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Microscopic marvels: Microscope for the masses

Nature volume 459, pages 632–633 (2009)Cite this article

Blurry specks in the eye seem an unlikely source of inspiration for a revolutionary microscope. But 'floaters' ? tiny debris that floats inside the eyeball ? led Changhuei Yang at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to devise a microscope so small, cheap and mass-producible that it could, according to its inventor, transform the way that microscopy is done.

The human eye registers floaters when bright light casts the shadow of debris directly onto the retina. On the tiny 'optofluidic' microscope that Yang and his colleagues invented, the sample casts a shadow directly on to an array of commercial light sensors as it floats along a microfluidic channel (X. Cui et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 10670?10675; 2008). The sensors feed the projection pattern to a computer, which constructs an image using relatively simple image-processing software. The device itself is assembled using semiconductor fabrication techniques and is smaller than an American dime. When mounted into a device with a USB port so that it can transfer information to a computer, it is still just 3 centimetres square.

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  1. Erika Check Hayden
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See also page 629 and online at http://tinyurl.com/microspecial .

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Changhuei Yang Research group

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Hayden, E. Microscopic marvels: Microscope for the masses. Nature 459, 632–633 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/459632a

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