THE ART OF MICROFLUIDICS.

FOLCH, Albert; UNIVERSITY of Washington; MICROFLUIDICS; WEBSITES; STAINS & staining (Microscopy); MICROSCOPICAL technique; FLUID dynamics

SEATTLE (Wash.); WASHINGTON (State)

The article reports that Albert Folch, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, is fond of colored microscopic images of fluids. He has created an online gallery of his own microscopic images, writ large. The gallery has logged more than 5,000 visitors since Folch started it in late 2007. It can be accessed at http://picasavveb.google.com/ albertfolch. In microfluidics, all data is obtained in the form of images. To test their methods, scientists run colored dyes through tiny machines or grow single cells on sheets of plastic and then photograph the results. Straining is done with food dye.