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Links to our most popular videos below are posted here for your convenience. You will find dozens more of microfluidic musical videos in our YouTube Channel.

Microfluidic Dance to Vivaldi

The seven microvalves at the bottom regulate the flow of dyes and open and close in synchrony with music. Software directs each microvalve to respond to a particular band of frequencies just like an equalizer creates light effects at a discotheque. The microvalves are constructed in transparent rubber and are about the width of a human hair. Since it is so small, a microvalve can respond to music very fast. The fluid layer in this device is less than one tenth of a millimeter deep. At these small scales, turbulence never occurs and fluids don't mix well, so instead of mixing the seven "laminar" streams perform a beautiful dance.

Microfluidic Equalizer -- Schumann's Quartet for Piano

Each of the 7 microvalves (bottom of the image) opens when the music volume exceeds a set threshold in a given band of frequency assigned to that microvalve. The script that converts the music into on/off signal for the microvalves is written in LabView. The microvalves open microchannels containing dye. Flanking the microvalves is a constant background flow of colorless water, which keeps the dyed fluids focused in separate streams. Due to a microfabrication defect, the microvalves leak fluid even when closed, but that produces a pleasant artistic effect. The music is the 2nd movement of the Quartet for Piano by Robert Schumann, interpreted by the Beaux Arts Trio (piano: Menahem Pressler). Unfortunately, about 40 sec into the music, a bubble developed inside the second left-most channel (blocking it), so it stopped producing a colored stream.

Microfluidic Ballet to Shostakovich

Here we present a microfluidic ballet to the music of Dimitri Shostakovich. The "dancers" of this ballet are seven streams of food-coloring dye controlled by microvalves (bottom of the image). The device operates essentially as a flow equalizer: each of the seven microvalves opens when the music volume exceeds a set threshold in a given band of frequency arbitrarily assigned to that microvalve. Flanking the microvalves is a constant background flow of colorless water, which keeps the colored fluids focused in separate streams. Due to a microfabrication defect, the microvalves leak fluid even when closed, but that produces a pleasant artistic effect. We have displayed the movie in negative tone to convey the ambiance of a theater at night.

Microfluidic Equalizer -- Carmen Suite (Bizet/Sarasate)

Microfluidic equalizer. Music by Georges Bizet, from the Opera Carmen, transcribed for the violin by Sarasate, played by Anne-Sophie Mutter. Each of the 7 microvalves (bottom of the image) opens when the music volume exceeds a set threshold in a given band of frequency assigned to that microvalve. The script that converts the music into on/off signal for the microvalves is written in LabView. The microvalves open microchannels containing dye. Flanking the microvalves is a constant background flow of colorless water, which keeps the dyed fluids focused in separate streams. Due to a microfabrication defect, the microvalves leak fluid even when closed, but that produces a pleasant artistic effect.

Paper microfluidics #2

Paper Microfluidics. Inspired by research from the Yager lab (UW BioE). See "Controlled reagent transport in disposable 2D paper networks", Elain Fu, Barry Lutz, Peter Kauffman and Paul Yager, Lab on a Chip, 10: 918 - 920 (2010). For this video, the paper is cut with scissors from Millipore HiFlo Plus HFB07504 sheets, which flows at 4 cm in 75 sec. Music: 2nd movement (Adagio) of the Concerto for Oboe by Alessandro Marcello, one of the jewels of baroque music.

Microfluidic device with microvalves (chamber area) [Folch lab]

A microfluidic cell perfusion device (Cooksey et al., Lab on a Chip 9, 417, 2010) allows for selecting dozens of combinations of 16 inputs and various flow rates into the chamber, where the fluids are mixed into gradients of various shapes (depending on the inlet combination and flow rate choice). The selection of each inlet combination and flow rate value is done by means of microvalves (not seen in this picture), which can be changed dynamically several times per second. The side channels have been designed for cell seeding.

Pronounced Folk :-)