A real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR), or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), is a modification to normal PCR where one monitors the amplification of a targeted DNA molecule during the PCR. We’ve written before about our favorite cheap solutions for PCR, but check out this interesting paper on building your own quantitative-PCR (qPCR) machine written by Geoffrey Mulberry, […]
Month: July 2019
A bicycle inner tube under a breadboard can be sufficient to isolate building vibrations
In many cases equipment is set up on vibration dampened tables. In microscopy, these optical tables, in the shape of a giant metal floating breadboard are ubiquitous, and expensive. These optical tables cost several thousand dollars from the cheapest suppliers. However, if microscopes are not mechanically isolated, oscillations attenuate the quality of images. There’s an […]
Bristlebots on the Cheap: Easy-to-Build Active Particles
Bristlebots are simple active particles powered by the vibration of a simple vibrating motor. Their intuitive construction and short list of components make them ideal for demonstrations of basic scientific concepts like friction or flocking behaviors. Here’s a tip from Rémi Boros on how to make simple bristlebots for classroom and for outreach at the […]
$400 for an open-source syringe pump and microscope system? Meet Poseiden.
Poseidon is a well documented open source microfluidics and imaging system consisting of a set of three DIY syringe pumps for $180 and a compatible microscope for $220. Poseidon is documented in a paper on BioRxiv by A. Sina Booeshaghi, Eduardo Beltrame, Dylan Bannon, Jase Gehring, and Lior Pachter . In the paper, the system is benchmarked to Harvard Apparatus […]