Salad Spinner Made Into Life-Saving Centrifuge 87
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."
Why only third world? (Score:4, Interesting)
Something I never understood about the "This could be great for the third world" items..
Why wouldn't it be great for the first and second worlds too?
I would assume scale and speed aren't up to par with more focused medical devices... But, for the price of one of those, you can buy a bunch of 35 dollar ones.
This has been done cheaper, clearner and easyer (Score:4, Interesting)
And earlier!
http://gizmodo.com/5063917/diy-egg-beater-centrifuge-can-save-lives [gizmodo.com]
They are missing a few things! (Score:2, Interesting)
What about duct tape and paper clips?
MacGyver would not approve without those items included.
It is a shame, a entire generation that would not recognize MacGyver if they met Richard Dean Anderson.
Re:Nice work, but... (Score:5, Interesting)
And there's an even simpler non-electrical centrifuge: a human spinning a bucket.
My veterinarian in Montana, being a livestock vet who had little use for expensive or breakable gadgets, simply packed the blood tube in towels in a bucket, tied a rope to the bucket handle, and sent whoever was handy out to the parking lot to whirl it around their head a few dozen times. Worked fine.
Re:Nice work, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
"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."
I see someone has never DIY a full hydroponics system before using almost those exact materials - disposable plastics (cat litter buckets) and hot glue (to hold the net pots to the modified lid.)
It's fucking TRIVIAL to clean and sterilize.