Foldscope microscope

This Cheap Paper Microscope Lets Anyone Do Science : Short Wave Manu Prakash is the co-inventor of the Foldscope, a low-cost microscope aimed at making scientific tools more accessible. We chat with him about why he wants to change how we think about science, and what it'll take to make science something everyone is able to enjoy. Manu Prakash, 2016 MacArthur Fellow, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Manu Prakash is the co-inventor of the Foldscope, a low-cost microscope aimed at making scientific tools available for everyone. We chat with him about why he wants to change how we think about science, and what it'll take to make science something everyone is able to enjoy. To learn more about the Foldscope, check out As always, you can follow Maddie on Twitter — she's

A new microscope can be printed on a flat piece of paper and assembled with a few extra components in less than 10 minutes. All the parts to make it cost less than a dollar, according to Stanford bioengineer Manu Prakash and colleagues, who describe their origami optics this week in a The goal, as Prakash explains in a Two disease-causing microbes, Giardia lamblia (left) and Leishmania donovani (right), as seen through the folding microscope. Image: Cybulski et al., arxiv.org An outline of the parts that make up the body of the microscope can be printed on card stock and then punched out. The additional parts include a lens, an LED for illumination and a button battery like the ones used to power a digital watch. The principles of origami allow all the optical parts to line up properly when the scope is folded together (see more about how they're made in the video below). Samples can be mounted to a sticky piece of tape, which takes the place of a glass microscope slide. Depending on the lens, the scope can provide up to 2,000X magnification, enough to see the parasites that cause malaria and other diseases. An individual scope can be made in different configurations for different purposes. Using certain colored LEDs for example, turns it into a fluorescent microscope capable of visualizing specific proteins or other biomolecules labeled with fluorescent dyes. The microscopes can run for up to 50 hours on a single battery. They're tough too. They can withstand being droppe...

Why invent a paper microscope? Microscopes are important tools for science, but they are often expensive to access and own. Foldscope’s design uses low-cost materials (like paper) to provide a research quality microscope for a fraction of the price so that everyone can explore the microscopic world. What can you see with a Foldscope? Foldscope’s lens has a magnification of 140x. With that, you can see tiny things like bacteria, blood cells, and single-celled organisms like copepods, tardigrades, tetrahymena, diatoms, rotifers, nematodes and more. As well as larger things like a insects, fabrics, tissues! Foldscope can also allow the observation of non-biological samples, such as particulates detrimental to air quality, or the microscopic crystalline differences between real and fake medications. Despite a number of amazing applications already demonstrated, we know there is so much untapped potential. Make the journey your own! See for yourself what Foldscope users are exploring on our Do I need a camera phone to use the Foldscope? No. Our philosophy is to bring the microscopic world to everyone. For this reason, Foldscope is designed to be an independent instrument and does not require a phone to use. Foldscope can be coupled to phones/iPads/ recording devices. No special app is required- your standard camera application will suffice! Learn how to collect photo and video data here What is on the Microcosmos? The Microcosmos website is where Foldscope users from around the...

Foldscope was invented by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski. The invention occurred while Jim was a PhD student in Manu's laboratory at Stanford University. The inspiration for the Foldscope came from visits to field stations where they continually encountered bulky, broken microscopes, or a lack of microscopes entirely. As traditional microscopes are often expensive or cumbersome, they realized the universal scale of this problem and the need for a low-cost, revolutionary solution. “What is the best microscope you can build for under $1 in parts?” This question motivated their work. In the early days of the project, ideas for the low-cost microscope were sketched down on paper. These sketches struck a chord. Although the sketching on paper was initially simply practical-- it also alluded to a critical revelation in the search for a low cost medium: paper! Paper is a brilliant and versatile material, as it is not only very inexpensive, but also gives rise to precision when it is folded into specific configurations. The project blossomed into the invention of the Foldscope, the foldable microscope made mostly of paper, that to this day still achieves the goal of being less than one U.S. dollar in parts. The revolutionary affordability of microscopy provided by the Foldscope inspired the pair to get their tool into as many hands as possible… Foldscope’s pilot program began in 2014 with support from the Moore Foundation, Stanford University’s Spectrum Medtech and the Coulter Foun...