Economically recovering natural gas from shale deposits depends on advanced drilling techniques. This video illustrates how horizontal drilling allows gas producers to follow a shale deposit for up to a mile, greatly increasing the productivity of the well. It also illustrates the technique of “fracturing,” in which large volumes of water are used to shatter the shale, allowing the natural gas to flow to the well.
This video illustrates how estrogen is extracted from a drop of human blood using a novel microfluidics chip developed at the University of Torotono. The samples are lysed, and then the estrogen is extracted into a polar solvent (methanol), while the unwanted parts of the blood sample are extracted into a non-polar solvent (isooctane).
Massachusetts Institute of Technology