George Whitesides: A lab the size of a postage stamp

[WoodyWeedPecker]

Don't be suprised when Prof. Whitesides wins a Nobel prize. He is a great and very creative chemist. Arguably the most creative at this moment

[KakashiBallZ]

@WoodyWeedPecker I'm surprised he still hasn't :(

[EPIGNTCS]

Microfluidics sucks balls and PDMS sucks ass.

[KristoffDoe]

Hand-operated centrifuges are nothing new and special - they were in use for some time and you can still buy them if you really want.

I think that I saw egg whisk centrifuge years ago in "The Amateur Scientist" column of "Scientific American"...

[hardtomemorize]

brilliant advancement. like a riddle it is absurdly simple once you see the answer!

[LemonLimeLaughter]

hahaha, "impossible to fuck it up" best definition of simplicity

[CromDubMonday]

I really hope this technology finds success. Simplicity is crucial.

[dominictemple]

Brilliance.

[siim258]

This is simply brilliant!

[omegavalerius]

"How can you make a profit with a item that costs 50s in a capitalist system?" He asks.

Henry Ford answered this question a hundred years ago. You don't make profit by selling few items at a high price but a lot of items at low price.

If the device costs 50s to make and it has a very useful function you can sell it with an unbelievable profit margin.

Very nice talk though. A real TEDtalk for once.

[earlyAMbirds]

@ omegavalerius

Very true, but I think you're missing the difference between Whitesides' device and the Model-T - he's not going to sell that many of them anyway, so unless he prices them at multiples of hundreds of the original cost(which would be met with disdain, and is unethical),it's very hard to make a profit off a mass-production project.I think a better way to say what you quoted him saying is, How can you make a profit with a relatively low-demand item that costs 50C under mass-produ.

[omegavalerius]

By:

1) lean production: You make your process so efficient that you can drive a profit at low cost and low demand.

2) marketing efforts: only aimed to grow the market, cut everything else.

3) shameless cost cutting after market saturation has been reached i.e no marketing, additional services etc.

Potential market size in this case is: all blood and urine tests being made in the world now+all the tests that could be made if cost wasn't a problem=not a small amount.

[citanon]

@earlyAMbirds

This could actually make a ton of money as a first world product:

Sell the sensors for cheap, then have people upload the data to your website and sell them the service of record keeping and analysis.

Next time you go to your doctor's, you can give him a much richer set of data about yourself (say your entire urine protein and sugar content every day for a month) than possible using current forms of lab tests.

[citanon]

Costs would really go down if you can do the diagnosis online also, but in developed countries that would mean enormous changes to the means of delivering medicine and taking on entrenched interests. (eg, the medical profession).

Possibly, there's a market place for that in countries that have some development and could be more accepting of online diagnosis (eg China)

[tazru333]

@ omegavalerius

If you watch more TEDTalks you may find out why you are wrong.

There was a reason we called it "Dinosaur Management" in the late 1970s, too bad it only got more entrenched.

[omegavalerius]

How exactly are my propositions to make this innovation into a viable product wrong?

[tazru333]

@ omegavalerius

That was explained by another poster,and is why I told you to watch more Ted Talks to be able to understand. Perhaps if you studies Systems Theory it would help.

The mindset you speak from is what we used to call Dinosaur Management, Dr Deming was one outspoken critic of the way it is "run like a business" in America.

There simply is not the space here. If you are genuinely interested look at the Society for Organizational Learning, or MIT Sloan School of Business.

[earlyAMbirds]

@tazru333

could you please shoot me a message (through my account) and try to explain what you're saying (there's more space that way)? I'm really interested in what you were writing about, especially since I thought omegavalerius knocked me out with his comment; it seems like I was thinking right, then told I was wrong, then told I'm right by someone who seems to know a lot. Clearly, I'm young and would like to learn a lot - please help! Thanks.

[omegavalerius]

Do you think this is the only TEDtalk I've watched. Of course if you would bother to check up you would notice that I actually subscribe to TED.

You don't have to throw any fancy MIT Sloan stuff around. What you explained is taught in every business school both sides of the Atlantic, and yes I've been to those schools. Another thing I learned in those schools was that you should never whine about something unless you have a better solution so lets hear it. PM me or answer me here.

[earlyAMbirds]

@ omegavalerrius

well it's gratifying to see that there's someone identifying your thought process and telling you it's wrong, because you had such a good reply to me! Still, I'm gonna ask tazru333 to send me a message where there's enough space.

anyways, if the guy in the vid said so himself, how could we possibly argue with him? He most likely has already considered the matter completely.

And let's not be so naive to think that this would replace all urine samples, esp in the West

[omegavalerius]

I guess we differ in ways of thinking. I'm a trained economist specialized in small/medium sized businesses. I trust the education I've got and the ability to reason more than I trust what someone I don't know doesn't even say it, but which some other person in a comment guesses he might have said if asked.

