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Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
Lab-in-a-Chip Can Perform 1,024 Chemical Reactions Simultaneously
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Maxx Craves:
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis

Ok.. now where is the Mach 5
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FrankenPC
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
These engineers obviously never read The Cage by Audrey Schulman.
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Hello Mister Walrus
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
Are you kidding me? This thing is the setting for every horror scenario set in the north/south polar regions. It's all shiny and futuristic until zombie snow monsters start to kill you.
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Kaiser-Machead
09/17/09

@Hello Mister Walrus: Dead Snow fuckin' sucked!
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RocknSteve
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
Psht this is pussy travel. I traveled around the poles all the time with nothing but a thong and a dead bird. This is a shame.
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Imagism
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
I don't understand why anyone would want that much glass on a vehicle like that. Do you know how much colder even a window can make a room?
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TheLostVikings R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment Imagism was starred Imagism was unstarred

TheLostVikings R.O.A.C.H.
09/18/09

@Imagism: Apparently you have never lived in a cold country. Say it with me people: Triple layer argon insulated glass.

We have massive windows at my house, yet even when the snow reaches up to the 2nd story it's nice and warm inside.
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Imagism
09/19/09

@TheLostVikings R.O.A.C.H.: Apparently houses in my country suck then. Living in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Fancy ourselves relatively cold compared to the weather down south. Just don't care enough to actually get proper insulating apparently. Very jealous of your heating systems.
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Hachiken
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
I could live here. Hell, with this I could live damn near anywhere.
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iElvis
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
Two thoughts: 1) It's go much too high a profile and is likely to blow over in a storm. 2) It's got way too much glass to keep the interior at a comfortable temperature.

Looks pretty cool, though I'd add tracks all the way back, not just up front.
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Barry99705
09/17/09

@iElvis: Then they would need motors too.
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The Lab
09/17/09

@iElvis: I had the same thought about the height.
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lun
09/17/09

In reply to Matthiew Tarrit's Polar Vehicle Is Like a Giant Laboratory In a Train Rolling On Skis
too heavy on ice!
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Barry99705
09/17/09

@lun: The ice will be four or more feet thick, weight won't be a problem. After two feet you can drive your pickup truck on it, slowly.
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The Lab
08/04/09

In reply to Lab-in-a-Chip Can Perform 1,024 Chemical Reactions Simultaneously
These seem like cool devices. I'm not clear on the advantage of performing reactions on a chip in the presence of an enzyme. It seems like you could make a library of compounds using combinatorial chemistry and then screen them using enzymes on a chip.
To address the some issues raised below, R+D costs are essentially negligible when bringing a drug to market. More money is spent in marketing a drug before it is even approved by the FDA than is spent on R+D. This chip would be only a tiny part of R+D.
Secondly, the analysis of the reaction products is not that hard. You run the product solution into the mass spec and measure the ratio of reaction substrates to reaction product. The only trick is to develop a valve system that controls the delivery of the reactions to the mass spec.
Third, the big use for these devices is their use in sensors that allow a small amount of sample (like blood) to be tested against a large panel of drugs. It could give you a deep view into a patients metabolic state, for example.
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amlamarra
08/04/09

In reply to Lab-in-a-Chip Can Perform 1,024 Chemical Reactions Simultaneously
Pfft, chemists. They're way behind. That chip is only 1 MHz, and look how BIG it is!
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deanbmmv promoted this comment Nick: mission accomplished approved this comment amlamarra was starred amlamarra was unstarred

Nick
08/04/09

In reply to Lab-in-a-Chip Can Perform 1,024 Chemical Reactions Simultaneously
well, unfortunately we still have the FDA. so, it's still a "hurry up and wait" situation.
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Secret_Chimp
08/04/09

@Nick: mission accomplished:
"hurry up and wait"... Just curious, do you actually know anything about the FDA approval process for new drugs or are you just echoing what you've heard other say?
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Nick
08/04/09

@Secret_Chimp: yeah, buddy. i do.
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hfm
08/04/09

@Nick: mission accomplished: I'm pretty sure it has much ado with money changing hands.. sorta like how they screwed over a bunch of people by changing the albuterol inhalers so they work crap and cost 3x the price. Tell me there wasn't some profit margin at work there...
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Nick
08/04/09

@hfm: well, i dunno know if i would go that far
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lpranal
08/04/09

In reply to Lab-in-a-Chip Can Perform 1,024 Chemical Reactions Simultaneously
"Using microfluidics, the system may dramatically accelerate drug development for cancer and other diseases:"
...to reduce costs for drug companies, so they can get a new set of gold rims on their bentley golf carts.
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Hello Mister Walrus
08/04/09

@lpranal: I would imagine the opposite effect. Lower development costs and research time would enable smaller companies to penetrate (hehe penetrate) the market, driving down profits for large drug companies.
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lpranal
08/04/09

@Hello Mister Walrus: the optimistic part of me wants to believe that, but the bigger drug companies didn't get that way by letting the smaller guys get access to this stuff
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cudthecrud
08/04/09

@Hello Mister Walrus: Its not as much development costs as it is going through the clinical trials to get a drug FDA approved and actually to market. Hardly anyone besides BigPharma can pay for the phase II/III trials.
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Hello Mister Walrus
08/04/09

@Skeptics: It's reasonable to assume that any reduction in production time and, consequently, costs for producing new drugs would constitute a reduction in barriers to entry in the pharmaceutical industry. A device like this is obviously not going to change the whole industry by itself. However, incremental improvements like this might eventually enable smaller (though not necessarily small) companies to exist alongside Big Pharma.

Today, it might take 10 years and $100 million to create and market a new drug. Since only huge companies can put up such a large initial investment and wait that long to turn a profit, they dominate the industry. However, there must be a turning point at which smaller companies will be willing to enter the market. It might be 5 years and $50 million, or 2 years and $25 million - who knows? The point is, as drug development time and costs decrease, we get incrementally closer to that turning point.
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Edited by Hello Mister Walrus at 08/04/09 6:55 PM

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