Engineering
Tiny channels, big impact: the microfluidics revolution
Quick fact
Microfluidic channels are so small that fluids flowing through them are always in laminar flow—turbulence is essentially impossible. This means two fluids can flow side-by-side without mixing, allowing precise chemical reactions to be carried out on a chip.
Why this is interesting
On a tiny chip, water flows in streams so smooth they never mix—yet this very smoothness is what lets scientists detect diseases in just a drop of blood.