-
Newsfeed
Open follow modal
Personalized Content
Newsfeed
Follow this tag to personalize your feed and get instant alerts.
FollowGo to your personalized feed
WHY FOLLOW?
- Custom Feed: See the stories that matter most to you.
- Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens.
Update your preferences in Account Settings
Close
How Researchers Can Turn a Smartphone into a Microscope
by
Bijan Stephen
Open follow modal
Personalized Content
Bijan Stephen
Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts.
FollowGo to your personalized feed
WHY FOLLOW?
- Custom Feed: See the stories that matter most to you.
- Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens.
Update your preferences in Account Settings
Close
May 2, 2014 8:54 PM CUT
by
Bijan Stephen
Open follow modal
Personalized Content
Bijan Stephen
Follow this author to personalize your feed and get instant alerts.
FollowGo to your personalized feed
WHY FOLLOW?
- Custom Feed: See the stories that matter most to you.
- Smart Alerts: Get notified about major news as it happens.
Update your preferences in Account Settings
Close
May 2, 2014 8:54 PM CUT
In science, serendipity is a familiar narrative: Devoted scientist searches doggedly for the solution to a problem, and, in the process, discovers something entirely different and entirely more useful.
This time, a team of Australian researchers accidentally invented a new kind of optical lens while attempting to synthesize polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicone polymer that’s used as a head lice treatment, an anti-foaming agent, a fluid-delivery device in microfluidics, and as an ingredient in some fast food (e.g., McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets). (Also, Silly Putty.) The study’s lead researcher, Dr. Steve Lee of the Australian National University, noticed that spilled drops of PDMS hardened overnight into lens-like shapes. Lee mentioned as much to a doctor friend, who informed him of medicine’s need for cheap, high-quality lenses, according to an article in PhysicsWorld.com, published by the Institute of Physics.
From there, Lee and his team developed a simple, novel method to shape PDMS into usable lenses, which they describe in Biomedical Optics Express. The resulting lenses are millimeters thick and magnify up to x160; to showcase their practicality, the researchers created a clip-on attachment that converts smartphones into dermatoscopes, devices employed in dermatology to diagnose skin cancers. The team built the attachment for around $2—dermatoscopes generally go for hundreds.
Worldwide, approximately one in five people own a smartphone; therefore, innovations that use them as a platform—like Dr. Lee’s lenses—can have a commensurately immense global impact, potentially saving lives in the process.