* He’s lucky he didn’t need an insulin pump in the early 1960s. The first portable insulin pump was worn like a backpack, and had so many dials and switches and tubes that it looked like a space-age jetpack. Its inventor wears it in an old black-and-white photo, and he looks like he’s going to blast into outer space. It was clunky, but cutting-edge at the time. Today’s insulin pumps are about the size of small cell phones.