Latest Samuel Stavis Stories

Lab on a chip (LOC) devices—microchip-size systems that can prepare and analyze tiny fluid samples with volumes ranging from a few microliters (millionth of a liter) to sub-nanoliters (less than a billionth of a liter)—are envisioned to one day revolutionize how laboratory tasks such as diagnosing diseases and investigating forensic evidence are performed. However, a recent paper* from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) argues that before LOC technology can be fully...

Remember Slinky®, the coiled metal spring that "walks" down stairs with just a push, momentum and gravity? Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed their own version of this classic—albeit 10 million times smaller—as a novel technology for manipulating and measuring DNA molecules and other nanoscale (billionth of a meter) materials. In the first of two recent papers, Samuel Stavis, Elizabeth Strychalski and colleagues demonstrated that a...