[Mokambigai]

i love that guy!!:)

[Ainaloa]

That was really good, well to me!! Hahah love the meaning of simplicity!!

[mathmexican4234]

haha i like that guy, good talk :)

[kikosemmek]

Beautiful. Paper chromatography is something every college student encounters in Chemistry class. I love that he did something so tremendous with a concept so simple.

[GegoXaren]

fukk yeah!

that was awesome.

[ndjarnag]

Great talk. George Whitesides is the highest published active chemist in the world BTW.

[KeVlarTheMighty]

Very insightful and inspiring.

We need more ideas like these that will help the people get access to help.

[CityzenJane]

Fantastic talk.

[freesk8]

Very smart guy! He'll help a lot of people.

He needs to learn how the free market works.

It is not the enemy, It is his friend.

[Leobons]

All good sir, but the computing power of a cell phone is little more than a calculator when compared to a laptop

[slingstone49]

@Leobons

Depends on the cell phone and the laptop in question. But I think he's saying that the one laptop per child thing is coming at the issue the wrong way. Look at japan; most of their internet computing is done via cell phone.

[Leobons]

@slingstone49 Like I said, it depends on the cell phone. Certainly that cell phone that he held up (that is more likely to be sold for scrap in India) doesn't come close to any decent laptop (not even the OLPC ones). I agree that from now on Internet is gonna be more and more accessed from your cell phone but OLPC is not only about Internet but also running applications, teaching programming, etc. A laptop is gonna definitely be more valid for this initiative.

[ProfessorPEARL]

@Leobons-

As cellphones move into the general realm of "hand held device", their abilities have begun to standardize. The processing power of a device is put toward the upload of data (color data already transferred in every picture text I've sent), but the actual processing of any extra data would not need to happen within the device. Too, the display of information could be site formatted or streamed. The hand held device need only run 1 application. Mobility, convenience, cost, global access.

[maxxb24]

Great presentation! And it's true, this is amazing stuff, and companies wont want to develop it becuase it hurts their immediate bottom lines. That's why funding science is a good idea, people need to start being more progressive.

[fuctanyway]

What is this guy talking about? Science? Thought? He's missing mushrooms.

[tenisplayer]

market its more powerful and gives better results the problem its wen the people are corrupt and selfish.

you get what you deserve

[spinynorman1982]

This man reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson except without the drugs.

[whiteire]

nice talk, but why the stupid jab at capitalism?

[NwZ2]

I dunno, why teh stupid jab at his stupid jab?

He was giving his opinion.

[NietzscheanMan]

Everybody bitching about capitalism here doesn't know what it is. There's a vast difference between capitalism and corporatism, I suggest you look both up before spouting nonesense.

[NwZ2]

Actually, a "true" free market is a theoretical abstraction not possible in reality (much like those "State of nature" theorists readily admitted that said various "states of nature" didn't exist too").

[whiteire]

@NwZ2 how so? what aspect of a "true" free market would you say is irreproducible in "real" reality?

[NietzscheanMan]

Says who? Reality itself is a free market of all the forces and variables at play. To deny free market mechanisms is to deny reality, there's no middle ground about it; the market is "free" even if you try and constrain it; in the end the constrained system collapses; see the entire human history for as many examples as you like.

[theoriginalanomaly]

amen brother

[NwZ2]

Reality? Yes. Human economics? not so.

The very fact that you must necessarily have government intervention in order to guarantee contracts shows that you couldnt have a free market all by itself. Furthermore, as much as you would *try* to stop cheating, there will always be new developments that make it more profitable to cheat than to be honest and, as you said, free markets != corporatism (or cheating, in my example).

Hence why a TRUE free market is a theoretical abstraction.

[NietzscheanMan]

NWZ2, you have no idea what you are talking about. You don't need a centralized government for contracts. I don't mind you being an ignoramus but spare me the pretention.

[generationalist]

NwZ2 you appear to be mistaken in your definition of the word true. A true free market is not a theoretical abstraction. This perfect Utopian Rand-esque dream you are speaking of is called an ideal or ideological free market. When you measure a piece of lumber or build a foundation you measure it or true it to the highest physical degree of accuracy "within reason". Anything beyond this reasonable degree of accuracy is called ideology of a faith based, money worship system or a false capitalism.

[LikeAPossum]

This is great stuff, but I don't think an egg beater turned into a centrifuge is original science. It's a piece of good low tech engineering. Not necessarily appropriate for a scientific journal.

[generationalist]

By far the very best TED I have seen! This is low technology, change the world thinking. Thank you TED.

[thinkhendo]

ratings disabled?

