A team of physicists and engineers at the University of Strathclyde, in Scotland, working with a colleague from the University of Glasgow, has developed the means for 3D printing a microscope, including the lens, for under $60. In their paper posted on the bioRxiv preprint server, the group describes how they came up with the plans for the microscope and notes that the end result has a resolution strong enough to make out individual blood cells in test samples.
Now they’ll just need to spend $1,000 on a couple of 3D printers (FDM and resin) and supplies and bam you’ve got a fully functional microscope!
A thousand dollars divided by millions of students and researchers ends up being really cheap!