Sep 17, 2014

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a sleek, simple and inexpensive way to turn a cell phone into a high powered, high quality microscope that can be used to identify biological samples in the field.

Using glass spheres as a microscope lens is not a new idea, optically, but the small size of the housing combined with very high magnification and extremely low cost is what makes this device practical.

There are a few other 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. The PNNL team developed a 3D printed clip that attaches to a cell phone and combined it with inexpensive glass beads to create an inexpensive, yet powerful, microscope. This smartphone microscope can magnify a sample by 1000 times, which is necessary to see tiny anthrax spores and plague cells.

The microscope 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, including iPhone 4 and 5, Galaxy S3 and S4 phones and iPads. The material cost, not including the printer, is under $1.

Low cost was a driver in the development. The microscope needed to be so cheap it could literally be thrown away — if it gets contaminated.

Scientists believe there are many uses of 3D printed smartphone microscope out there including human and veterinary medicine in developing countries.

"We believe it can fill a need for professional first responders, and also for teachers and students in the classroom, health workers and anyone who just wants an inexpensive microscope readily available," said Rebecca Erikson, an applied physicist.

"We interviewed a lot of first responders, public health labs and civil support teams," said biochemist Cheryl Baird. "They told us the first thing they do when a suspicious powder sample gets to the lab, is to put it under the microscope. An inexpensive, yet powerful microscope in the field could be used to quickly determine whether the material is a threat or a hoax. Combine the microscope with the picture sharing capability of a smart phone and now practically anyone can evaluate a sample at the source and have a trained microbiologist located in a lab elsewhere interpret the results within minutes."

PNNL made the design specifications available, free of charge, to the public so anyone with access to a 3D printer can make their own microscope.

Using inexpensive glass beads traditionally used for reflective pavement markings at airports, the PNNL team has demonstrated 1000x magnification, which is necessary to see tiny pathogens. They have also made a 350x version, which is adequate to identify parasites in a blood samples or protozoa in drinking water. A 100x version enables children to investigate common items like salt grains and flower petals in much greater detail.

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

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