HACKER Q&A
📣 iamnotwhoiam

Was Theranos' product impossible or just a failure?


For any HNers in biochem, how ridiculous was the idea of what they were selling? Blood tests with small amounts of blood doesn't strike me as impossible, but I don't know anything about the subject.

Is this closer to AMD Bulldozer or to me raising $BILLIONS for my "quantum-computer-in-this-box-you-cant-open"?

  👤 dr_faustus Accepted Answer ✓
No biochem, but from what I read, it was highly doubtful that the product could even theoretically work because blood is not a completely homogeneous fluid. Concentrations of the things you want to test for vary by quite a lot if you take tiny samples from different places (esp. blood from small capillaries like in the finger tip).

That's (at least one reason) why "normal" blood draws are quite a lot of blood. By thoroughly mixing the drawn blood, you get a much better approximation of the average concentration throughout the body.