WHERE’S that damn scalpel? It’s the sort of thing you don’t want to hear when you gain consciousness after surgery. But fear not, surgical instruments have upped their game and will be constantly reporting their whereabouts, says Computing (July 12). Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust are paving the way, and are set to tag individual instruments using radio frequency identification. They will then be tracked, flagging up which patient’s operation they have been used for and whether they have been adequately sterilised. Sounds a bit Big Brother. Good for patient safety, but would you watch the video? . . . ANDVILLAIN CHILDREN can be unpredictable, but one thing is for certain: they grow. And unlike adults, who generally have only to contend with growth in girth, children have a habit of growing upwards as well as outwards, and all at a rather rapid pace. But who could have guessed that children’s skin renews itself six times faster than adult skin, and that the resultant dust would clog up classroom technology? The Times Educational Supplement (July 13) reports that dozens of expensive whiteboard projectors have bitten the dust as a result of excessive quantities of juvenile epidermal debris. The projectors, made by Toshiba, have been withdrawn.

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