Now your adhesive bandage may be more sophisticated than you. Researchers are creating "smart bandages" that change colour depending on what type of bacteria may be present in the wound -- alerting the wearer to when it's time to seek a doctor's help.

Announced on November 1, researchers at the University of Rochester in the US are developing a sand-grain-sized silicon wafer that can differentiate between two classes of bacteria, Gram-positive and Gram-negative, and "stains" them different colors. The wafer is then slipped inside a bandage to keep tabs on a healing (or infected) wound.