Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Today's bulky, expensive microscopes could be come smaller and cheaper after researchers found a way to combine pinhole optics, microfluidics and a charge-coupled device (CCD) to assemble a working microscope on a single chip. Small enough to fit in a mobile phone or similar handheld device, the optofluidic microscope developed by California Institute of Technology engineers requires only sunlight for illumination, and could be mass-produced for $10. Caltech hopes to work with a manufacturing partner to produce handheld versions for remote monitoring. Applications could include malaria screening or identifying pathogens on the battlefield.
Posted by R. Colin Johnson at 2:31 PM