[DSBrekus]

Think it had something to do with the maintenance, for youtube, ratings work now methinks

[9noitulover]

"What is simplicity?"

"It's impossible to fuck it up."

Epic

[temporaldisplacement]

I love TED, keeping to thier mandate!! =D

[VisionQuest2012]

I can see where greed can hold back man and science. It's happening everyday.

[vasniltere]

can't agree more.. has anyone heard how much the bonuses to AIG are? I heard they were being handed out today or something like that.

[manofskill]

This guy is so full of himself. He is better than you, and it shows.

[Scurmicurv]

This guy reminds me why I choose to be an engineer - find a problem, asses it and blast it into tiny pieces. I especially like this approach, where the basis of research is availability and efficiency. More of this Ted!

[GetMeThere1]

Great!

[sugarkang]

wow. gettin shit done. someone get this man a donut.

[Ezmarii]

@sugarkang heck yeah donuts all around

[mattghtpa]

You'd think these brainiacs would be pushing for hemp, an infinitely more renewable resource, not paper.

[BaneOfFreeSpeech]

Well I guess if EVERYONE was pushing for hemp nothing else would get done. I mean there are a million problems in the world.

[mattghtpa]

However, the implications that would radiate out from legalizing or just decriminalizing hemp would be enormous.

The War on Drugs a.k.a. War of Freedom, Liberty, People etc.., just the hemp side for example would benefit environmentally, petrol chemical, textile, stop deforestation, but GDP as well, to the tune of billions.

The most important result would be the ridiculous privatized and traded on Wal Street corporate prison system that thrives from hemp incarcerations.

Pure greed.

[BaneOfFreeSpeech]

Not to be a douche, but we have all heard this before. And while I understand and agree wit most of that. peice of advice. Word it different. People are going to label you hippy democrat UFO abduct talking like this. Its far to common and just sounds like old news and comes off annoying sometimes. Same old arguments, same old down with the corporate agenda shadow government puts mind serum in our water stuff. Just reword it a bit diferrent or youll sare people. appeal to people.

[mattghtpa]

Truth and facts never get old.

And I think worded it as plainly as it gets.

Only those drunk with gov't propaganda flavored kool-aide disguised under a moral agenda would not comprehend.

Dumbing down the discussion only furthers the obfuscation.

But thanks for the demeaning pseudo psycho armchair analysis, inaccurate, but amusing.

"UFO abduct talking" WTF?! I want what you're smoking.

[vasniltere]

nice use of the word obfuscation..

Have you ever listened to the radio/podcast program called planet money? They recently did a show about this subject about the economy of legalizing hemp. It doesn't talk about all the aspects that you mentioned, textiles etc... but I think it would be one you would like to listen to. just do a google search for planet money. I am sure you can find it.

[BaneOfFreeSpeech]

Tell your doctor to stop dumbing down his diagnosis for you to understand easier. I think maybe you should come out of that cave you call your asshole and get some sun. I never said dumb down. But if your trying to explain gravity to a child you dont go busting out the complex math involved. go ahead and explain theory or relativity to a kindergartner, you need to learn to APPEAL to people who you are trying to get your message across. but maybes its just in you to crave attention.

[RDJim]

Oh my god, that hat!

[charlessmyth]

Under capitalism: You have to speculate to accumulate. Make a gift in order to receive more than you gave. Have faith in the future. Greed encourages others to offer the same, or more, for less.

[peart]

greet and capitalism are mutually exclusive

[Uncerten]

Simply astounding. My biggest critique was that many ppl r colour blind, but halfway through he mentions cameras--problem solved.

[Sebasstian86]

This is awesome,

I work at a diagnostic laboratory and these things are pretty close to what we use. Amazingly simple how they have made them so low cost.

Makes you wonder why the equipment we use is so expensive.

[vasniltere]

the quote at the end is priceless. simplicity means you can't F--k it up. I am going to remember that and use it everywhere.

[MrKaniyaw]

Capitalism is simply a disease which inffects humans to become poor and the viruses are rich people who happen to be powerful naturally.

[leejae]

@MrKaniyaw Yes Mr. Never Read a Book... Yes..

[vasniltere]

capitalism is a tool, and like any tool, it can be used to help or to harm.

[rippinsteo]

MrKaniyaw: When it comes to choosing between the collective power of individual choices vs the tyrannical power of central planning, I will prefer the former every time.

Peace.

[vasniltere]

very well said. What good is big government if the people don't learn to govern themselves.

[iunno]

Looks like the problem isn't so much about healthcare than it is about one's ability to set aside the capitalist mindset for the benefit of those in need (thinking back about the ignorant journalist and refusal for people to build these because of no profit)

[vasniltere]

capitalism isn't inherently greedy.. greed is inherently greedy.. So how about we just set aside the self serving mindset and instead do as you say, work for the benefit of those in need, work for the benefit of those around us. Good comment.

