The foldscope motto is brilliant – “magnifying curiosity worldwide!”
It has been 350 years since Robert Hooke published Micrographia, and revealed the microscopic world that had been previously invisible to the masses. Micrographia was the first scientific best-seller, and made science both accessible and popular to an entire generation. Much of what we know in the sciences today can be traced to the text and plates in Micrographia.
When Stanford University bioengineer Manu Prakash traveled to a mosquito-infested rainforest in Thailand a couple of years ago, he visited a clinic with a sophisticated, $100,000 microscope that sat unused in a locked room. It was then Prakash realized that what the world really needs is an ultra-low cost, simple-to-use, portable microscope that could be deployed in the field to diagnose diseases, help students —and he took it upon himself to develop one!
Manu Prakash invented the Foldscope because he dreamed of worldwide equality of access to scientific tools. Despite its simplicity, the Foldscope is a highly functional microscope that can be used to examine specimens on slides up to X 140 magnification with the standard lens. The microscope requires no power, is indestructible and can be mounted to a smart phone for digital image recording. What we truly love about this system is the unlimited potential for children and hopefully adults to explore the unseen world.
As we rely on science to describe and understand the world around us, our fascination with the microscope continues to be illuminated. In the science community we constantly see more efficient and powerful instruments entering the market place. Yet, in the scurry to find solid answers to big questions, at NMS, we could not help but find ourselves intrigued with the Foldscope.
To date, Foldscopes have been used by over half a million people in over 135 countries.
There are so many applications for the foldscope. It has great potential in education and to inspire budding scientists, but can also make a serious contribution to research and solving real world problems. For example, the Foldscope can be used to detect microbial contaminants in rural drinking water supplies, or possibly in diagnosing blood-borne diseases.
This frugal tool not only contributes to democratizing science and making it accessible to many that would otherwise have to rely on a textbook, it holds tremendous potential to unlock and unleash curiosity and creativity. Foldscope and frugal science in general also demonstrate that you don’t need access to expensive equipment to become the next great scientist who comes up with an invention that changes the world. Sometimes a sense of wonder, quenchless curiosity and inexpensive resources can lead to unexpected discoveries.
Encouraging people to explore the microscopic world, or microcosmos with their own pocket microscope provides a hugely valuable opportunity to stimulate interest and engagement with the world around them. Aside from the obvious benefits of a scientifically-educated public, less predictable benefits have arisen from the collaboration of scientists and common folks.
Not only will Foldscope give healthcare workers around the globe better ways to detect, and thereby treat, disease, it will also place magnifying power within the reach of all the world’s students, enabling them to ask and answer a great many scientific questions.
Imagine a world in which every child carries a 30-35 rupees portable microscope, and brings science out of the lab and into real-world biology.
