One of the most basic and necessary pieces of equipment in a medical labs is a centrifuge. Often bulky and expensive, this device (in the most simple terms) spins things. And spinning things like blood, can separate out its components, allowing doctors to diagnose disease like malaria. But the lack of electricity and resources in rural regions around the world means no centrifuge. Now, a simple new 20-cent gadget could change all that, and it's based on an unusual source of inspiration: the whirligig.

Question

"There are more than a billion people around the world who have no infrastructure, no roads, no electricity," says Manu Prakash, a physical biologist at Stanford and inventor of the new gadget. When he visited Uganda in 2013 he found that clinics either did not have centrifuges or didn't have the juice to power them. “One clinic used its broken centrifuge as a doorstop,”

What would happen if you reversed paragraphs 1 & 2
1. Readers would learn more about Manu Prakash than the project.
2. Readers would lack context to understand what a centrifuge is and why it is important.
3. Readers would learn that the information about going to Uganda is more important than the centrifuge.
3. Readers would lack context to understand why some places cannot power centrifuges.

Answer 1

If you reversed paragraphs 1 and 2, the correct outcome would be:

2. Readers would lack context to understand what a centrifuge is and why it is important.

By placing the information about Manu Prakash's background and his experiences in Uganda first, readers would not have the foundational knowledge about what a centrifuge is and its significance in medical diagnostics. This would make it harder for them to fully appreciate the importance of Prakash's project and the problem it aims to address.