Stephen Quake is the Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Here he reviews the early history of microfluidics and discusses more recent developments, with a focus on applications in biology and biochemistry.

Toward the end of the 20th century, clinical guidelines proliferated that had the laudable aim of bringing best practices to bear on the unnecessary variability of medical care. New guidelines have continued to appear that span the entire spectrum of medical and surgical practice. Meanwhile, older guidelines have been continually updated. Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), one of the most comm...

This paper deals with computer supported cooperative work in the context of untethered scenarios typical of mobile environments. The scenario envisions a number of homogeneous peers that are able to provide the same services, disconnect frequently from the net, and perform part of their work while disconnected. The application we choose is Configuration Management (CM), a critical cooperative a...

This paper sets the archetypal relationship between the tyrannical, devouring father and his sons in the context of a disjunction in the parental couple (syzygy) whereby the role of the maternal feminine is eclipsed and excluded. This is shown to originate in an omnipotent defence against infantile dependence on the mother. Successful liberation from the father's tyranny requires the restoratio...

This paper presents findings from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) prison study - an experimental case study that examined the consequences of randomly dividing men into groups of prisoners and guards within a specially constructed institution over a period of 8 days. Unlike the prisoners, the guards failed to identify with their role. This made the guards reluctant to impose their au...