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Science 7 June 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5574, pp. 1818 - 1819
DOI: 10.1126/science.1073562
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Perspectives

ANALYTIC CHEMISTRY:
Everyone's a (Future) Chemist

Mark A. Burns

The development of small, portable "lab-on-a-chip" devices has the potential to provide individuals with the tools for complex chemical and biochemical analysis. In his Perspective, Burns charts recent progress toward fabricating such devices. He highlights the report by Terray et al., who use latex spheres manipulated by optical traps to pump fluids. The integration of such components into larger, more complex devices will open up applications from airborne contaminant detection to genetic testing and screening.

The author is in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2136, USA. E-mail: maburns{at}umich.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)