Well not that big, but not the rediculously small size that they falsly presented.

Is it really impossible to do the 50 or so usual tests with only a single drop of blood?

[Edit: added the words "but actually works" in the description]
-- pashute, Aug 06 2020

A novel device for collecting and dispensing fingerstick blood https://www.ncbi.nl...rticles/PMC5570352/
[pashute, Aug 10 2020]

rHealth. https://www.rhealth.../rhealth-technology
more baked than wibni [pashute, Aug 10 2020]

About rHealth (Genalyte) https://www.fastcom...te-proves-its-worth
Including a video of how it works [pashute, Aug 10 2020]

What's the difference between Thanos and Theranos?

One makes half your wealth disappear, the other, all of it.
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 06 2020


// Is it really impossible to do the 50 or so usual tests with only a single drop of blood? //

With your current wet-biochemistry technologies, yes.

In the future, no - likely to be practical, and indeed many diagnoses and measurements may become non-invasive, using saliva or other ... bodily fluids.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 06 2020


[marked-for-deletion] Wasn't that cool, that thing at the center of the well-known large-scale fraud?

If you have disposable income and like to listen to, or read, true crime books -- I very much enjoyed "Bad Blood" (the 2018 book, not the Taylor Swift song) by the (then-) Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou, who was one of the first calling bullshit on the company and deeply reported on it across the arc of its existence. It goes a little bit into technical details of why getting microsampling right is so hard, based on interviews with technicians who were trying to make the "inventions" work behind the scenes. (I have no opinion on the Taylor Swift song.)
-- jutta, Aug 08 2020


// Wasn't that cool, that thing at the center of the well-known large-scale fraud? //

What, "Democracy" you mean ... ?

<Realizes previous anno is by SWMBO/>

<Sound of Borg Collective having a quiet little panic/>
-- 8th of 7, Aug 08 2020


//wet-biochemistry technologies//

Patterns of spotlight EM reflections, transmissions and absorption ? Ultimately, doesn't everything sing differently in it's own unique way ?
-- wjt, Aug 09 2020


In an answer to the question Could Theranos have ever worked, by a blood testing expert with 40 years of experience:

Yes. Most biochemistry tests now only need a few microlitres of blood. But you need to allow for repeat testing and some tests need different anticoagulants.

And there's a 2017 invention that may allow this to be applicable, see link.

And then there is rHealth. See link

When Holms was a student she was told by Professor Phyllis Gardener that "when a finger is pricked, the probe breaks up cells, allowing debris, among other things, to escape into the interstitial fluid. While it is feasible to test for pathogens this way, a pinprick is too unreliable for obtaining more nuanced readings. Furthermore, there isn’t that much reliable data that you can reap from such a small amount of blood."
-- pashute, Aug 10 2020


If the universe is a hologram then the smallest part has all information.

More likely, in reality, a tiny sample has to contain a key giving the answer to the question, or an answer inferred from a set of keys.

Too tiny a sample and the set of keys just won't be there.
-- wjt, Sep 13 2020



random, halfbakery