Origami Microscope for Just 50 Cents
The Foldscope is a disposable paper microscope that uses tiny spherical lenses. And it costs 50 cents.
microscopy
Metallurgical Eye Candy
Metallography is a method of materials analysis used to characterize the microscopic structure of a metal sample. Generally, the process involves cutting a sample from some object of interest, polishing its surface to high smoothness, and etching it with a chemical agent to highlight grain boundaries, inclusions, and other microstructural features. The sample is then imaged using one of a number of types of microscopy. The resulting pictures are often strikingly (if incidentally) beautiful. That’s OK by me, personally—incidental beauty is usually my favorite kind.
“Digital Archaeology” of Historic Microchips
In September of last year, Matt Mets blogged about Visual 6502, an in-browser simulation of the landmark MOS 6502 microprocessor, produced by San Francisco hacker Greg James and Montreal brothers Barry and Bryan Silverman. Recently, the July/August issue of the American Institute for Archaeology’s “Archaeology” featured an interesting article about the story behind Visual 6502…
Dropless Laser Projection Microscope Takes Glass Slides
Interesting post from dusjagr over on Hacketeria, who reports success using a 100 mW green laser with the lens from a cheap webcam, in the arrangement pictured here, to make a projecting microscope that will accept conventional microscope slides, and is only slightly more complicated than a Planinsic-type water-drop projector. [via Hack a Day]
Webcam + CNC robot = high resolution scanner
Tormach wants to sell you an upgrade package for your Mach3-compatible CNC robot that includes a 1.3M USB microscope with 220X optical magnification, a mounting bracket, and all the necessary software to turn your CNC equipment into a scanner. The cool part is they’ve also produced a video showing how to hack together a slightly-less-powerful system using a $20 pen cam and some free software that will let you make 2000 dpi scans limited only by the size of your CNC bed envelope. The “killer app” for this equipment is automatic reverse-engineering of parts, but you could also use it to easily scan maps, posters, artwork, or other oversize stuff. [via Hacked Gadgets]
Featured Maker: Michele Banks
Washington, DC artist Michele Banks, aka Artologica, is a painter who, in her own words, “uses an old and often-disrespected medium, watercolor, to create pieces that are anything but old-fashioned.” Her works in Makers Market focus on biological and medical themes, particularly the microscopy of living cells. Shown above is Cell Division Blue 1, a […]
Free mail-in scanning electron microscopy promo
ASPEX, a company that makes desktop scanning electron microscopes (SEMs), is running a promotional campaign under which anyone can mail them a sample, which they will then image under one of their SEMs. The results will be posted on their webpage, and all for free! Challenge: Take advantage of their offer to produce publishable data. [via Boing Boing]