[DSBrekus]

I think perhaps his point was that capitalism (lacking proper regulation) favors those who put profit before all else, because they make the most money and then can push all the altruistic people out of business.

I'm sure we agree on what we would like the world to be but there is some sense in which capitalism encourages greed, it does produce results, absolutely, but the question is: what is peoples motivation that led to these results? Ultimately it is personal profit. "greed"

[vasniltere]

mm.. I am going to respectfully disagree that that is the (only) answer to that question. I will agree that capitalism allows for too much greed, that there is really very little in the way of safeguards against greed, but at the same time, capitalism is in my opinion, as I have mentioned elsewhere, a tool, it is neither inherently void of greed, or inherently prone to it. Human nature provides the greed. But still. You did put your point very well, I appreciate you being civil.

[DSBrekus]

Definitely its a tool, a useful one at that and I wouldn't say it is prone to greed. Any system will undoubtedly run up against human nature.

Personal profit is a good motivator and it provides fantastic results to many problems but when it comes to providing things like essential services, profit should be secondary.

These things are solvable with the right regulations but nonetheless the limitations of some forms of capitalism should be underscored.

[vasniltere]

*applaud* well put, "These things are solvable with the right regulations but nonetheless the limitations of some forms of capitalism should be underscored."

"when it comes to providing things like essential services, profit should be secondary."

I wonder if it would be called capitalism any more? hmm...

Thumbs up.. I would double thumbs up it if I could..

[tazru333]

@ DSBrekus

Watch "Daniel Pink and the Surprising Science of Motivation", a Ted Talk. He speaks to the use of "Greed" as a motivator, I think you will find it interesting.

[DSBrekus]

Indeed I've seen that one before, never hurts to refresh my memory of it though ^_^

It is interesting that higher rewards lead to worse results in some cases, something I hadn't mentioned in my argument.

*eats apple pie* o.o

[generationalist]

Healthcare's biggest problem is not capitalism but is instead this quasi-capitalism that we live under today. The people of the US believe that insurance companies are necessary to administrate healthcare. This model is no longer needed and is the single point of failure of the present day healthcare system. This man's ideas are brilliant and if he would embrace true non-ideological capitalism (not the Rand religion) his ideas can have the same impact that Norman Borlaug had on food.

[theoriginalanomaly]

Insurance is savings for future uncertainty. Instead of everyone saving 100,000 dollars for a rainy day we pool resources together. This model is not going anywhere anytime soon. Unless you suggest we should not worry about the future, and instead live day to day.

[generationalist]

theoriginalanomaly - I understand that public media keeps presenting insurance as if it were savings but it is not. Insurance is a book making outfit and nothing more. The primary concern of an insurance company is not the health of those insured but the value of the companies stock and it's return to the shareholder. Federal regulations have established the insurance companies in the US as quasi government entities. PAC's and regulations ensure expanded growth via mandatory tax collection.

[theoriginalanomaly]

I haven't got that impression from the public media. The media usually represents them poorly. But you are absolutely right about the US and quasi government entities. But the model of collective savings for risk (insurance) is still not going anywhere.

[generationalist]

My apologies t-anomaly I did not intend to give the impression that I support collective savings, merely that I am in opposition to insurance institutions having the authority to determine prices or engage in price fixing. Electronic health data systems can replace much of the bureaucracy of the insurance company. An independent consortium funded by the privatized hospitals (as exists today with the internet - W3C) can manage the cost of health standards to replace the quagmire of the insurers.

[KeybdFlyer]

generationalist

Sorry, I can only give you one "thumb up". If I could give 10 I would. After living in the U.S. for some years, I have come to understand that the American population are deliberately misinformed in almost every aspect of their lives, but with the overwhelming majority never experiencing life under a different system, they do not even realise what an alternative can be like. Indeed, most are antipathetic to the very suggestion that their world is anything but perfect.

[P00P0STER0US]

I love things like this. So many problems are 1st order issues and simple tools are enough to start in the right direction on solving them. The brilliance of creating the cellphone-image-analysis system is wonderful. It's also encouraging that shapes or numbers of dots are a way to avoid color, since some tests might be taken in poor light that can't reproduce color but can reproduce dark and light spots. Excellent work!

[gumdisease2]

nice name...

[P00P0STER0US]

Why thanks :o)

[Yokailo]

Incredibly clever.

He makes it sound like everyone could've thought of it, but it's great. ^^

He looks a lot like my grandpa. xD

[LamaPaj]

I think i might have a cheeseball... up my nose.

[rackslap]

a tonsil stone? that's disgusting