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Yes, it is indeed an Origami microscope. It can be used outdoors, is strong enough to survive a drop from a second story window, and is somewhat water resistant. It was developed with the idea of promoting science in undeveloped countries as well as in education.
The scope costs about $.50 cents to $1.00 to manufacture. The Foldscope project at the lab won the Gates Exploration Grant. Now it is being field tested. Unfortunately we are hearing about this too late to apply to be one of the 10,000 Beta testers they were looking for, but it may be well worth our while to keep an eye on their progress. It would be a wonderful field mycology tool.
To read more: http://www.foldscope.com/
Prakash gave a TED talk about the device, and shows the Foldscope in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8cF5QPPmWU
Don’t miss this one…. Amazing!!!
Editor's Note: In 2016, Foldscope was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter.
