Lab Centrifuge? It’s Child’s Play

Centrifuges are lab workhorses that separate liquids for essential diagnostic tests. The problem is they are expensive and require electricity—2 major obstacles for clinics in much of the world.
 
Enter Stanford’s Manu Prakash who built a $1 paper microscope. He’s now trained his genius on creating a centrifuge based on a child’s toy, a whirligig. Using paper, string, tape and wood or PVC handles, it can spin at speeds of up to 125,000 rpm—much faster than a lot of desktop centrifuges. The “paperfuge” can separate cells or malaria parasites from blood samples.
 
Watch this Stanford News video to see how it works.
 
Source: The Atlantic