Microfluid Researcher Replaces $100k Process with Shrinky Dinks

I remember I had a pack of Smurf Shrinky Dinks and I think we burned them in the oven:

In 2006, Michelle Khine arrived at the University of California­’s brand-new Merced campus eager to establish her first lab. She was experimenting with tiny liquid-filled channels in hopes of devising chip-based diagnostic tests, a discipline called microfluidics. The trouble was, the specialized equipment that she previously used to make microfluidic chips cost more than $100,000–money that wasn’t immediately available. Racking her brain for a quick-and-dirty way to make microfluidic devices, Khine remembered her favorite childhood toy: Shrinky Dinks…

Read the rest at Technology Review


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