Aside from the logo of Spartan Bioscience, the Canadian company behind it, there's nothing much that tells you what it can do. But this unassuming device holds within it a bona fide revolution—at least, according to the medical doctor behind its design.

Or, if you're a cynic, it's a Pandora's box.

I recently drove out to the Ottawa suburbs to pay a visit to the offices of Paul Lem, founder and CEO of Spartan Bioscience, and his team of over 70 bright-young-things. Lem says the Spartan Cube can perform a range of diagnostics, including infectious disease and genetics tests, quicker, and more cheaply, than many other DNA testing machines.