The business of chemical analysis has a long history, possibly
going back to the 1600s. But modern analytical chemistry truly began in the
1830s with the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, who discovered that each
element gives off a characteristic spectrum of light when heated. He developed
the technique of emission spectroscopy and the Bunsen burner to heat elements.
Then, he went on to perfect a battery made of zinc and carbon using nitric acid
with which he extracted metals from their salts by electrolysis.
Despite some obvious advances, chemical analysis of any type
remained an awkward, laborious process throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, much as it had
been in Bunsen’s time. It also continued to require a great deal of laboratory
equipment and time. Nevertheless, efforts were always underway to streamline
analytical processes — whether in science, medicine, or industry — and make
them more widely available and easier to use.
As far back as the mid-1950s, micro-technology began to develop
and by the mid-‘60s it was being applied to chips used as pressure sensors.
Soon, that technology was being used for various applications, including making
sensors for airbags in automobiles. It was at that point that scientists began
using Micro Electro Mechanical Systems — or MEMS — to handle minute quantities
of fluids.
In the process, they developed tiny capillary channels, mixers,
valves, pumps, and measuring devices. The term “lab on a chip” arose in
connection with these experiments. The first actual chip-based analytical
system was built at Stanford University in 1974 for gas chromatography.
Intense interest in this field grew throughout the 1980s and
‘90s. But big advances only came in the mid-‘90s, as researchers realized how useful
lab on a chip technology could be for genetic research. DNA micro-arrays for
genetic analysis were developed, and DARPA began funding research on portable
biological and chemical warfare detection systems.
As computer chip technology, microelectronics, and
micro-mechanical systems...
