Microfluidics in Late Adolescence

George Whitesides is a Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers Professor at Harvard University. In this contribution he describes the development of microfluidic techniques, from the spark that ignited this branch of academic research and its industrial sibling, to potential future application within medicine, security and organic synthesis. The diversity in technologies as well as in applications makes this an intriguing story, but it is in the simplest of materials - paper - that we find some of the most successful applications so far.