 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(November 2021) |
A Foldscope is an optical microscope that can be assembled from simple components, including a sheet of paper and a lens. It was created by Manu Prakash and designed to cost less than one USD to build. It is a part of the "frugal science" movement which aims to make cheap and easy tools available for scientific use in the developing world. [2]
The basic principle of using a small spherical lens held close to the eye dates back to the time of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), who was the first to see single-celled organisms using such a lens held in a device of his own design. [2]
The Foldscope was developed by a team led by Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering at the Stanford School of Medicine. [3] The project was funded by several organisations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave a grant of US$100,000 for research in November 2012.
The idea for creating a low-cost microscope came to Prakash in 2011 while he was at a field station in Thailand. He remarked that the station had a very expensive microscope but that everyone was afraid to use it because it was fragile and worth more than most people's salaries. He wanted to create an affordable microscope that would be versatile and sturdy enough to work in field conditions. He also wanted to create a device that people felt they had ownership of, which is part of the reason the Foldscope comes in a kit to be assembled. He developed the first prototype in 2014. [2]
A Foldscope is an optical microscope that can be assembled from a punched sheet of cardstock, a spherical glass lens, a light emitting diode (LED) and a diffuser panel, along with a watch battery that powers the LED. [4] Once assembled, the Foldscope is about the size of a bookmark. The Foldscope weighs 8 grams [ citation needed ] and comes in a kit with a lens that magnifies 140X. The kit also includes magnets that can be stuck onto the Foldscope to attach it to a smartphone, allowing the user to take pictures of the magnification. [2] The magnification power is enough to enable the spotting of organisms such as Leishmania donovani and Escherichia coli , as well as malarial parasites. [5] A Foldscope can be printed on a standard A4 sheet of paper and assembled in seven minutes. Prakash claims that the Foldscope can survive harsh conditions, including being thrown in water or dropped from a five-story building. [6]
Following the first generation of simple Foldscopes, twelve medical diagnostic Foldscope variants are in development with each type being designed specifically to aid in the identification of a particular disease-causing organism. Included with each Foldscope, a picture is provided of the particular microbe to look for on each disease-specific variant. To enable several people to use them at once, each microscope is able to project images with a built-in projector. [6] The Foldscope is designed to be assembled by the end user, and hence is color-coded to help with the assembly. [5] Each unit costs less than one US dollar to build, with estimates varying from 50 cents to 97 cents. [5] [6]
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation funded the "Ten Thousand Microscopes" project under which Prakash plans to give away 10,000 Foldscope kits to interested parties, including students for research. [5] [7] [8] The projects eventually expanded to 50,000 Foldscope kits. Those who received the kits were encouraged to share their experiences using the microscope on a website, Foldscope Explore, so that Prakash's team could see how people could use the Foldscope. Examples of uses submitted by testers include a plant pathologist in Rwanda who used it to examine fungi on banana crops and Maasai children in Tanzania who used it to check cow feces for parasites.
The goal of this project is not only to supply microscopes to those who would not otherwise have access to them but also to advance the general study of biomimicry. By encouraging thousands of volunteers to submit findings about the microorganisms they observe in their local environment, Prakash hopes to find more organisms that could provide clues about how to build new tools that take advantage of these organisms' natural abilities. [2]
In October 2015, India's Department of Biotechnology announced a program to make Foldscopes available across India at 80 approved colleges and programs. It will be used as a teaching tool for students in biology, chemistry and physics. After the pilot program, the department hopes to work with Prakash to develop more low-cost science tools. [9] Foldscope sets will also be produced and tested in Kenya and Uganda. [6]
Although the Foldscope has proven itself useful for a number of tasks, it is not currently adapted to be used as a medical diagnostic tool. When tested for diagnosing schistosomiasis in Ghana, for example, it was impossible to prevent contamination from urine samples because the Foldscope must be brought up to one's face to view. Jim Cybulski, a former graduate student of Prakash, is conducting research about using the Foldscope for diagnostic testing and is helping to develop a medical Foldscope that will cost $10 and have a built-in projector allowing multiple people to view the magnification. [2]
A microscope is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that contain information about the surface topography and composition of the sample. The electron beam is scanned in a raster scan pattern, and the position of the beam is combined with the intensity of the detected signal to produce an image. In the most common SEM mode, secondary electrons emitted by atoms excited by the electron beam are detected using a secondary electron detector. The number of secondary electrons that can be detected, and thus the signal intensity, depends, among other things, on specimen topography. Some SEMs can achieve resolutions better than 1 nanometer.
Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch microbiologist and microscopist in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists. Van Leeuwenhoek is best known for his pioneering work in microscopy and for his contributions toward the establishment of microbiology as a scientific discipline.
In biology, cell theory is a scientific theory first formulated in the mid-nineteenth century, that organisms are made up of cells, that they are the basic structural/organizational unit of all organisms, and that all cells come from pre-existing cells. Cells are the basic unit of structure in all organisms and also the basic unit of reproduction.
The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that commonly uses visible light and a system of lenses to generate magnified images of small objects. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and were possibly invented in their present compound form in the 17th century. Basic optical microscopes can be very simple, although many complex designs aim to improve resolution and sample contrast.
