Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes... and GSM

Ever been afraid of breaking that expensive bit of kit? Well, says Russ Swan, that was exactly the motivation behind a remarkable new microscope made from paper… the Foldscope

If we know anything about scientific instruments, it is that they are expensive and delicate. They are also usually heavy, complicated to drive, and respond to any abuse with a quick refusal to cooperate any further. Even away from the lab bench, field instruments need to be treated with care and kept secure. Nobody wants to have to explain to the boss why a device worth the price of a new car got nicked.

What if it could be different? Cameras used to be big, expensive, and delicate, complicated to operate and prone to lengthy sulks if taken into dusty, wet, or vibrating locations. Today the go-anywhere action cam is almost as ubiquitous as the smartphone. Can technology not effect a similar miracle for basic lab equipment such as a microscope or centrifuge?

The miniaturisation and ruggedisation of instruments is hardly a new idea. One of the very first practical microscopes, made by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century, was a pocketable device about the size of a playing card. It used a tiny glass bead as a lens, and was operated by being held up to the eye so background light could shine through.

One of the very first practical microscopes, made by Anton van Leeuwenhoek in the 17th century, was a pocketable device about the size of a playing card

Fast forward a few centuries, and a new microscope bearing more than a passing resemblance to van Leeuwenhoek’s original is about to arrive in a lab near you. The Foldscope is the brainchild of Stanford biology professor Manu Prakash, and was apparently inspired by a field visit to a clinic in Thailand. When he realised that a shiny new full-size lab microscope lay unused, because the workers were afraid of breaking it, he set out to create an alternative device that would be sturdy, simple, and above all cheap. His solution is so remarkable that it has generated quite a buzz. Foldscope has a chassis stamped out of a sheet of A4 paper, folded and assembled, along with a couple of tiny bead lenses and some strips of sticky tape. It has been hyped as the ‘one-dollar’ microscope, and prompted a huge response on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter by generating almost six times its $50,000 target.

Foldscope has a chassis stamped out of a sheet of A4 paper, folded and assembled, along with a couple of tiny bead lenses and some strips of sticky tape

Prototypes were built as long ago as 2014, and early supporters have had their hands on examples for a few weeks now. The latest information is that production Foldscopes already ordered will begin shipping next month, with the astonishing ambition of reaching one million people in 2017. Those early adopters are of course people like you and me – privileged first-world geeks who could arrange access to a glass-and-metal microscope without too much difficulty. But for each individual Foldscope kit sold, a further one will be donated to a student who lacks this easy access. What’s not to like?

The basic lens provides 140x magnification, while a high-power lens takes this to 400x. By messing about with magnetic connectors and more sticky tape, a smartphone camera can become an instant digital microscope. Further messing about with a condenser lens enables the smartphone to be turned into a projection microscope, using its flash in torch mode to project an image from a microscope slide. Even those slides can be made of paper, with transparent stickers used as cover slips.

There are of course many limitations to what can be achieved with this papercraft device, and Nikon and Olympus will not be quaking in their corporate boots. Judging by the videos on foldscope.com, it looks quite a faff to assemble and I doubt whether it will tolerate many reassembly cycles. Yet the potential to bring simple microscopy to any place on the planet where an A4 envelope can be delivered is genuinely exciting. Look beyond the hype, and it’s not too hard to believe that lives will be saved by the Foldscope.

Others are dabbling with microfluidic devices produced by inkjet printing, and developing the fairly well-established idea of building diagnostic instruments on a standard CD

Is it really a one-dollar microscope? No. If you order one today, it will cost you $30 with shipping (about £24 at the time of writing), but this does also put one in a deserving student’s hands. Classroom kits of 20 are just £33 delivered. What’s more, this development has sparked a whole movement called frugal science. Professor Prakash has built a 125,000rpm microcentrifuge from paper and string, which he reckons will cost just pennies to produce. Others are dabbling with microfluidic devices produced by inkjet printing, and developing the fairly well-established idea of building diagnostic instruments on a standard CD.

Russ Swan