Liquid Logic: Tiny plumbing networks concoct and compute

Inspired by microelectronics, scientists have been shrinking the cluttered labware used for chemical and biological studies onto tiny fluid-manipulating chips (SN: 8/15/98, p. 104: http://new.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/8_15_98/bob1.htm). Now, a team of California researchers has made two such devices that leap ahead of the others in both complexity and controllability.