LOC Out of the Box: Design, engineering and utility of biotic games
Stephen
Quake
Professor of Bioengineering Co-Chair, Department of Bioengineering Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
First published on 18th November 2010
No diagnostic or military applications in sight – game on!
Play has often led to creativity and serious science, a tradition that dates at least to the lusus scientiae (joke of knowledge) of Renaissance parlor games in the 17th century. More recently, Richard Feynman's “just for fun” calculation of the wobble of spinning plates led him to discover fundamental insights into the spin of the electron.In this vein, I am happy to introduce a new type of article that I would like to encourage and endorse, dealing with ideas and fun that may be of value to the wider community. Lab on a Chip is calling these “Out of the Box articles” and the intention is that they will be reviewed by appropriate experts and/or Board Members for relevance and new thinking. Submissions along this theme are encouraged!
In this issue of Lab on a Chip, we are publishing the first of these articles by Ingmar Riedel-Kruse and colleagues.1 They describe a new type of scientific amusement – biotic games. Riedel-Kruse's team has ingeniously developed a number of games that use biology as an essential component – ranging from playing versions of “Pong” and “Breakout” with paramecia in microfluidic devices to using PCR as a betting game to solve DNA assembly problems.
While this may seem like a trivial pursuit, it is worth noting that there are some serious potential applications of biotic games. They may make biology more accessible and fun for children, which of course is the first step to increasing scientific literacy and helping the general public appreciate the beauty of nature. They may also serve as early diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons, where loss of smell is an early physiological symptom.
Although not all of the games use microfluidics, it is refreshing to see new ideas which expand the possible applications of microfluidics and lab on a chip technology. One can imagine some of these games as fantastic smartphone apps – as soon as Apple or Nokia or Samsung can be convinced to incorporate lab on a chip components in their handhelds! However, if these biotic games really take off, I cringe to imagine the effect on graduate student productivity in my lab…
References
- I. H. Riedel-Kruse, A. M. Chung, B. Dura, A. L. Hamilton and B. C. Lee, Lab Chip, 2010, 10 10.1039/c0lc00399a.
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