Want to transform your smartphone into a microscope fit for top-level medical imaging? Easy. Just add a lentil-sized plastic lens to the camera and bingo, your now super-smart phone has a high-resolution microscope.

Costing less than a cent, the lens has the potential to revolutionise science and medicine in developing countries and remote areas by making the traditional bulky microscope more transportable and robust. It also makes microscopes, which have changed little in 400 years, more affordable and accessible for schools and students.

At a ceremony at Sydney Town Hall on Wednesday night, the invention by Garvan Institute of Medical Research and Australian National University researchers won the Eureka Prize for innovative use of technology.

Originally trying to develop a lens capable of being implanted into the body of a mouse, the researchers admit theirs was a chance discovery.