Assembling Your Foldscope
The foldscope, invented by Stanford University engineer Manu Prakash, is a contemporary version of the instrument perfected by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in the late 17th century. Get ready to channel your inner Leeuwenhoek!
Foldscope Assembly Tips
Your foldscope kit includes printed instructions for assembly, and there are also video tutorials posted at the Foldscope website.
Based on our experience with the foldscopes, we can also offer these tips:
- The instruction card included in your kit as well as some of the tutorial videos include reference to some items that are not included in your kit. This is because there are two different types of foldscope kits available - Basic and Deluxe - and the instruction card is the same for both. You have the basic kit, but it contains mostly everything you need for this lab's activities. We have also provided you with a transfer pipette and latex-free vinyl gloves, which are not included in the basic kit.
- Your kit includes three couplers and one lens - the couplers are SQUARE, and the lens is mounted in a CIRCULAR disk. They are magnetic and will almost certainly be stuck together - you will have to pull the circular lens away from a square coupler before placing it in its correct position in the foldscope.
- Allow yourself about an hour to assemble and troubleshoot your foldscope. It may not take that long at all, but it's not something that you can whip together in a few minutes, either!
Once you have your foldscope assembled, you're ready to start exploring! See the Finding Specimens for the Foldscope, Slide Preparation and Photo Tips and Sharing Your Discoveries pages of this lab for additional instructions.
Portable Microscopy Then and Now
"Pencils are everywhere; so should be microscopes."
- Manu Prakash (with a Foldscope prototype in 2012)
"Almost everything he saw, he was the first person ever to see."
- Douglas Anderson (2014, p. 25)
Image Credits
Manu Prakash by https://www.ted.com [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Portrait of Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Van Leeuwenhoek microscope by Museum Boerhaave, Leiden (Museum Boerhaave, Leiden) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Notes
*We suggest some other miscellaneous items that you may find useful on the Finding Specimens for the Foldscope page of this lab.
References
Anderson D. 2014. Still going strong: Leeuwenhoek at eighty. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 106: 3-26.