Enter to Win an iPad^® 2 in the
Small Matters Video Contest

About the Contest

Small Matters - Video Contest

This contest highlights not only the exciting scientific merit of work conducted in the area of microfluidics and nanofluidics, but also the aesthetic and artistic qualities of that science. Contest entries will be selected by a panel of scientists from the Editorial Advisory Board of Biomicrofluidics based upon criteria of scientific merit within the journal’s focus and coverage, originality, and artistry/aesthetic appeal.

One Grand Prize winner will receive an iPad® 2!

In addition, all video entries meeting the submission criteria will be published in a special section of Biomicrofluidics, and their videos will be on public display at the 3rd conference on Advances in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics in Dalian, China, 23-26 May 2012.

Contest ended. Winner will be announced soon.
View this year's contest entries

View last year's winning entry:

Microfluidic Gradient Formation by Maxwell-Wagner Polarization at an Aqueous Electric Interface

This work integrates components from AC electrokinetics, microfluidics, and cell biology to produce tunable spatial chemical gradients in a microfluidic device for studying directed cell migration. I explore a new type of Maxwell Wagner polarization for the injection of aqueous liquid across a liquid-liquid interface. The rate of injection is tunable and used to manipulate fluid much the same way dielectrophoresis is used on bioparticles; fluid can be injected into different streamlines and passed downstream to a gradient generator only when the electric field is active. The phenomenon is used to generate and control the concentration and direction of spatial chemical gradients. Finally, the controllable gradient is used to explore directed cell migration. In particular, the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoidium is shown to respond to an induced chemical gradient by migrating from low to high concentrations of cyclic 3',5'-adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) only when the electric field is active. The end result is a new type of liquid-liquid polarization that can controllably inject fluid to create controllable microenvironments for biological studies.

Watch the video on SciVee.tv

Supplementary Materials
Maxwell Wagner Polarization at an Aqueous Interface: Physics, Microfluidics and Cell Biology (PDF)

View last year’s contest finalists

Contest Rules

1. Video submissions must be original and unpublished works that have not been submitted elsewhere and do not infringe on any copyright laws. By submitting an entry, entrant warrants that he/she is the sole author and copyright owner of entry or has written permission (via license or otherwise) to use or incorporate those entry portions owned or under copyright by third parties.
2. Video submissions may not contain any offensive or inappropriate content and may not include any brand names or trademarks.
3. Entrants agree to indemnify the American Institute of Physics for any claim, demand, judgment, or other allegation arising from their possible violation of someone's trademark, copyright, or other legally protected interest.
4. Video submissions must conform to one of the following file types: .mpg, .mpeg, .avi, .asf, .asx, .flv, .wmv, .wma, .mov, .3gp, .mp4, .swf.
5. Video submissions may be no larger than 500MB.
6. The contest will close on 15 May 2012 at 11:59 p.m. New York time (EST). Entries submitted after that time or modified past the end of the contest will not be eligible. Receipt of entries will be acknowledged, but entries will not be returned.

After the contest closes, videos will be judged by a panel of scientists from the Editorial Advisory Board of Biomicrofluidics based on their scientific merit, appropriateness of theme, originality, creativity, and artistry/aesthetic appeal. The decisions of the judging panel are final and binding. The winner will be announced at the 3rd conference on Advances Microfluidics and Nanofluidics in Dalian, China, 23-26 May 2012 and will also be notified by email on or about the dates of the conference.

Submit Today!

Send an email to editdev@aip.org providing the following:

Your name
Your email
Your institution (if applicable)
A brief description of the video
The name of the video file
Upon receipt of this email, you will receive a link to the upload site and a confirmation email following a successful upload.

Reminder: Submission Deadline is extended to 15 May 2012

The Small Print for Small Matters

By entering the contest, you grant the American Institute of Physics (AIP) an irrevocable, nonexclusive and unrestricted license to use the video for purposes consistent with the promotion of the Small Matters video contest and Biomicrofluidics. You grant AIP permission to edit, modify, format, or adapt your video for AIP's purposes at AIP's sole discretion. This includes the right to copy, reproduce, display, or distribute the video, and to make derivative works based upon the video or a substantial portion of it without attribution or prior permission. Other than the authority to AIP, as set out in this paragraph, participants retain ownership rights of their videos. If you feel that your work has been displayed in an inappropriate or exploitative way, please contact us at the above email.

AIP is not responsible for late, lost, delayed, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, illegible or unintelligible entries.

By submitting a video, the entrant accepts the full terms and conditions of the contest.

Biomicrofluidics is published by the American Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) publisher whose mission is the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of the science of physics and its applications to human welfare.

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