Pill searches for cancer

In this edition of the Worldwide Wrap, a new app requires users to grin into their smartphone camera before switching off the alarm; and in a remote area of south-east Asia, drones are fighting against an infectious disease. Get the details on these stories and more below.

Google is attempting to develop a pill to send microscopic particles into the bloodstream in an effort to identify cancers, imminent heart attacks and other diseases.

Andrew Conrad, head of life sciences inside the company's Google X research lab, revealed the project this week at a conference in Southern California. According to Conrad, the company is fashioning nano-particles ? particles about one-billionth of a metre in width ? that combine a magnetic material with antibodies or proteins that can attach to and detect other molecules inside the body.
Via: Wired

Dubbed 'Smile Clock', a new app requires users to grin into their smartphone camera before switching off the alarm.

The camera tracks key features on a user's face and then determines whether that person is happy enough to be allowed out of bed. It even helps the user crack a genuine smile by showing pre-selected images, or playing songs designed to make one's day.
Via: Daily Mail

Police in London have tested software designed to identify which gang members are most likely to commit violent crimes.

The 20-week pilot study is thought to have been the first of its kind in the UK, although similar experiments have been carried out elsewhere.
Via: BBC

Feeling uncomfortable during a date and hoping for a quick, subtle escape? Thanks to a new wearable device, three clicks could get users out the door with minimal awkwardness. The wearable, dubbed the "Ruby", is a rectangular, Bluetooth-enabled device that sits on the side of users' shoe. The chip connects to a user's smartphone and activates after three rapid taps.

Ruby can do a few different things, depending on how users set it: make a fake phone call, text up to three friends a message, and share a map of your location with those three friends. Soon, the device's creators hope it will also be able to call an Uber.
Via: Huffington Post

More than 1 000 public buildings in cities across the UK are to be turned into free WiFi hotspots, as part of the UK government's £150 million investment to transform the country's digital capability.

Over the coming months, libraries, museums, civic centres, transport hubs, sporting complexes and other buildings around the UK will begin to offer free WiFi.
Via: Telegraph

In a remote area of south-east Asia, drones are fighting a battle ? not against terrorists or insurgents, but against infectious disease.

Researchers on the island of Borneo are using flying robots to map out areas affected by a type of malaria parasite (Plasmodium knowlesi), which most commonly infects macaque monkeys. In recent years, public health officials in the Malaysian state of Sabah have seen a rise in the number of cases of humans infected with this deadly parasite, which is spread, via mosquitos, from macaques to people.
Via: Live Science