Paper Centrifuge

As usual, what you really want to do is read the paper: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-016-0009

This is a well-written and very clear paper. It covers several aspects that went unmentioned in the Gizmodo article, and highlights that although building such a device may be trivial, evaluating and studying it is not.

Some highlights: the paper covers how the device was built in detail, including information on the three safety mechanisms used to ensure the operator doesn't get exposed to infected blood (shatterproof plastic capillaries, epoxied sample holders made from drinking straws, and sealing of the capillaries inside two paper discs). It is exclusively made from low-cost materials, but it's more than just a piece of paper, handles and some string (fishing wire).

The paper also covers the physical dynamics of the "paperfuge" in great detail, analyzing its rotational dynamics and building a theoretical model of motion that agrees well with the physical observations (captured with a 6000fps high-speed camera). It also shows that the max RPM varies with disc size, with 125000 RPM for a small disc (5mm diameter). The paper even mentions that this was submitted as a Guiness World Record.

Finally it shows that the paperfuge produces sample separation results on par with electromechanical centrifuges using similar spinning time (1.5min for paperfuge, 2min for centrifuge for plasma separation), and does an analysis of the resulting blood samples.

Those expensive medical machines require a lot of infrastructure to operate properly. You could get a machine there, but you likely couldn't provide it clean and reliable power without additional equipment and technicians to maintain it. Bootstrapping infrastructure is stupendously hard and expensive (and is a huge measure of a country's wealth - a lot of the US wealth is tied up in structural infrastructure like power lines, roads, plants, etc). It's a generational process taking decades to bootstrap.

All the while that is getting built people need help now, and this clever adaptation of a toy fills that niche. Eventually they'll have access to the more advanced modern wonders, but for now this can help people almost immediately.

I wonder if you could use a laser tachometer to help dial in the RPM? e.g.

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Photo-Laser-Tachometer-Contac...

Don't underestimate the power of a simple(r) solution. A cheap and reliable solution, readily accesible, is powerful when access to so many luxuries we would consider basic necessities don't exist. These scientists have done a lot of work to show that a simple, effective solution can help people now. Not some time later when the next generation has enough to be able to use it.

This is something like a mosquito net. Cheap, easy to distribute, and shockingly effective against malaria. Personally, I like the laser solution more, but you can't deny helping people now for a more ideal solution later.

The trick, as always, is to also get the better solution later. And things like this centrifuge help! People have access to more advanced medical techniques and data than they had before. They'll get diagnosed sooner and more accurately. The next generation will be healthier, more energetic, and more optimistic about their chances at a longer life. They'll have more strength and will for the hard task of building up their home and country, and in a generation or two will be on their way to things like reliable power grids, communication infrastructure, transport, and more.

But they'll need things to help bootstrap them first. Iodine for clean water and paper centrifuges for diagnostics are just a few of the first steps for people who have so little modern riches are useless to them. It only took us a few generations to get here, and I bet they bootstrap faster and harder than anything we've seen, like so much of the Asian peoples.