PNNL smartphone microscope helping educators and first responders across the nation

As a way to expand the world of science in the classroom and out in the field, scientists in Richland created a cell phone microscope for only pennies.

Ron Thomas with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory says a plastic clip made with a 3D printer, fitted with a small glass bead, will fit right over a smartphone camera.

"Microscopes can be $300 to $1,000 per instrument, and that same instrument has to be shared by of course the average classroom size and what we recognized that we can give them the same capability through the use of their smartphones, which most students have, as well as, the instructors," says Thomas.

Thomas says several of the STEM programs, as well as, high schools in the area and in the state, have been given the microscopes. The DOE has even sent several to schools in Washington D.C.

The device is not only used in the classroom but as a inexpensive tool for first responders or a HAZMAT team in the field. Experts say if a HAZMAT team needed to figure out if a white powder is a threat or a hoax, responders can use the microscope, take a picture of the powder and send it to a trained microbiologist.

"If you are out there in an area, for example like a hot zone and you have to bring in all your instrumentation in there, it could potentially get contaminated. Having something that could be disposable or very easily disinfected without having a lot of capital asset costs, makes it quite powerful and compelling," says Thomas.

Thomas says the microscopes have been given to first responders across the country, as well as, the medical community and Doctors Without Boarders.

Anyone with a 3-D printer or access to one, can make this cell phone microscope. If you would like to try to make one yourself, PNNL has posted all the instructions online as a way to give back to the community.