Craig is temporarily a post-doctoral fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who is looking for a permanent position. He spends most of his time balancing his overwhelming geekdom with normalcy so he can function in the real world. Luckily his wife likes his geekiness.
Peter Etnoyer is a Graduate Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He studies deep corals and ocean fronts, and he loves to be on the water.
Kevin Zelnio is a Graduate Student Researcher at Penn State studying the ecology of hydrothermal vent and methane seep communities. He raises awareness of the plight of the spineless through folk music.
Ahram Biosystems just released a handheld PCR machine affectionately called the Palm PCR. Oh yeah baby. Now you can just strap this 330 g (with battery) puppy to your arm when you go out for a jog. Wait! Is that dead body? Throw a hair in there and amplify as you wipe the sweat of your brow (make sure it doesn't fall inside the Palm PCR though...). But don't get too comfy, you'll have your 2kbp product in only 15-30 min.
"Palm PCR is powered by a Li-ion battery that enables more than 4 hours of continuous operation on a single charge. It is designed to adapt the standard 9 mm-spaced well format to use with a disposable plastic sample-tube. Nearly all kinds of DNA samples, including the human genome, can be amplified in less than 25 or 30 minutes. Even a single copy of DNA can be amplified in as little as 25 minutes to an amount sufficient for typical agarose-gel detection."Even the human genome!!! In 25-20 minutes!! Holy Manta Batrayman! Thankfully you can choose between white, yellow, red and blue. I want to get the Palm PCR that is the right color to match my lifestyle. VWR already has the accessories In production including leather cases, car adapter, bluetooth headset, detachable mix-and-match faces and a pipette holster.
Technology
Life Science
Comments
It has a single well? How the hell are we supposed to run a negative control?
Posted by: Alex | August 19, 2008 10:45 PM
If only the kids who had found the 'montauk monster' had had one these. They'd have known immediately that it didn't have any hippogriff DNA at all.
Posted by: llewelly | August 20, 2008 1:45 AM
Be sure and wait for the quickdraw pipette holster!
Nothing worse than snagging a tip 'cause the normal holster isn't designed for that type of hot n fast action.
(Don't file down your tips though that's just hogwash and might interfere with your precision.)
Posted by: eric | August 20, 2008 5:26 AM
I see that as usual they don't want to say how much you'll have to actually pay them for one of these portable ovens-with-automatic-timer devices...
("Easy-Clone Oven"?)
Posted by: Epicanis | August 20, 2008 6:48 AM
Ipod Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary - Proof!
If you havent sen this - you're missing a treat...Ok we know that back in 1958 the ipod wasn't top on you're grannies shopping list, but you have to admit this is a superb photoshop image.
http://www.skool-days.co.uk/2008/08/ipod-celebrates-50-year-anniversary.html
Posted by: vintage ipod | August 20, 2008 6:57 AM
Ipod Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary - Proof!
Ok we know that back in 1958 the ipod wasn't top on you're grannies shopping list, but you have to admit this is a superb photoshop image.
http://www.skool-days.co.uk/2008/08/ipod-celebrates-50-year-anniversary.html
Posted by: vintage ipod | August 20, 2008 7:04 AM
This will be great for drive-by paternity testing.
Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | August 20, 2008 7:21 AM
@alex- where does it say single well? The spec sheet says "Well-to-well uniformity ≤ 0.1°C", doesn't that kind of imply more than one well?
I think if I had a long commute, I would seriously covet one of these.
Posted by: Becca | August 20, 2008 9:53 AM
First thought: w00t! Gotta get me some of that lab swag for teh Beagle!
Second thought: Beyond the 'cool' factor, is this really useful? I mean where's the DNA extraction module, the gel electrophoresis (or even better, bioanalyzer) bolt-on, the purification attachment and let's not forget the mini-refrigerator you'll be needing to keep your Taq cold and we haven't even got to the DNA sequencing yet....
Nah, I think I'll keep holiding out for the tricorder DNA barcoder.
Posted by: Karen James | August 20, 2008 11:05 AM
It also comes in 3 designer colors! Things would be a lot easier if they had a portable laser-assisted microdissector.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mam.2005.12.006
Posted by: Richard | August 20, 2008 12:30 PM
They said at Bio in San Diego that it had 12 wells.
Posted by: PCR Dude | August 21, 2008 7:31 PM
It runs on a lithium ion battery! Wow! Does any other life science instrument (PCR, sequencing, etc) run on a battery?
Posted by: PCR Dude | September 15, 2008 10:15 AM