All folded up and ready to magnify: The Foldscope weighs less than two nickels, is small enough to fit in your back pocket and offers more than 2,000-fold magnification. Origami microscope: Lines on ...

Manu Prakash with the Foldscope, a microscope made almost entirely of paper. For a whole lot of people, especially those in developing countries, science — and with it, medicine — isn’t readily ...

Microscopes have come a long way since eyeglass makers started using their lenses to look closer and closer at the world around them. But they’ve also gotten a lot more expensive. A modern scanning ...

According to the World Health Organization, there were approximately 207 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2012, 627,000 of which proved fatal. Unfortunately, the disease most often occurs in ...

Eight-year-old S. Hariraj is a Foldscope devotee. He's used it to look at the milk from the cows his parents raise. Though the milk looks creamy, the Foldscope reveals a world of microorganisms. "It ...

Paper aeroplanes are the extent of most people’s origami skills, and even then there’s no guarantee they’ll actually be able to fly further than your hand. Get a bit more creative and there are ...

A $1, origami microscope made from paper and a cheap lens has the potential of improving healthcare and the detection of diseases worldwide. Origami, an ancient Japanese art of paper folding, isn't ...

Sometimes, inventors come up with things the world wants. The Rubik’s Cube. iPhones. Snuggies. Then there are the things the world needs. The wheel. Penicillin. Anything with caffeine in it. The ...

I have to admit that I am usually a bit skeptical while watching those TED talks. Every talk has an outrageous claim, either some device or method which will completely change our lives or some hidden ...