A professor at Cornell and his students have invented a paper microscope capable of 2000 x multiplication. The design is printed on card stock paper and contains an LED and a watch battery. Projected cost of around $1 or less would make it easily available to health workers in third-world countries.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/this-could-b...16732.html?vp=1

This sounds marvelous to me. The inventor's dream is to have a microscope in the pocket of every student. At that price, I think it could come true. I hope they patent the idea. It would make a nice return on investment.

Amaranth , that is interesting.

selling billions of $1.00 microscopes.

I can see how before long you could drop a drop of blood
onto a postage stamp sized microscope then slip it into your cell phone or laptop , and it would test your blood or which ever body fluid you are testing in a few seconds vs the standard days that it
currently takes to have blood work sent to labs and the results returned.

also confining / stopping a viral outbreak would be so much simpler.

and it would be great to have one just for fun !!!

great find.