The days of barbers applying leeches as a healthy regime for bloodletting is long gone (thankfully). But there are still a lot of medical practices that haven’t changed that much over time. The history of bandages stretches back thousands of years, so it’s not too surprising that some improvements could be added to them. Here are just a few somewhat recent inventions for helping wounds heal.

• Negative-pressure devices speed up the healing process for bandaged wounds by up to 300%. How it works isn’t exactly known, but cheap and portable versions are being created and have been used on earthquake victims. [url]
• 3M has created a silicone-based adhesive for bandages that could hopefully eliminate the question of whether to rip bandages off quickly or to pull them off slowly. And in some 3M employee’s 15% dream time, post-it notes for skin are being developed to replace tattoos. [url]
• A fluffy cottonball-like material made of glass fibers could help heal wounds faster. The glassy fibers actually dissolve into open wounds and provide medicines to stimulate healing, but this stuff has only been tried on a dozen people so far. [url]
• To discover more interesting science-related stuff, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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