The low-cost centrifuge replacement can separate plasma from blood in minutes, which is used in tests to detect lethal infectious diseases responsible for half of all deaths in developing countries.
George Whitesides and colleagues at Harvard University, US, say the plasma obtained is easily good enough to use in tests to detect diseases such as Hepatitis B and cysticercosis.
“The object was to separate serum [plasma] from blood using readily-obtained materials in a resource-constrained environment,” explains Whitesides.
The equipment can be bought from shops for around two dollars. It needs no special training to use, no electricity or maintenance, and can be sterilised with boiling water and reused.
The user can even prepare several samples at once – just by taping more lengths of tubing to the beater.
Here’s a fun DIY on how to make your own wooden Canon 1D Digital Camera out of wood. Now, you won’t have to spent thousands of dollars on this camera although it won’t be functional.