Embeda is for chronic pain, not crushing and snorting: Newly approved Embeda (morphine sulfate and naltrexone hydrochloride) Extended Release Capsules from King Pharmaceuticals Inc. ingeniously combines an opioid agonist (morphine) with an inner core of opioid antagonist (naltrexone). The naltrexone part of the capsule is sequestered, so it passes through the body with no intended clinical effect. But if any of you out there are thinking of crushing the capsule to enliven a slow night, please beware: The naltrexone will mix with morphine and give you an opioid withdrawal like you’ve never seen before. We’re talking abdominal cramping, diarrhea, dilated pupils, goose bumps, nausea, the whole shebang. 
The world’s smallest tweezers aim to become the workhorse of the nanoworld: Constructing micromachines out of carbon nanotubes can be a tricky business without grippers small enough to manipulate the microscopic objects. An EU-funded consortium has developed two examples of functional tweezers that operate on a scale even smaller than optical microscopes can see. The NanoHand can grasp and manipulate objects smaller than 100 nanometers — that’s 100 billionths of a meter.
With BrainPort vision technology, the blind may one day see the world — with their tongues: Wicab Inc. of Middleton, Wis., is developing a device that converts visual images into electrical signals that are fed to a user’s tongue via a special “lollipop.” A special electrode panel in the lollipop essentially draws images on the tongue by firing electric pulses on some of the pixels and not others, supposedly producing a feeling similar to a carbonated beverage.
Introducing the world’s smallest laser: The Spaser: A research team from Norfolk State University and Purdue has built on the work of Mark Stockman of Georgia State and David Bergman of Tel Aviv University to create a nanoscale laser. Though light can’t be focused past around half its wavelength, plasmons (quantum of plasma oscillations) can exist at a much smaller scale on the frequency of light. By stimulating gold nanoparticles to emit surface plasmons, the Norfolk State researchers were able to amplify them and in effect create a nanolaser.
Hands-free laparoscopic retractor EndoGrab gets the CE Mark: Virtual Ports of Misgav, Israel, received European approval to market its laparoscopic hands-free organ retractor. The EndoGrab is designed to be attached via a special introducer to the organ to be retracted, and then to the abdominal wall. The introducer is then removed, leaving the laparoscopic port available for other use during surgery.
A weekly roundup of new developments in medical technology, by MedGadget.com.
