In today’s high-tech world, needles seem unnecessarily archaic – surely there should be a better way to extract blood without the pain and failure rate of poking someone in the arm with sharpened steel, and now: there is. Developed by a DARPA-funded company, Tasso, Inc, this new device dubbed the HemoLink obviates the need for needles altogether, using vacuum technology over a few-inch section of skin to pull blood through microscopic capillaries to the surface.

The device can then be used to store the sampled blood alongside other samples from additional patients, then be sent to the lab for analysis as a group, rather than switching between devices for each individual use. While still in testing, approvals are expected next year followed by the release of the device itself, at first in the medical industry but ultimately for home users as well.

From the company: “Meet the HemoLink, a device for self-collection of blood samples. Our lead product collects enough blood for a broad range of diagnostic applications. At Tasso, the user comes first. Everything from the moment you receive our device in the mail to the moment you ship it for analysis is focused on our mission: centering healthcare around you.”

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Having your finger pricked with a needle to check your blood glucose level can be scary no matter what your age, but for little kids it can be especially traumatic. Vampire Winny, from designer Diana Dumitrescu, is meant to make the experience a little more fun and a little less scary for kids.

The glucometer looks like a cute, friendly vampire – which is fitting given the fact that its sole purpose is to get blood from users. Kids stick their fingers into Winny’s mouth and press down on the trigger to activate the little needle. Then they touch the testing strip located in Winny’s head to start the testing process.

The Vampire Winny iPhone app then reveals the child’s glucose level. If it’s too low or too high it will give an alert that’s easy for the child to understand. Using an app that’s actually geared toward kids gives the kids a bit of autonomy and makes them feel like they have some control over their disease, which can be a huge benefit for someone with diabetes. Unfortunately Vampire Winny is only a concept, but it’s an ingenious one that could do a world of good for diabetic kids (and adults).

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Like it or not, the world’s population consumes a whole lot of meat, and the by-products have to go somewhere. Blood is one of the most abundant waste materials on the planet. After a cow is drained of its approximately eight gallons of it, the blood is usually just discarded. An impressive project from architecture graduate Jack Munro shows how we could put that blood to good use as a sturdy, dependable building material.

In Munro’s concept, blood and sand take the place of water and mud, respectively, in a type of mud brick. When the blood is mixed with the sand and a preservative is added, and the whole mixture is baked at 160 degrees F for an hour, something kind of magical (and disgusting) happens. That mish-mash of ingredients become structurally stable waterproof bricks.

Another possible method using the cow blood involves placing protective objects all over a sand dune and then pouring tons of cow blood over the dune. The protective objects would essentially form holes in the bloody exterior as the blood coagulates. After a shell has formed over the dune, the wind is allowed to blow away the sand on the inside, leaving only a hollow shell of blood and sand. In this way, Munro postulates that huge structures could be built in hot, dry climates for next to no money at all.

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