Foldscope: The Paper Microscope
Microscopes are crucial for diagnosing infectious disease. But in some ways they’re the worst possible device—heavy, expensive, and hard to maintain. Paper microscopes, also known as foldscopes, contain all the crucial parts within one foldable sheet of paper. They can be optimized for different diseases and cost less than a dollar.Foldscope 2.0 Now Available
The Explorer Kit provides one assembled Foldscope 2.0 microscope, 3 lenses, a selection of our most popular accessories, and a beautiful metal storage box.
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Foldscope was awarded the
Golden Goose Award
The Golden Goose Award, organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, highlights ideas that start modestly but become breakthrough inventions.
Foldscopes Distributed:
2+ Million
Countries:
164+
Workshops:
10,000+
External Publications:
750+
Foldscope as a Teaching Tool
Foldscope provides a low cost and convenient way for teachers to give students a visual demonstration of the microscopic world of which they learn in their textbooks. Slides can be displayed on mobile phones or projected for classrooms.
The Foldscope Instrument has a magnification of 140x and 2 micron resolution. With those capabilities, the many wonders of the microscopic world are at your fingertips!
Foldscop Grants
Calling all Teachers: Foldscope Grants are available for teachers who want an untra-affordable way to bring the microscopic world into their classroom
What Can You See?
With a magnification of 140x, you can see tiny things like bacteria, blood cells, and single-celled organisms like copepods, tardigrades, tetrahymena, diatoms, rotifers, nematodes and more. As well as larger things like a insects, fabrics, tissues! Foldscope can also allow the observation of non-biological samples, such as particulates detrimental to air quality, or the microscopic crystalline differences between real and fake medications.
To learn more about Foldscope visit their website.