The Boom method (Boom nucleic acid extraction method)
is a solid phase extraction method for isolating nucleic acids (NA)
from biological samples. Silica beads are a key element to this method, which are capable of binding the nucleic acids in the presence of a chaotropic substance according to the chaotropic effect.
This method is one of the most widespread methods for isolating nucleic acids from biological samples and is known as a simple, rapid, and reliable method for the small-scale purification of nucleic acid from biological sample.
This method is said to have been developed and invented by Willem R. Boom et al. around 1990.
While the chaotropic effect was previously known and reported by other scientists,
Boom et al. contributed an optimization of the method to complex starting materials, such as body fluids and other biological starting materials, and provided a short procedure according to the Boom et al. US5234809. After the Boom et al. patent  was filed,
similar applications were also filed by other parties.
In a narrow sense, the word "silica" meant SiO crystals; however, other forms of silica particles are available.
In particular, amorphous silicon oxide and glass powder, alkylsilica, aluminum silicate (zeolite), or,  activated
silica with -NH, are all suitable as nucleic acid binding solid phase material according to this method.
Today, the concepts of the Boom method, characterized by utilizing magnetic silica particles, are widely used. With this method, magnetic silica beads are captured by a magnetic bead collector, such as the Tajima pipette, Pick pen(R),
Quad Pole collector, and so on.