microscope

Lab-quality microscope now mounts onto most Apple iOS devices

To my fellow geeks who've long dreamed of having a lab-quality digital microscope that mounts to your phone, the time has come.

Oregon-based optics manufacturer Bodelin will begin shipping its brand-new ProScope Micro Mobile on May 1. One version fits the iPhone 4, 4s, 5, and iPod Touch; another the iPad; and another the iPad Mini. Whatever size, it will set you back $149.… Read more

Microscope photos: See a beautiful blood-brain barrier

As a slight arachnophobe, I'm a bit surprised to discover that I find the above photo of live newborn lynx spiderlings stunning -- and the subjects rather adorable. Stunning and adorable are in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I do know that Walter Piorkowski's photo suddenly makes me feel a bit more comfortable with creepy crawlies.

It happens every year when Nikon announces the results of its annual Small World Photomicrography Competition, which celebrates the art of photography shot through a light microscope. Science becomes exquisite (unexpectedly at times) as photomicrographers turn their tiny lenses on the likes of bat embryos, algae, larva, stinging nettles, and ladybug legs. Even insidious cancer cells become visually mesmerizing. … Read more

World's fastest camera detects elusive cancer cells

Modifications to the world's fastest camera are enabling the real-time identification of rare breast cancer cells in blood, with a record low false-positive rate of one cell in a million, according to new research out of UCLA.

"This technology can significantly reduce errors and costs in medical diagnosis," lead author Keisuke Goda, a UCLA program manager in electrical engineering and bioengineering, said in a school news release.

The team's approach could not only pave the way for earlier detection of cancer and monitoring of drug and radiation therapy but also prove useful in urine analysis, water … Read more

SkyLight smartphone-microscope mount: Let's get small (video)

It may not be the first smartphone-microscope combo, but creators of the SkyLight adapter say their device is different: it doesn't use any optics.

Attach the base of SkyLight to a microscope and slide in a smartphone--most any smartphone actually, thanks to the mount's adjustable clips. Users -- whether students or scientists -- can then capture microscopic images and send them via e-mail or to the Web.

SmartPlanet visits with SkyLight creators Andy Miller and Tess Bakke for a hands-on look at the device.

This video originally appeared on SmartPlanet with the headline "SkyLight starts selling combo smartphone-microscope mount.&… Read more

Caltech's ePetri dish uses Android, not microscope

What do you get when you combine an Android smartphone, cell phone image sensor, Lego building blocks, and a handful of Caltech engineers and biologists? The ePetri, which isn't Petri Dish 2.0, but a full reworking of a technology that dates back to the late 1800s.

Traditionally, the Petri dish (named after German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri) has been used in the medical field to identify bacterial infections by studying samples via microscope as the cultured cells grow in an incubator.

The Caltech researchers have a few choice words for such an approach in 2011, including "expensive," "labor-intensive," and "suboptimal." So they set out to improve not just the dish, but the entire process.… Read more

Behold the iPhone as hi-def medical imaging device

A team of physicists and engineers out of the University of California at Davis are taking the iPhone 4 to new heights--and they're not talking about No. 5.

Using materials that cost about as much as a typical app, they tricked out an iPhone with a few new tools, including a microscope, which--with the phone's camera--could identify features as small as 1.5 microns. That's small enough to identify different blood cell types.

"Field workers could put a blood sample on a slide, take a picture, and send it to specialists to analyze," says Sebastian Wachsmann-Hogiu, a physicist at the Center for Biophotonics, Science and Technology and lead author of the research to be presented in mid-October at the Optical Society's Annual Meeting in San Jose, Calif.

In rural clinics in developing nations, which tend to have limited if any lab equipment, these decked-out iPhones could help nurses and doctors diagnose a range of blood diseases by not only imaging blood cells but sending data in real time to colleagues anywhere around the world for further analysis.… Read more

'Nanoscope' makes live viruses visible for first time

Viruses are small. Very small. There are millions of types, and the 5,000 or so that have been studied in detail are typically between 10 and 300 nanometers (one-billionth of a meter) in diameter.

Because the wavelengths of visible light range from roughly 300 to 800 nanometers, viruses aren't exactly visible under normal lighting. Only optical fluoresce microscopes can see inside a virus, and then only indirectly, using dye, which cannot actually penetrate a virus.

So the "microsphere nanoscope" developed by scientists at the University of Manchester's School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Civil Engineering in the U.K. and described in the journal Nature Communications is remarkable on two counts: It breaks the world record of direct imaging under normal lights by 20 times, viewing objects as small as 50 nm wide, and what's more, the tech behind it imposes no theoretical limit in the size of feature that can be seen.

This incredible jump in capacity could allow humans to see inside human cells and even live viruses for the first time, which in turn could give us many new insights into their structures and behaviors.… Read more

Turn an iPhone into a microscope for less than $5

If you've ever peered through a microscope, you know how incredibly cool the world can look when it's massively magnified.

Just one problem: it's uncomfortable to squint through that tiny viewfinder. Where are the microscopes with the big, comfy LCD screens?

Try looking in your pocket. Hobbyist Crabfu came up with a slick--and inexpensive--hack that turns your iPhone into a microscope. You can see it in action, and learn how to do it yourself, in this video. (Note: The actual how-to starts at the 2:09 minute mark.)

As you can see, the hack's results can … Read more

Nano GigaPan offers panoramic views of microscopic worlds

GigaPan panoramas are known for the dynamic images they produce, which can provide a unique and detailed view of an environment, with the ability to pan and zoom across a wide field of view. Traditionally, the technology has been used to capture panoramic images of wide open spaces. But now it's being used on a much smaller scale. The original GigaPan camera technology was developed as part of the Global Connection Project, a joint endeavor of Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, Google, and National Geographic, as a novel way for people to view the world. In recent years, Jay Longson, … Read more