Manu Prakash and His Frugal Science

I was so excited by Indian physicist Manu Prakash's presentation at the ISGlobal scientific meeting that I took pictures of his slides with the idea of showing them to my children at dinnertime that evening. I wanted to tell them that a man had designed a portable microscope made of folded cardboard that can be produced and distributed by the thousands. What a great idea to use the most sophisticated science to develop very simple technologies that help solve health problems in the neediest places on the planet! In particular, I photographed Manu presenting the 'manual blood centrifuge' that came out of his lab, inspired by an ancient toy: a pair of threads with a disk in the middle that, when twisted and untwisted, spins at breakneck speed. My children have one of these little toys, a modest gift - if I remember correctly - from the tooth fairy...

At home, at the table, I began to tell them:

"You won't believe what I heard today at Cosmocaixa! You see that little toy you have, the one that turns a disk when you tighten the threads? Well, today I saw a man who used the same principle to create a device that spins blood. He puts a small tube of blood on the disk, spins it, and thus separates the different cells. He can then diagnose diseases in places where there is no electricity. Everything he taught made me think a little bit of Mark Rober".

How naive of me.

From the height of his seven years, Diego answered me:

"Yes, we already know it, Mom: it's used for malaria. I saw a video of the man with the hat in your picture. They said it costs 63 cents, and you can use it anywhere. It's very cheap."

The story goes like this: My kids have long been fans of a certain Mark Rober, a charismatic California engineer who left a career at NASA to devote himself to the world of children's entertainment or, if you prefer, hands-on science communication. Every certain days, he uploads to YouTube the most bizarre gadgets, which he makes himself in his lab and explains them on camera for the simple pleasure of helping his audience to "think like an engineer". And he happens to invite scientist friends and kindred spirits to present interesting things. Manu Prakash was his guest and my kids have already seen the episode.

The stupefaction of arriving late with the latest news to my own home did not deter me. I continued to praise Prakash, the promoter of a 'frugal science', who, thinking from the difficult needs of the field - it is no coincidence that he was born in India - develops very simple technologies that can be used in poor areas, all for the sake of 'global health'. As a family, we looked at the photos of my friends and colleagues at work observing microorganisms thanks to the folding microscope (which my children - alas! - also already knew about), and I told them about the pen factory that Manu Prakash adapted to mass produce molecular diagnostic 'kits'.

In the meantime, I also wrote in my head that the next morning I would have to write to whomever I needed to ask that, should this admirable man return to Barcelona, they would please set aside a place at the table for me. I would like nothing better than to continue listening to his creative process and encouraging me to "think like a frugal physicist".