Does teaching and communication about the progress of microfluidics need to be improved?

WASHINGTON, DC, July 9, 2019 – Microfluidics and research on on-chip learning – involving the manipulation of small quantities of fluids to conduct miniaturized experiments in physics, chemistry, biology and medicine – is a prolific field of research . But until now, there are not many published examples on how to teach it in a way easily understandable to students or on how to communicate the many significant advances on the ground to the public.

To resolve this problem, in the log Biomicrofluidique, from AIP Publishing, a group of researchers presents a review of the published literature on microfluidics education and provides methods and suggestions for anyone wishing to improve their microfluidics teachings and outreach.

"Scientific education and awareness are popular at the present time, and public awareness is also becoming increasingly important because taxes can fund a significant amount of research," said Nicole Pamme. , from the University of Hull. "Public awareness of scientific advances is important for good policy making in democratic societies."

Microfluidics is a term that encompbades a wide range of tools used to handle extremely low volumes of fluids, ranging from attoliters (one quintillion liter) to microliters (one microliter equals one millionth of a liter, one can of Coca-Cola, for example, is 355,000 microliters by volume). This technology is useful because it allows scientists to miniaturize experiments, reducing the consumption of chemicals and reagents, reducing sample volume, and creating smaller, more portable instrumentation.

"Many experiments can be performed faster or more efficiently and with precise control of local conditions, which is impossible to achieve in large petri dishes or reaction vessels," said Darius Rackus, co-author of ETH Zürich. "One of the goals of microfluidics is to reflect the history and progress of computing by moving from dedicated computer rooms and facilities to handheld computers." miniaturized that can be used anywhere for chemistry and life sciences. "

The most common microfluidic format is microchannels, which are essentially small plumbing systems with a width or height of at least 1 to 10 microns. At this length scale, the fluids have a low Reynolds number (ratio between inertia forces and viscous forces), which means that they exhibit laminar flow (as opposed to turbulent flow) .

"One of the implications of this is that the fluids that flow together do not mix but continue in the flow direction," Rackus said. "This is a useful phenomenon on which many researchers are leveraging to precisely control the placement of fluids and particles in a microfluidic device."

In the group badysis, they determined that most of the examples of inclusion of microfluidics in teaching or outreach activities are generally divided into two categories: the teaching of microfluidics or the teaching of microfluidics. Many teaching examples on microfluidics focus on the physics and engineering of microfluidic systems.

"It can involve demonstrations explaining concepts, such as flow behavior or design projects, in which students create a microfluidic device to solve a particular problem," Pamme said. "In the case of teaching with microfluidics, we have found examples of the use of microfluidics for the purpose of studying physical, chemical or biological phenomena."

The group hopes that a greater exposure of students to microfluidics will increase interest in the multidisciplinary field of microfluidics and ultimately lead to more researchers in the field.

"We hope that our document will enable teachers to include microfluidics in their programs – in a fun and serious way – and share their ideas on how to involve citizens in the evolution of medicine and clinical diagnosis, underpinned by concepts of engineering and physics, "said Ingmar Rieldel-Kruse, co-author of Stanford University. "Given the limited number of reports in the literature, we would like to encourage more sharing – formal or informal – of ideas and activities for the teaching of microfluidics."

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The article, "" Learning on a Chip ": microfluidics for formal and informal science education," is written by Darius G. Rackus, Ingmar H. Riedel-Kruse and Nicole Pamme. It appears in Biomicrofluidique on July 9, 2019 (DOI: 10.1063 / 1.5096030) and is accessible at the address http: // aip.scitation.org /do I/full/ten.1063 /1.5096030.

Biomicrofluidique publishes research highlighting the fundamental physico-chemical mechanisms badociated with microfluidic and nanofluidic phenomena as well as new microfluidic and nanofluidic techniques for diagnostic, medical, biological, pharmaceutical, environmental and chemical applications. See http: // bmf.aip.org.