April 25, 2026
Hot takes in a hot tube
PCR Is a (Surprisingly) Near-Optimal Technology
Near-perfect PCR? Commenters say the bottleneck is people, not the box
TLDR: Niko McCarty says the DNA-copying workhorse PCR is already close to optimal, and flashy light-based upgrades may not hit labs soon. Commenters split between “speed doesn’t matter, workflow does,” “robots will care,” and “consumables drain budgets,” with some betting outsiders will force change anyway.
Biology writer Niko McCarty set out to roast PCR—the lab world’s DNA photocopier—as stale tech, but his own research flipped the script: it’s already pretty close to optimal. He even handed out microgrants for flashy “photonic PCR” ideas that use light to heat samples, then concluded it probably won’t land in most labs soon. And the comments? Absolute fire.
Lab veterans piled in to say speeding up the machine is a sideshow because the slow part is everything around it: prep, setup, and cleanup. One quipped that shaving minutes off the run is like “making the microwave faster while you still peel potatoes by hand.” Others rallied behind automation, arguing that when robots run experiments nonstop, tiny gains add up fast.
Skeptics pushed back on the “near-optimal” label. As commenter ajb snapped, this isn’t proven by physics—just by surveying options—and history shows cheaper gear often breaks in from the outside. Cost drama erupted too: bsder compared PCR rigs to lathes—the real bill is the endless consumables, not the machine. Nostalgia made a cameo when bahador linked a Veritasium deep-dive on the enzyme that made PCR explode.
Bottom line: The thread split into Team “It’s the workflow, stupid,” Team “Robots will care,” and Team “Follow the money,” with memes about printer-ink pricing and “your pipetting is the bottleneck” stealing the show. Read Niko’s essay here for the spark fueling the flame.
Key Points
- •The author set out to argue PCR could be made significantly faster and cheaper but found improvements are generally modest and adoption barriers exist.
- •Two photonic PCR proposals (by Sebastian Cocioba and “Utah” Hans) aim to use LEDs/lasers for rapid heating, targeting ~40 cycles in about six minutes.
- •McCarty awarded $3,500 in microgrants to support these photonic PCR ideas, funded by Astera Institute.
- •Even small time gains in PCR can have broad impact due to its ubiquity and the growing role of automated, 24/7 lab workflows.
- •The article explains standard PCR: denaturation (~96°C), annealing (~60°C), extension (~70°C), with ~30 cycles yielding about 1.07 billion molecules under ideal conditions.