Tag Archives: Eric Lagally

Jello, microsystems, and kids

It’s a little outside my usual topic range but I’m extending the category since I’ve done it before just because I felt like it and because one of the moving forces behind this project (Eric Lagally) is a member of the Microsystems and Nanotechnology Group at the University of British Columbia (Canada). Lagally and his colleagues have devised a safe and inexpensive way for kids to make microfluidic devices. From the news item on Nanowerk,

Microfluidics, they [Lagally and colleagues] note, has the potential to revolutionize medicine and biology, reducing an entire laboratory of instruments for analyzing blood, urine, and other materials to the size of a postage stamp. Until now, however, hands-on experience with microfluidics has been impossible because of the expense and potentially toxic chemicals involved in making microfluidic devices.

The article [in ACS’ Analytical Chemistry “Using Inexpensive Jell-O Chips for Hands-On Microfluidics Education“] describes using Popsicle-type craft sticks taped to the bottom of a Styrofoam plate to form large-scale versions of the minute channels in actual microfluidic devices.

This sounds like the kind of thing you could do at home.  Bravo!