The author uses supporting details to highlight the critical role of the paper centrifuge in enabling medical diagnostics in under-resourced areas. By discussing the challenges faced by clinics in rural regions, such as a lack of electricity and access to traditional, bulky centrifuges, the author underscores the vulnerability of communities to diseases like malaria. The mention of Manu Prakash’s experience in Uganda serves as a poignant example, illustrating the dire circumstances where even broken centrifuges are repurposed as doorstops. These details collectively emphasize the paper centrifuge's potential as a low-cost, accessible solution to enhance healthcare in resource-limited settings, ultimately showcasing its importance for global health initiatives.
"How a Children's Toy
Could Help Fight
Malaria"
by Jason Daley
One of the most basic and necessary pieces of equipment in a medical lab 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 diseases 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
"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," Prakash tells Devin Powell at Nature.
Use the article to answer the question.
In 3-5 sentences, analyze how the author uses supporting details throughout the text to explain the importance of the paper centrifuge for all communities.
1 answer