HDD Centrifuge Puts COVID-19 Testing Lab in a Backpack

Backpack COVID-19 lab

Throughout this two-year global COVID-19 nightmare, one thing that has been sorely lacking is access to testing. “Flu-like symptoms” covers a lot of ground, and knowing if a sore throat …read more Continue reading HDD Centrifuge Puts COVID-19 Testing Lab in a Backpack

ISS Artificial Gravity Study Shows Promise for Long Duration Spaceflight

The International Space Station is humanity’s most expensive gym membership. Since the earliest days of human spaceflight, it’s been understood that longer trips away from Earth’s gravity can have a …read more Continue reading ISS Artificial Gravity Study Shows Promise for Long Duration Spaceflight

A New Spin on a Medical Test

Most of us can say that we have taken an obsolete hard drive out of a computer and felt it was a waste to toss it in the e-waste pile. Some of us have children’s drawings hung on the fridge with actuator magnets, or maybe a vast spreadsheet suspended on …read more

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Françoise Barré-Sinoussi: Virus Hunter

It was early 1983 and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi of the prestigious Pasteur Institute in Paris was busy at the centrifuge trying to detect the presence of a retrovirus. The sample in the centrifuge came from an AIDS patient, though the disease wasn’t called AIDS yet.

Just two years earlier in the US, a cluster of young men had been reported as suffering from unusual infections and forms of cancer normally experienced by the very old or by people using drugs designed to suppress the immune system. More cases were reported and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) formed a …read more

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Fidget Spinners Put The ‘S’ In STEAM Education

Centrifuges are vital to the study of medicine, chemistry, and biology. They’re vital tools to separate the wheat from the chaff figuratively, and DNA from saliva literally. Now, they’re fidget spinners. [Matlek] designed a fidget spinner that also functions as a simple lab centrifuge.

The centrifuge was designed in Fusion 360, and was apparently as easy as drawing a few circles and hitting copy and paste. Interestingly, this fidget spinner was designed to be completely 3D printable, including the bearings. The bearing is a standard 608 though, so if you want to get some real performance out of this centrispinner, …read more

Continue reading Fidget Spinners Put The ‘S’ In STEAM Education

Fidget Spinners Put The ‘S’ In STEAM Education

Centrifuges are vital to the study of medicine, chemistry, and biology. They’re vital tools to separate the wheat from the chaff figuratively, and DNA from saliva literally. Now, they’re fidget spinners. [Matlek] designed a fidget spinner that also functions as a simple lab centrifuge.

The centrifuge was designed in Fusion 360, and was apparently as easy as drawing a few circles and hitting copy and paste. Interestingly, this fidget spinner was designed to be completely 3D printable, including the bearings. The bearing is a standard 608 though, so if you want to get some real performance out of this centrispinner, …read more

Continue reading Fidget Spinners Put The ‘S’ In STEAM Education