Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microfluidics: Miniature Chemistry Labs

Posted by michael on from the make-jello-using-one-third-vodka dept.

enkidu writes: "The NYTimes has a story (free reg, yaba yaba) about the rapidly emerging field of microfluidics and describes some of the methods used in making micro-valves, pumps and other components. In the future, you won't need to send your blood/urine sample to a lab, your doctor will put in his "lab-in-a-box" and hand you a printout before your leave."

1 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Won't this hurt accuracy? by diamond0 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Due to the small samples such a machine would process, the error margin is bound to be huge. This is elementary statistics, folks; if you want milligrams per deciliter of blood cholesterol, or any sort of statistic about a body fluid, the more of a sample available to the process, the more accurate it's going to be. Compare this to Nielsen surveying only twenty people, or Gallup only a hundred.

    I've been wrong before; maybe a biochemist could chime in and let us know how much blood or urine constitutes a true statistical sample?

    --

    --
    There is no hatred more pure and true than that expressed by children.