Flutterby™! : low-cost PCR

Here's one for John of Genehack. Phil's musings about biotech have turned me on to A Low-Cost Approach to PCR(ISBN 0-19-511926-6). I've only read the intro and done a quick skim of one of the appendices, but this looks very cool. PCR is Polymerase Chain Reaction, the book steps through how to take a DNA sample, replicate it enough that you can do something interesting with it, then use gel electrophoresis to be able to compare it to other samples. Not quite sequencing ala the human genome project, but comparisons of the sort that many crime labs do. One of its targets is doctors and clinics in third world countries who could use this method to, for instance, classify infections within a day rather than having to do culturing which can take weeks, or inspectors who want to verify exactly what sort of meat is being sold in a market, but it looks like fun. As if I needed another project, I'm keeping my eyes open for an old record player (to make a horizontal shaker, and two blenders (for a centrifuge and a vortex mixer)...