Microscopy was never so accessible. With a Foldscope in your pocket, explore the microcosmos with 2-micron resolution anytime, anywhere!
Foldscope’s Mission Statement
Our mission is to make science and STEM education equitable and accessible for everyone. At Foldscope Instruments Inc, we provide innovative and powerful low-cost tools, educational services, and online community platforms. Our flagship product, the Foldscope, is a low-cost microscope that has many of the features of one you'd find in a research lab.
We believe access to science and education is a human right. That is why we aim to break down the price barrier between people and science by providing products that are both low-cost and high-quality. Affordable STEM tools are important not only for reaching settings with little to no resources, but also for improving the state of science education in general. Across all of our products and services, we strive to promote equity and accessibility, and will continue to create tools and environments that foster curiosity, openness, and collaboration.
Magnification - 50X, 140X, 340X
Resolution - 2 micron
Light Source - LED capability for brightfield, darkfield, and reflective lighting
Durable waterproof paper
Compatible with glass slides or trading cards
Phone/tablet coupling for image and video capture
Who are our products for?
Everyone! As mentioned in our mission statement, we believe access to science and education is a human right. This is the reason why we strive to provide low-cost tools and why we provide free and open community platforms.
Foldscope began as an idea to make science more accessible. That idea has grown into a company that now delivers powerful scientific tools around the world! Our paper microscopes have reached over 2 million people and created a community of explorers unlike any other.
What is Foldscope?
Foldscope is the paper microscope that combines low-cost materials with precision optics. This innovation results in microscopes that are both high-quality and affordable. Our microscopes have a range of magnifications (50X-340X). You can visualize tiny microorganisms to larger samples like insects, plants, fabrics, and tissues. Foldscope can also attach to mobile phones for imaging and is very portable, durable, and waterproof. With that versatility, the possibilities are endless!
Global Community
The best part of Foldscope is not the tool itself, but the people who use it. Foldscope has an official app and an online platform called theMicrocosmos, where Foldscope users share their explorations. All of Foldscope’s community spaces are free, open, and user-driven. Discover what other curious Foldscopers are up to!
The Invention
Foldscope was invented by Manu Prakash and Jim Cybulski.
The invention occurred while Jim was a PhD student in Manu's laboratory at Stanford University. The inspiration for the Foldscope came from visits to field stations where they continually encountered bulky, broken microscopes, or a lack of microscopes entirely. As traditional microscopes are often expensive or cumbersome, they realized the universal scale of this problem and the need for a low-cost, revolutionary solution.
“What is the best microscope you can build for under $1 in parts?” This question motivated their work. In the early days of the project, ideas for the low-cost microscope were sketched down on paper. These sketches struck a chord. Although the sketching on paper was initially simply practical-- it also alluded to a critical revelation in the search for a low cost medium: paper! Paper is a brilliant and versatile material, as it is not only very inexpensive, but also gives rise to precision when it is folded into specific configurations.
The project blossomed into the invention of the Foldscope, the foldable microscope made mostly of paper, that to this day still achieves the goal of being less than one U.S. dollar in parts.
The revolutionary affordability of microscopy provided by the Foldscope inspired the pair to get their tool into as many hands as possible…
Educational Resources
We offer a wide range of resources for educators and individual users. There are user guides, tutorials, blogs, videos, training, and classroom sets of Foldscopes and accessories so you can scale up your microscopy explorations!
Donations
We believe access to science is a human right. That is why we work to break down the price barrier between people and science by providing high-quality, low-cost scientific tools. Help us bring scientific tools to places in need. Your gift will support our efforts to make science education equitable and accessible for all. Our products have reached over 2 million people in over 160 countries. Hundreds of thousands of Foldscopes have been provided free of charge thanks to the help of individuals and organizations like you.
We appreciate your partnership. As a mission-driven company, the costs for producing low-margin products and distributing them to remote parts of the world are significant. We ask for support to help us bring scientific tools to places that can not afford them. Our non-profit funds are administered by our fiscal sponsor, the Institute for Education, Research, and Sponsorships (IFERS), a 501(c)(3) organization.
Make a donation that will support our efforts to get a Foldscope into the hands of every student everywhere!
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