About Foldscope

The invention

Foldscope was invented by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski.As traditional microscopes are often expensive or cumbersome, they realized the universal scale of this problem and the need for a low-cost, revolutionary solution.

Ideas for the low-cost microscope were sketched down on paper. Although the sketching on paper was initially simply practical- it also alluded to a critical revelation in the search for a low cost medium.

Paper is a brilliant and versatile material, as it is not only very inexpensive, but also gives rise to precision when it is folded into specific configurations. Foldscope’s pilot program began in 2014. The pilot program alone distributed over 70,000 Foldscopes to 135+ countries.

Foldscopes were used to identify the microscopic eggs of agricultural pests in India, to catalog the biodiversity of soil arthropods in the Amazon, detect fake currency and medicine, follow toxic blooms, detect bacteria in water samples, map pollen diversity in a city landscape, among thousands of other things.

Looking to the future, we believe that access to science, and science education, is a human right. We dream of a world where every child carries a microscope in their pocket.

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