An Ancient Toy Could Improve Health Care in the Developing World
One of the most important machines in modern medicine can now be made with little more than paper, string, and tape.
In 2013, on a visit to a Ugandan clinic, Manu Prakash noticed a small metal machine propping open a door. It was a centrifuge—a device that spins tubes of liquid at extremely high speeds, so that any particles within them sink to the bottom. This process is used to separate out everything from cells to viruses to DNA, which means that centrifuges underpin a lot of modern science. They’re as essential to hospitals and laboratories as saucepans are to kitchens.
But centrifuges run on electricity, which is why many clinics in the developing world can’t use them, even if they can afford them. That’s why the one that Prakash visited had repurposed their centrifuge as a
