Eight-year-old S. Hariraj is a Foldscope devotee. He's used it to look at the milk from the cows his parents raise. Though the milk looks creamy, the Foldscope reveals a world of microorganisms. "It ...

We have pocket watches, pocket cameras and now — with smartphones — pocket computers. Origami microscope: Lines on the paper show you how to fold up and assemble the microscope. Bioengineer Manu ...

Paper aeroplanes are the extent of most people’s origami skills, and even then there’s no guarantee they’ll actually be able to fly further than your hand. Get a bit more creative and there are ...

The diversity and breadth of Foldscope’s initial users wasn’t by accident: when Stanford University engineer Manu Prakash and his research students manufactured the first version of the microscope in ...

A $1 microscope made of paper might help diagnose diseases in the developing world -- provided there are also people trained to use it. The folded-paper microscope, called the Foldscope, could also ...

Microscopes have come a long way since eyeglass makers started using their lenses to look closer and closer at the world around them. But they’ve also gotten a lot more expensive. A modern scanning ...

All folded up and ready to magnify: The Foldscope weighs less than two nickels, is small enough to fit in your back pocket and offers more than 2,000-fold magnification. Origami microscope: Lines on ...

Students at Eden School in northern India prepare specimens they've collected to examine in the Foldscope. The paper microscope, invented a decade ago, is given for free for schools in lower resource ...