George Whitesides: A lab the size of a postage stamp

http://www.ted.com Traditional lab tests for disease diagnosis can be too expensive and cumbersome for the regions most in need. George Whitesides' ingenious answer, at TEDxBoston, is a foolproof tool that can be manufactured at virtually zero cost.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• George
• Whitesides
• TEDTalks
• TED
• talks
• TEDx
• TEDxTalks
• TEDxBoston
• Boston
• Harvard
• chemistry
• chemist
• diagnostics
• medicine
• health
• care

[9noitulover]

"What is simplicity?"

"It's impossible to fuck it up."

Epic

[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.

[KakashiBallZ]

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

[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

[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"...

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.