Yours to cut out and keep

摘要

If ever a technology were ripe for disruption, it is the microscope. Benchtop microscopes have remained essentially unchanged since the 19th century-their shape a cartoonist's cliche of science akin to alchemical glassware and Bunsen burners. That lack of change has costs. Microscopes are expensive (several hundred dollars for a reasonable one) and need to be serviced and maintained. Unfortunately, one important use of them is in poor-world laboratories and clinics, for identifying pathogens, and such places often have small budgets and are likely to lack suitably trained technicians. That, thinks Manu Prakash, a bioengi-neer at Stanford University, provides an opening for a bit of lateral thinking. This led him to design a microscope made almost entirely of paper.