Blog

by Paola Moreno-Roman

I woke up early to fly to South Carolina. It was my first time visiting that state. I landed at Greenville and drove to Clemson, the drive was beautiful. So green. At the hotel, I met with Melissa Leventhal, our Social Media Specialist at Foldscope who joined this trip...

by Paola Moreno-Roman

We woke up early to go see the river dolphins. We saw a few females and one male. The females are more gray-ish and males are pink. It was so beautiful to see the sunrise. As we were heading back to the lodge, it started raining a little bit and we were blessed with a rainbow.

by Paola Moreno-Roman

Each night, I sleep better. I think my body is starting to feel safe in this new environment. After having breakfast at the lodge, we headed to the Sucusari community. Did you know stingless bees exist? I didn’t until I joined the planning for this expedition. A few species of stingless bees live in trunks of trees in the Amazon.

After two amazing weeks in Lima, Peru - where I was born and raised - I said goodbye to my lovely family and headed to the airport. Destination? Iquitos. Iquitos is located in the Peruvian Amazon and is the world’s largest city that cannot be reached by road.

by Akshatha Nayak

After several months of COVID-19, we were all set to resume our workshops with the mission to take Foldscopes to the most resource-constrained communities who otherwise have the least opportunity to get their hands on scientific tools and it turns out to be a boon for education that faced major hindrance during the pandemic.

One of the great things about the Foldscope is how easy it is to transport and use to explore the ENVIRONMENT. You can bring it along with you on all of your outdoor adventures! One of our team members, Emily, brought along a Foldscope when she went camping in Big Sur.

 

Our Foldscope Team traveled to rural India to hold a workshop at the DEI ICT Center Rajaborari for students belonging to tribal, rural, and aspirational districts.

A unique feature of the Foldscope is the ability to observe certain samples “in-situ” without causing damage. In honor of Earth Day, we decided to visualize all of our plant samples without picking them and without damaging the plant.

Mo and his community friends including his wife and kids have trained 12,000 teachers and roughly 70,000 school children and 12,000 members of the public on microscopy and its many uses.

If you shine polarized light through an ordinary piece of glass, it bends in the usual way through the process of refraction (or refringence, as it was once known). We can compare the amount by which light bends in different materials using a measurement called the refractive index.

As we reflect on the many workshops, connections made, and events of the past year, we are excited and grateful to share the stories of some of our favorite moments of 2018. As always, thanks to the passionate mentors, our dedicated partners, and curious community of explorers, who made these moments possible!

The South America Diaries is a monthlong series documenting Foldscope's first trip to South America. Starting July 13, the team travelled all over Peru, Argentina and Brazil to lead workshops and presentations with schools and organizations. We experienced new cultures, ate cool foods and met tons of people. This is a behind-the-scenes look into the beautiful and mundane experiences that come with our mission to give every person on the planet a microscope.