Glow Scope | 13 Mar 2023

Researchers at Winona State University, Minnesota, have created a design for a Glow Scope, a Fluorescence Microscope.

With this setup, they were able to image the creatures’ brain, spinal cord, heart, and head and jaw bones.
They were able to zoom in and out using the smartphone camera and the clip-on lens.

About:
- An optical microscope views an object by studying how it absorbs, reflects or scatters visible light.
- A fluorescent microscope views an object by studying how it reemits light that it has absorbed, i.e., how it fluoresces. This is its basic principle.
- The object is illuminated with light of a specific wavelength. Particles in the object absorb this light and reemit it at a higher wavelength. These particles are called fluorophores; the object is infused with them before being placed under the microscope.

Using a ‘glowscope’ still requires access to fluorophores, suitable biological samples, the know-how to combine the two, and some knowledge of physics to work out which LED flashlight to buy.
The Foldscope was truly remarkable because all its required components were simple to understand.
- In 2014, a group of scientists at Stanford University released Foldscope, a handheld microscope made almost entirely out of paper, which takes 30 minutes to put together, and which could capture images of cells.
However, the fact that a simple fluorescent microscope can be set up for a few thousand rupees means, instead of being entirely out of reach, researchers can prepare samples and take them to schools, where students can observe them.