This one made me do a
double-take, but upon reading the details I have to say I’m totally fascinated. A South African inventor named Gervan
Lubbe has come up with a wristwatch that can
supposedly help you detect malaria, should you find yourself in a boggy, distant land where such a disease is a
problem.
The battery-operated device takes a blood sample from your wrist four times a day and checks for
malaria parasites. A parasite count above 50 will cause the watch to alert you with an alarm and there will be a handy
(and probably unnecessary) picture of a mosquito on the display.
If you are alered, well, either hustle
yourself to the nearest hosptial or gobble a few anti-malarial tablets, and you can wipe out the parasite in a few
days. Now I do not know if the watch handles all the strains of malaria, some of which, you know, are resistant to
pills and/or might avoid detection from the watch. Still, as a piece of useful gear goes, this could be that one thing
you simply must have. Note that New Scientist says
scientists are skeptical of the inventor’s claims. The watch runs about $280.