Nerdy Science Blog

Centrifuge is a mechanical device that uses high-speed rotation to separate materials by their density.  A centrifuge machine is expensive.  It costs thousands to buy a bulky and sensitive commercial centrifuge.

George Whitesides and his colleagues at Harvard University used egg-beater to replace the expensive centrifuge machine.  They taped the plastic tubes to a handheld egg-beater and separate the plasma from blood in minutes.  This can help developing countries’ scientists who cannot afford expensive centrifuge in detecting diseases, such as Hepatitis B and cysticercosis.  No special training is needed for handling the new device.  If it is broken, you just need to spend $2 to buy a new one.  The report of this cheap gadget will be published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal Lab on a Chip.

I have not read the report, and I do not know how fast this handheld egg-beater can rotate to separate the solutions.

(news)