Sound and Vision - Manipulating fluids and particles

At the Explorathon on 26th September 2014 a Glasgow team demonstrated the use of surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology – these waves carry a mechanical energy that can be harvested to manipulate fluids manipulate fluids in lab-on-chip devices (or living cells).

This versatile technology has numerous applications in diagnostics, for example the testing of blood samples, but also as a drug delivery system via nebulisation in medical inhalers.

Using light we also showed how to create reconfigurable 'cages' where particles (such as single cells) can be trapped and manipulated. A research avenue that we are actively pursuing in the context of Garner.

The inset video is from a display at the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention in London - and you can see the acoustic technology (introduced by some local children) at 1 min 30 sec.

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GARNER member: Dr Julian Reboud