Tag Archives: academia

Wikipedia list of academic microfluidics research

It turns out that Wikipedia has an extensive list of academic microfluidics/bioMEMS research groups worldwide. Although the list is long, there are probably many groups missing. I know this because when I first found the page, only one group from MIT was mentioned (there are at least nine). I’ve since remedied that situation — my [...]
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A new era for DIY science

Lately DIY science seems to be everywhere. A few weeks ago Nature Biotechnology published an article on the DIYbio movement, while Technology Review wrote about how to take pictures of the earth from space for $150. And don’t forget the rise of O’Reilly’s Make Magazine. Although people have been programming (and building!) computers at home [...]
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Microfluidic art from the Folch lab

One of the best things about microfluidics research is the images. Colored dyes are used to track liquid flow, often producing beautiful photographs such as those seen in the artistic collaboration between George Whitesides and Felice Frankel. Albert Folch’s lab at the University of Washington has created their own microfluidic art gallery using images from their [...]
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Tracking science news across the web

I studied engineering, not journalism, so the way science research enters the mainstream has always been mysterious to me, like wondering how migrating birds find their way thousands of miles to another continent. I wonder how journalists decide what topics get covered and when to break the news, since the process of doing research tends [...]
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Worth a thousand words

Sometimes there’s no substitute for a demo. In experimental work, techniques are commonly passed on from person to person. (I somehow ended up pipetting left-handed for years because of the single time my left-handed advisor showed me how to do it.) But what if you want to try a protocol that’s new to your lab? [...]
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Dec 3rd: The Social Responsibility of the Scientist

I’ve been interested in technology and culture issues for a long time. I remember as a kid reading a speech by Richard Feynman on the value of science. In it, he tells a story about how science is like a key that can open the gates of heaven or hell, depending on how we use [...]
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Joel Voldman on microfluidic manipulation of cells and their environment

Recently I ran across a video of my former advisor at MIT, Joel Voldman, speaking as part of the 2008 CIMIT Summer Education Series: Frontiers of Microfluidics and Microsystems in Biomedical Sciences and Clinical Medicine. In the video below (and available directly from CIMIT here), Joel highlights his group’s work using microfluidic technology and [...]
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MIT OpenCourseWare on BioMEMS

Several years back, MIT decided to make its course materials freely available on the web. Not all materials from all courses are available, but there are several offerings in microsystems/microfluidics/BioMEMS if you’d like to construct a do-it-yourself education. For example: HST.410J / 6.07J Projects in Microscale Engineering for the Life Sciences 6.777J / 2.372J Design and Fabrication [...]
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How commercializable is microfluidics research?

In grad school I often secretly wondered about the commercial potential of our microfluidics research. I’ve touched on this issue before, and Derek Lowe recently discussed what makes a technology useful in lab (many microfluidic devices are platform technologies designed for use in lab). In the June 21st issue of Lab on a Chip, Holger [...]
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Risk is scary, even in academic research

A couple days ago I wrote about a recent article on how the grant process might be hindering cancer research. While money is critical to enabling experimental research, money isn’t the only reason a researcher might choose a less groundbreaking but safer path; there’s also fear of failure. Truly cutting-edge work is risky because it [...]
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