PNNL develops make-your-own microscope for cell phones

Want a microscope to attach to your smart phone?

If you have access to a three-dimensional printer, you can make one using materials costing pennies and design specifications Pacific Northwest National Laboratory offers free of charge.

The Department of Energy national lab in Richland developed the technology with national security in mind. But the microscope also has other potential uses, including equipping students in the Tri-Cities and developing countries.

Other microscopes that attach to smart phones have been developed, but most of those use custom lenses, which are more expensive. PNNL wanted a microscope so inexpensive that it could be thrown away if it were contaminated during work in the field.

To keep its costs low, PNNL turned to technology developed 400 years ago by Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. He would make small glass spheres to use as a lens for a microscope.

PNNL's technology relies on inexpensive glass beads, such as those commonly used for reflective pavement markings at airports. A 3D printer can make the plastic housing needed for the glass beads in 10 to 15 minutes.

The device can clip onto several types of smart phones or an iPad, holding the bead in place to leverage the electronic device's camera into a microscope.

The smaller the glass ball the bigger the magnification, said PNNL physicist Rebecca Erikson.

That makes it a good option for an easily portable system that first responders, such as firefighters or police, can carry into the field for quick identification of a suspicious substance, such as anthrax bacteria.

"We interviewed a lot of first responders, public health labs and civil support teams," said biochemist Cheryl Baird. "They told us the first thing they do when a suspicious powder sample gets to the lab is to put it under the microscope."

With the PNNL smart phone microscope, an image can be collected from a sample in a plastic bag. Any clear material, including a piece of tape, can be used to hold a sample for the microscope, Erikson said.

The sample can be viewed on the smart phone screen in the field or sent to a trained microbiologist to be interpreted in a laboratory, telling a hazardous response team within minutes whether a substance is dangerous or a hoax.

PNNL has demonstrated designs that allow smart phones to see images at three different magnifications.

The design for 1,000-times magnification can be used to see tiny pathogens. A design for 350-times magnification could identify parasites in blood samples or protozoa in drinking water. A more basic microscope with 100-times magnification might be used by children to get an up-close look at natural items, such as a flower petal.

"We thought it would be really neat to have it available to schools," Erikson said. "It's hard for students to fall in love with science without hands-on activity."

A classroom might have one microscope for 30 children, but the cost for a microscope for every child with a smart phone or iPad would be so low that teachers would not have to worry about them getting broken or lost. Several Tri-City high schools and some middle schools have 3D printers, PNNL learned when it surveyed schools.

PNNL's science education staff is planning to work collaboratively with lab researchers and Mid-Columbia educators to develop the microscope's potential as an instructional tool, said Jeff Estes, director of the office of STEM education at PNNL.

Once the team figures out what might work best in education -- from inspiring wonder in younger children to more rigorous microscopy science for high school students -- it could offer training to teachers with ideas on how to effectively use the smart phone microscopes in their science curriculums.

The low-cost microscopes also could be used in developing countries. School systems there may have few or no microscopes, but cell phones may be available because of the lack of land lines, Erikson said.

PNNL microbiologist Janine Hutchison also sees possible medical applications for human and veterinary medicine in developing countries.

Some of the first people to get their hands on the technology were PNNL staff. The microscopes were given out at the national lab's 50th anniversary celebration kickoff last week in Kennewick.

The development of the microscope was paid for with PNNL's discretionary money that can be used to advance early stage ideas.

-- To download the 3D printer design from PNNL, go to http://1.usa.gov/1BHzzRJ.

-- Annette Cary: 509-582-1533; acary@tricityherald.com; Twitter: @HanfordNews

This story was originally published September 15, 2014 at 8:27 PM with the headline "PNNL develops make-your-own microscope for cell phones."