The Virtual Microscope project is an initiative to make micromorphology and behavior of some small organisms available online. Images are from Antarctica and the Baltic Sea are available at no cost. Images are offered in higher magnification or lower resolution. Varieties of images offer can include scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and are accompanied by related publications for research. The site interface is deliberately kept simple with tutorials offered in several areas. The editorial board consists of professors from several universities worldwide. Its global scope was added after its foundation, and it supervised by Rutgers University.
The microscopic scale is the scale of objects and events smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye, requiring a lens or microscope to see them clearly. In physics, the microscopic scale is sometimes regarded as the scale between the macroscopic scale and the quantum scale. Microscopic units and measurements are used to classify and describe very small objects. One common microscopic length scale unit is the micrometre, which is one millionth of a metre.
Micropaleontology is the branch of paleontology (palaeontology) that studies microfossils, or fossils that require the use of a microscope to see the organism, its morphology and its characteristic details.
An eyepiece, or ocular lens, is a type of lens that is attached to a variety of optical devices such as telescopes and microscopes. It is named because it is usually the lens that is closest to the eye when someone looks through an optical device to observe an object or sample. The objective lens or mirror collects light from an object or sample and brings it to focus creating an image of the object. The eyepiece is placed near the focal point of the objective to magnify this image to the eyes. The amount of magnification depends on the focal length of the eyepiece.
Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of very small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life size . By the original definition, a macro photograph is one in which the size of the subject on the negative or image sensor is life size or greater. In some senses, however, it refers to a finished photograph of a subject that is greater than life size.
A micrograph or photomicrograph is a photograph or digital image taken through a microscope or similar device to show a magnified image of an object. This is opposed to a macrograph or photomacrograph, an image which is also taken on a microscope but is only slightly magnified, usually less than 10 times. Micrography is the practice or art of using microscopes to make photographs.
A light field camera, also known as a plenoptic camera, is a camera that captures information about the light field emanating from a scene; that is, the intensity of light in a scene, and also the precise direction that the light rays are traveling in space. This contrasts with conventional cameras, which record only light intensity at various wavelengths.
Dark-field microscopy describes microscopy methods, in both light and electron microscopy, which exclude the unscattered beam from the image. Consequently, the field around the specimen is generally dark.
A loupe is a simple, small magnification device used to see small details more closely. They generally have higher magnification than a magnifying glass, and are designed to be held or worn close to the eye. A loupe does not have an attached handle, and its focusing lens(es) are contained in an opaque cylinder or cone. On some loupes this cylinder folds into an enclosing housing that protects the lenses when not in use.
Paper models, also called card models or papercraft, are models constructed mainly from sheets of heavy paper, paperboard, card stock, or foam.
A digital microscope is a variation of a traditional optical microscope that uses optics and a digital camera to output an image to a monitor, sometimes by means of software running on a computer. A digital microscope often has its own in-built LED light source, and differs from an optical microscope in that there is no provision to observe the sample directly through an eyepiece. Since the image is focused on the digital circuit, the entire system is designed for the monitor image. The optics for the human eye are omitted.
The stereo, stereoscopic or dissecting microscope is an optical microscope variant designed for low magnification observation of a sample, typically using light reflected from the surface of an object rather than transmitted through it. The instrument uses two separate optical paths with two objectives and eyepieces to provide slightly different viewing angles to the left and right eyes. This arrangement produces a three-dimensional visualization of the sample being examined. Stereomicroscopy overlaps macrophotography for recording and examining solid samples with complex surface topography, where a three-dimensional view is needed for analyzing the detail.
A USB microscope is a low-powered digital microscope which connects to a computer's USB port. Microscopes essentially the same as USB models are also available with other interfaces either in addition to or instead of USB, such as via WiFi. They are widely available at low cost for use at home or in commerce. Their cost varies in the range of tens to thousands of dollars. In essence, a USB microscope is a webcam with a high-powered macro lens, and generally uses reflected rather than transmitted light, using built-in LED light sources surrounding the lens. The camera is usually sensitive enough not to need additional illumination beyond normal ambient lighting. The camera attaches directly to the USB port of a computer without the need for an eyepiece, and the images are shown directly on the computer's display.
Frugal innovation or frugal engineering is the process of reducing the complexity and cost of a good and its production. Usually this refers to removing nonessential features from a durable good, such as a car or telephone, in order to sell it in developing countries. Designing products for such countries may also call for an increase in durability and, when selling the products, reliance on unconventional distribution channels. When trying to sell to so-called "overlooked consumers", firms hope volume will offset razor-thin profit margins. Globalization and rising incomes in developing countries may also drive frugal innovation. Such services and products need not be of inferior quality but must be provided cheaply. While frugal innovation has been associated with good-enough performance, in some sectors such as in healthcare, frugal innovation must offer maximum performance without compromising on quality.
Manu Prakash is an Indian scientist who is a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University. Manu was born in Meerut, India. He is best known for his contributions to the Foldscope and Paperfuge. Prakash received the MacArthur Fellowship in September 2016. He and his team are also working on a water droplet based computer in Stanford University. His work focuses on frugal innovation that makes medicine, computing and microscopy accessible to more people across the world.
