We tend to focus our glare outside the United States when identifying interesting innovation but today we’re looking t San Diego, California. A group of San Diego State alumni have invented a pair of titanium-made sunglasses complete with the one thing sunglasses have always lacked: a bottle opener. You’re on the beach. You want a beer. You don’t have an opener. Thirst. Quenched.
The dual-use sunglasses came to be through an informal network called “The Commons Designs Group,” defined as consisting of “a few friends who recently graduated from colleges around California”. CDG has members from Southern and Northern California.
“We’ve raised enough money so we can pay ourselves back,” Luczynski said at the Thursday Inventors Forum contest. “Now we’re starting to raise money so we can carry inventory and actually make this thing a reality.”
Decelles said that ingenuity has upset the more established makers of sunglasses, including Carlsbad-based Spy Optic.
“The CEO of Spy’s angry at his development team because they didn’t come up with it . . .”
“. . . Not very happy,” Eckstein interjected.
“VonZipper’s really upset with it, Red Bull,” Decelles said. “We have three patents on it right now . . . There are some sunglasses out there that open bottles, but they’re at the $10 price point range . . . They’re at the lower space, we’re going for the premium for a really high-end product.”
There is a drawback to the invention, of course. They are dangerous. You should not be opening bottles of beer right beside your ears. You just, well, shouldn’t.
Russian scientists have advanced the treatment of burns. (I don’t know if this scientists above is involved in that endeavor but whatever she might be involved in is clearly serious.)
Russian scientists have invented a new generation bandage which treats burns three times faster than usual and prevents scarring.
The bandage is a nanomembrane which consists of nano fibres. Its main component is chitosan which is extracted from the shells of crab animals.
The bandage can be filled with healing substances to speed up cell regeneration.
The bandaged may be not removed as it dissolves on the skin.
Russia has patented the invention and plans to launch a serial production of the bandage.
You get burned? Call Russia! The dissolving aspect of the bandage is actually quite brilliant; similar to the dissolving stitches used inside the mouth to prevent an unnecessary second procedure.