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High-Powered, 3D-Printed Microscope for Mobile Devices Costs Pennies

There are a few devices that use a variety of approaches to leverage a cell phone camera into a microscope, but many are bulky, expensive, hard to align, or are lower powered. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researchers have developed an inexpensive, 3D printable version that can magnify a sample by 1,000 times. PNNL made the design specifications available to the public so anyone with access to a 3D printer can make their own microscope. The microscope, made out of plastic and inexpensive glass beads traditionally used for reflective pavement markings at airports, slips over the camera lens of the cell phone and is no thicker than a phone case. It's designed to fit several popular cell phone brands and tablets. The material cost, not including the printer, is under $1. Low cost was a driver in the development, as the microscope needed to be so cheap it could literally be thrown away if it gets contaminated. The researchers believe the device can fill a need for professional first responders identifying biological samples in the field, teachers and students in classrooms, and health workers.

Topics:
Cameras Defense Diagnostics Electronics & Computers Imaging Manufacturing & Prototyping Materials Medical Photonics Plastics Rapid Prototyping & Tooling

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    Transcript

    00:00:05 now that we've printed our plastic housing we're going to use a little inexpensive glass bead you can buy these online for about a penny each when you combine a modern smartphone with a 400-year-old design for a microscope you get a very inexpensive small device capable of detecting Anthrax or simply looking closer at a bug or a leaf there was a scientist his last name was lean

    00:00:27 hook and he was really a Pioneer in getting a very small handheld microscope and it was really the first time that people were able to see things at a high magnification and he achieved that using a small spherical glass bead as his first model researchers at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory did the same thing creating a small housing for the beads

    00:00:49 on a 3D printer the resulting designs can be made from pennies worth of plastic and glass materials so we have three different magnifications now we have 100x x a 350X and a 1000x and we've also made different versions that will fit multiple phones we've found that the iPhone 5 provides a more optimal picture but it is capable

    00:01:13 of functioning on multiple smartphones and tablets pnnl researchers working in National Security were looking to develop a tool for First Responders say when a suspicious white powder is discovered so the HazMat team U would arrive at the scene and they could take a little bit of the sample put it in a Ziploc bag and then use the use the microscope to image right through that

    00:01:36 bag and then the image could be sent to a trained microbiologist sitting you know in a lab across the country it would allow decisions in the field to be made more quickly and at the other end of the spectrum be a great tool to inspire students interest in science I think for Education it gives opportunity to the to all sorts of different backgrounds be it Elementary School all

    00:02:01 way up to high school and even just a career scientist too the ability to look at microscopic organisms easily without having a big bulky microscope is a beautiful thing pnnl is making the designs available online so that anyone with access to a 3D printer including school districts can make their own microscopes w