On Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 9:13:59 PM UTC-7, Simon Quellen Field wrote:
Curiously the lighter project would be bad science in addition to the possibility of getting arrested, since the paper's results can't be reproduced:
" In fact, we are currently unable to obtain more crystals with the same parameters as the crystals used for all the transformation experiments described here (from Handi lighters, manufactured by Fayco Industries) because of this variability in characteristic parameters. Other lighters from many different brands that we bought from other stores (Walmart, Amazon, Target) did not provide the required combination of voltages and time constants. "
For $2.00 though, what can possibly go wrong, just have to keep the microfluidic chip in a $1,000 -20C freezer first.
One thing to note from my HV microfluidic experiments, the spark caused rapid pitting in the copper traces so were not usable for many cycles. The authors suggest either aluminum foil and copper foil in their microfluidic channel. So, their chip might only get a couple uses out of it regardless of sterilization, I don't believe the paper mentions this.
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## Jonathan Cline
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