How does the foldscope microscope work?

Asked by LostInParadise (31905

) April 27th, 2015

There is a wonderful project that aims to uncover malaria cases by offering people 50 cent microscopes to diagnose the disease. Link Whenever the foldscope is made available to the public, I would be glad to pay several times the 50 cent cost to help support the cause and have a neat toy to play with.

It is hard to find a simple explanation for how the lens is created. I am sure there must be some high tech that is going on behind the scenes. Does anyone have any idea of what process might be used to create the lenses?

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1 Answer

It’s uses a ball lens, like the earliest microscopes made by van Leeuwenhoek.

Here’s how he made the lenses:
“By placing the middle of a small rod of soda lime glass in a hot flame, van Leeuwenhoek could pull the hot section apart like taffy to create two long whiskers of glass. By then reinserting the end of one whisker into the flame, he could create a very small, high-quality glass sphere. These glass spheres then became the lenses of his microscopes, with the smallest spheres providing the highest magnifications.”

jaytkay (25810

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