Image linking

Child pornographers will soon have a harder time escaping prosecution thanks to a stunning new technology in development at Binghamton University. The technology can reliably link digital images to the camera with which they were taken, in much the same way that tell-tale scratches are used by forensic examiners to link bullets to the gun that fired them, according to Eurekalert. The technology can also be used to detect forged images. The inventors have applied for two patents related to their technique, which provides the most robust strategy for digital image forgery detection to date.

Radio clotting

Surgery can release a deluge of blood that often flows too fast to clot. If the flow is not staunched in time, this can prevent doctors from seeing what they are doing and may lead to blood loss. A team of medics in Wisconsin is patenting a drastic solution, the New Scientist reports. A bleeding organ could be “sewn up” by hitting it with a dose of energy along a stitch line. For this, the team has made a tool resembling a hairbrush that has an array of steel “bristles” that serve as tiny electrodes.