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Luc S. • 9 years ago

I <3 science

Bently • 9 years ago

What do you mean you're less than three science? ;D

Cool Hand Luke • 9 years ago

No, <3 is the symbol for "mooning"... Luc likes to moon science

JasonD • 9 years ago

<3 is the sign for heart or love. Therefore, Luc is saying he loves science.

Dave Ferreira • 9 years ago

If you think that "<3 Science" is the symbol for "I love science" ... then I'm not convinced you REALLY love science. I'm more inclined to believe you just love social media. ;)

fenglin • 9 years ago

They know...

The Mad Asshatter • 9 years ago

Bently winked ;D

Bil1F • 9 years ago

@Luc: Actually, this is (clever) engineering (with which you can do science), done by a clever team of bioengineers--GOOD JOB!

Luc S. • 9 years ago

Fair enough. I look at engineering and science as hand-in-glove: they are so interdependent as one gives the others tools to advance which gives the others tools to advance, etc.

Wiz Bang • 9 years ago

It's just so much cooler to say "mad scientist" even though really all villains are mad engineers ;)

Luc S. • 9 years ago

Misunderstood geniuses.

Bil1F • 9 years ago

@Luc: Engineering asks "HOW" (can I accomplish this goal?); science asks "WHY" (does this or that happen; what are the underlying reasons?). Both are part of the process of acquiring knowledge, but at different places along the spectrum.

FLCPA • 9 years ago

When they ran this story 6 month ago

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/...

It was stated to cost only 50 cents, they have more then doubled the cost.

Les Nightingill • 9 years ago

According to the paper[1] that introduced the foldscope, the material cost is 58c for the low-power scope and 98c when equipped with the high-power lens.

[1]http://arxiv.org/pdf/1403.1... (recommended reading!)

Phorce1 • 9 years ago

So the MSRP will be USD $29.99 for the low power and USD $39.99 for the high power

Les Nightingill • 9 years ago

they just gave away for free 10,000 of these to users in 130 countries

Kyle S • 9 years ago

They raised the price by 50 cents!

Guest • 9 years ago
Swathi Manchikanti • 9 years ago

I died laughing

Christopher Thompson • 9 years ago

They forgot about marketing fees.

sneha • 9 years ago

Next time shouldnt they be puttin up an article on why hike in cost of advertising is unavoidable?

SjMills • 9 years ago

This is a job for Planet Money!

curiousg • 9 years ago

This is so totally awesome. If every school child had one of these, just imagine how excited about science they would be !

Herman Amorinsolitus • 9 years ago

This is freakin’ cool ! In the fifties, I bought a metal microscope from Allied-Radio Shack for ten bucks that magnified 600 power, so I could look at my blood and leaf stomata, stuff like that.

I wanna get one of these!

Joe Gandalf • 9 years ago

Even a $15,000 microscope can't manage useful magnification of 2000x. The ball lens that this device uses does allow for such magnifications, although with significant distortion anywhere away from the center of the image. But Leeuwenhoek managed quite nicely using this technology. As an avid amateur microscopist I look forward to playing with some of these configurations.

Steve O • 9 years ago

It should be possible to correct for any distortions by calibrating the scope electronically, and then running the image through a computer program. Calibrate by viewing a tiny grid pattern.

Bil1F • 9 years ago

The article says, "Then he and his team run the paper through a special printer that
actually prints a lens on the paper. "You should think of it as a drop
of glue, a tiny drop of glue," he says, "except it is an optical-quality
glue.""

That 2nd sentence is ambiguous: you can interpret it as a high-quality ball lens, or as a lens with non-spherical (corrected) surfaces printed by a 3-D printer--in the latter case, you could have a lot less distortion!

FLCPA • 9 years ago

There are two different microscopes, the printed lens at 140x magnification. And ball lens of created sapphire for 2080x magnification

Guest • 9 years ago
HistoryChannelGuy • 9 years ago

I'm not sure that would help the poor fanatics. But it's a start!

Guest • 9 years ago

Cost less than $1.00 to MAKE.

Now on sale for $29.99 at your local Walmart Super Store.

You wouldn't believe the markup retailers get, on a lot of the stuff that comes from China.

Vicar In Ubuntu • 9 years ago

Ah don't worry, I'm sure Amazon will have it for around $1

($6 +s/h for non-Prime customers)

ted hices • 9 years ago
And here's the coolest part: You put the microscope together yourself, by folding it.

They're $1 and very portable. That's what is cool.

Stephen Linton • 9 years ago

$1 for the Foldscope; $99 for the iScope

thtgy • 9 years ago

Science, and more importantly education, need to be made more accessible in the world.

Liam Fulton • 9 years ago

AWESOME!! hope this invention saves many lives!

lupination • 9 years ago

Some of those pieces are very clearly Space Invaders. Conspiracy.

Dagny George • 9 years ago

That's great. Bravo!

Babinkley • 9 years ago

Absolutely wonderful!

Matthew • 9 years ago

Better buy a few for when you screw up the folding. Otherwise you may get a microscope shaped like a paper crane...

Josey Peters • 9 years ago

Stanford university! I bought one of these from the back of a comic book in the 70's ! I will say however they're very price competitive at 1$.

Innavoig • 9 years ago

Kids will love it!

Vicar In Ubuntu • 9 years ago

O_O I want one

JUSTIN LITTELL • 9 years ago

Bravo!

Tracey • 9 years ago

I want to know what kind of printer can print "optical quality glue"

tMarie • 9 years ago

Very cool idea and, potentially, of great benefit, but I also have some questions. Typically, any magnification of 1000X or greater requires oil to have proper resolution. The caption says this scope does 2000X. How is the resolution? What about focus?

Manu Prakash • 9 years ago

Please see here for all the possible details; specially the supplementary section..
http://www.plosone.org/arti...

cheers
Manu

Gino K • 9 years ago

These guys are genius, thinking BIG picture while keeping it simple. Human ingenuity is amazing...

Any Mouse • 9 years ago

And just a couple months ago I spent $200 on my own microscope... dangit!

Steve O • 9 years ago

You can also rig up a microscope using a smartphone, and the lens from a laser pointer.