Star Trek, the reality

Ben Johnson and the magazine's staff have a Slate article about a new hypodermic needle:

Does even the sight of someone getting the needle make you squirm? All those with the hypodermic heebee-jeebees will be happy to hear that scientists at MIT have developed a new drug injection system that uses a near-supersonic jet stream instead of a needle.
This new needleless needle uses a device known as a Lorentz Force Actuator, a strong magnet and wire coil that fires a tiny piston at high speed when current is applied to the coil. The delivery system has remarkable control over the fluid it is injecting, allowing variable-speed delivery, ultra-accurate dosages, and even the injection of solids into the body.
The biggest upside? It's painless, making a hole no larger than a mosquito does, that heals up in a day. Still in prototype, and quite costly, the new device still shows a promising future. And, yes, Trekkies, it does sound a whole lot like the hypospray.