From the paper in Nature Biomedical Engineering:
In a global-health context, commercial centrifuges are expensive, bulky and electricity-powered, and thus constitute a critical bottleneck in the development of decentralized, battery-free point-of-care diagnostic devices. Here, we report an ultralow-cost (20 cents), lightweight (2 g), human-powered paper centrifuge (which we name 'paperfuge') designed on the basis of a theoretical model inspired by the fundamental mechanics of an ancient whirligig (or buzzer toy; 3,300 BC). The paperfuge achieves speeds of 125,000 r.p.m. (and equivalent centrifugal forces of 30,000 g), with theoretical limits predicting 1,000,000 r.p.m. We demonstrate that the paperfuge can separate pure plasma from whole blood in less than 1.5 min, and isolate malaria parasites in 15 min. We also show that paperfuge-like centrifugal microfluidic devices can be made of polydimethylsiloxane, plastic and 3D-printed polymeric materials. Ultracheap, power-free centrifuges should open up opportunities for point-of-care diagnostics in resource-poor settings and for applications in science education and field ecology.
The lead inventor, Manu Prakash, is the recipient of a MacArthur "genius grant", and deservedly so. He also has an elegant portal web page on the Stanford site.
(Score: 4, Informative) by richtopia on Thursday January 12 2017, @09:02PM
In case you don't like clicking on articles as you might need to read something, here is a picture of the device:
http://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-016-0009/figures/1 [nature.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 12 2017, @09:10PM
I know what it looks like. Those medical centrifuges were a favorite toy of mine when I was a kid. His doesn't have the cool colors and lights on it that mine had.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday January 12 2017, @09:44PM
Thanks for that. I was thinking of test tubes whirling around. This is more like a couple drops of blood (enough for a test i guess).
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