Beck was able to get his equipment down to about 30 pounds with the new dry-plate method, needing only an assistant or two to help carry the camera and a big wooden tripod up a mountain.

WSJ: Photographic Balancing Acts | Swiss Alpine Museum | He Cut a Fresh Path in Mountain Photography | By Michael J. Ybarra

The loss of the hi-tech equipment has focused attention on the data gathered by the tried-and-tested method of drilling through the ice by hand.

BBC: Arctic team gives up on ice radar

It developed a method to rapidly screen the Pap samples for those mutations using standard genetics equipment that Diaz said wouldn't add much to the cost of a Pap-plus-HPV test.

NPR: Retooling Pap Test To Spot More Kinds Of Cancer

Cofounder Platz found that spray drying, a method of dehydration used to make powdered milk, produced a consistent particle, but the testing equipment was designed to make only a few grams per day.

FORBES: The Impossible Made Possible

Patsalis of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics said his team is developing a noninvasive method to test for Down syndrome by comparing fetal DNA to the mother's using standard lab equipment, instead of pricey gene-sequencing gear.

WSJ: New Prenatal Tests Offer Safer, Early Screenings