks, feels, and bleeds just like real skin, muscles and vessels. It is meant to allow students to practice their surgical skills before they are unleashed onto live patients, or in this case, animals. For years, this has been a matter of using a simple pad consisting of two or sometimes three layers, after which you continue to ‘the real thing’. The newly developed tissue substitute consists of layers of silicone that more accurately simulates skin, connective tissue and muscle. Additionally, the material contains blood vessels connected to a reservoir that simulate realistic bleeding.
Aggregated computer power performs complex molecule computation: A team of scientists at Children’s Hospital Boston has created a super-charged way of solving molecule shapes, harnessing idle scientific computer time across the country and around the world to survey vast reference databases — a “Google Shape” if you will. It’s a brute-force solution in a field noted for its elegant findings. “Sometimes that’s the only way,” says Axel Brunger PhD, a Stanford structural biologist who edited a paper titled “Protein structure determination by exhaustive search of Protein Data Bank derived databases” in PNAS. 
A weekly roundup of new developments in medical technology, by MedGadget.com.
