This review by Professor Weitz from Harvard University and Professor Shum from the University of Hong Kong provides an in-depth look at the development and future prospects of droplet microfluidics. Over the past two decades, droplet microfluidics has gained significant traction across multiple disciplines, including materials science and biology. The review discusses the physical mechanisms behind high-throughput droplet generation and manipulation, highlighting their applications in droplet-derived materials and droplet-based biotechnology. It also offers insights into the potential for wider use in industrial production and biomedical analyses. The review covers the fabrication of microfluidic devices, the physics of droplet formation, and the synthesis of droplet-derived materials. It details the use of capillary devices and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) devices for droplet generation, emphasizing the importance of channel wettability and fluid dynamics. The review further explores the applications of droplet microfluidics in materials science, such as the synthesis of microparticles and microcapsules, and in biotechnology, including single-target analyses, droplet digital ELISA, drug screening, and directed evolution. The authors discuss the challenges and future directions of droplet microfluidics, emphasizing the need for democratizing the technology to economically produce large quantities of lower-value-added materials and improving the labeling and retention of droplet contents in lab-on-a-chip applications. They conclude by highlighting the potential for droplet microfluidics to revolutionize industrial production and biomedical analyses.This review by Professor Weitz from Harvard University and Professor Shum from the University of Hong Kong provides an in-depth look at the development and future prospects of droplet microfluidics. Over the past two decades, droplet microfluidics has gained significant traction across multiple disciplines, including materials science and biology. The review discusses the physical mechanisms behind high-throughput droplet generation and manipulation, highlighting their applications in droplet-derived materials and droplet-based biotechnology. It also offers insights into the potential for wider use in industrial production and biomedical analyses. The review covers the fabrication of microfluidic devices, the physics of droplet formation, and the synthesis of droplet-derived materials. It details the use of capillary devices and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) devices for droplet generation, emphasizing the importance of channel wettability and fluid dynamics. The review further explores the applications of droplet microfluidics in materials science, such as the synthesis of microparticles and microcapsules, and in biotechnology, including single-target analyses, droplet digital ELISA, drug screening, and directed evolution. The authors discuss the challenges and future directions of droplet microfluidics, emphasizing the need for democratizing the technology to economically produce large quantities of lower-value-added materials and improving the labeling and retention of droplet contents in lab-on-a-chip applications. They conclude by highlighting the potential for droplet microfluidics to revolutionize industrial production and biomedical analyses.