Salad Spinner Made Into Life-Saving Centrifuge

lucidkoan writes "Two Rice University students have transformed a simple salad spinner into an electricity-free centrifuge that can be used to diagnose diseases on the cheap. Created by Lauren Theis and Lila Kerr, the ingenious DIY centrifuge is cobbled together using a salad spinner, some plastic lids, combs, yogurt containers, and a hot glue gun. The simple and easily-replicated design could be an invaluable tool for clinics in the developing world, enabling them to separate blood to detect diseases like anemia without electricity."

Comments

Nice work, but...

[Angst Badger]

This is clever thinking on the part of the students, but hand-cranked centrifuges have been around for a long time. They're not terribly expensive, they're sturdy as hell, and they're durable and easy to sterilize -- which almost certainly cannot be said of something made of disposable plastics and hot glue.

Besides, if you're in a part of the developing world where you have surplus salad shooters and the electricity to power your hot glue gun -- which is, come to think of it, a good description of the eighth grade science classroom where I first encountered a manual centrifuge -- you can probably afford the manual centrifuge.

Re:Nice work, but...

[dkuntz]

Chances are, imo, at least, is that they'd be manufactured somewhere where there was electricity, as well as surplus salad shooters. And while manual centrifuges may be inexpensive, can you really get more inexpensive that bulk buying plastic salad shooters and refills for hot glue guns? This, to me, sounds like something that could be sold in developing nations for $5-10 per unit, if not less. And being all manually powered, I dont see why soaking it in bleach, or boiling water wouldnt help sterilize it (not perfectly...and an autoclave would need electricity..and probably damage/melt it...). And with the production costs and sales costs so low, the cost of replacing it if it's too worn down, or contaminated, would not be that expensive. Especially the units were donated by some large charity or some overly right person who will never spend their billions of dollars before their great great great grandchildren are dead...

Re:Why only third world?

[scorp1us]

Because of lawsuits, QA, FDA auditing and controls. We are a litigious society who will sue when we get test results messed up. Also, key to predictable results is uniformity.

It is a sad but true thing that 3rd-world lives are not held in as high regard as 1st world lives. Look at Predator drone strikes: over 300 innocents killed. Do this in a 1st or 2nd world country and there would be more far more outage.

Re:Nice work, but...No but, smart thinking.

[irreverant]

What I took from the article was not that they re-invented the wheel, but where able to use analytical thinking and problem solving skills TO re-invent the wheel. They were able to think outside the box and develop a centrifuge (that works) from parts that you can find around a house. I think these students are creative - partner that with their education and it's amazing to think what they will be possible of doing or making in the future. Our future lie's in the hands of our youth - i feel good about our future with students like this.

Obvious. Why is this news?

[gweihir]

A centrifuge used as a centrifuge. What is newswothy here? The developing world does not need this incredible level of arrogance implied here either. Of course they know how to centrifuge things without electricity. They may not have technology, but intelligence is evenly distributed (or maybe even better there, given this drastic example that at least in some places of the western world, it is rather low.)