ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Manu Prakash - Physicist, inventor
TED Fellow Manu Prakash is on a mission to bring radical new technology to global health.

Why you should listen

An assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, Manu Prakash is a physicist working at the molecular scale to try and understand no less than how the world really works. As he told BusinessWeek in 2010, he is humbled and inspired by nature’s own solutions to the world's biggest problems. "I build and design tools to uncover how and why biological systems so often outsmart us. 

I believe one day we will be able to understand the physical design principles of life on Earth, leading to a new way to look at the world we live in."

Born in Meerut, India, Prakash earned a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur before moving to the United States. He did his master’s and PhD in applied physics at MIT before founding the Prakash Lab at Stanford.

Prakash's ultra-low-cost, "print-and-fold" paper microscope won a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundaton in 2012.

More profile about the speaker
Manu Prakash | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2012

Manu Prakash: A 50-cent microscope that folds like origami

Filmed:
2,182,867 views

Perhaps you’ve punched out a paper doll or folded an origami swan? TED Fellow Manu Prakash and his team have created a microscope made of paper that's just as easy to fold and use. A sparkling demo that shows how this invention could revolutionize healthcare in developing countries … and turn almost anything into a fun, hands-on science experiment.
- Physicist, inventor
TED Fellow Manu Prakash is on a mission to bring radical new technology to global health. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
The year is 1800.
0
747
2323
00:15
A curious little invention is being talked about.
1
3070
3056
00:18
It's called a microscope.
2
6126
3081
00:21
What it allows you to do
3
9207
1779
00:22
is see tiny little lifeforms
4
10986
2642
00:25
that are invisible to the naked eye.
5
13628
2487
00:28
Soon comes the medical discovery
6
16115
2028
00:30
that many of these lifeforms are actually causes
7
18143
3085
00:33
of terrible human diseases.
8
21228
2191
00:35
Imagine what happened to the society
9
23419
2785
00:38
when they realized
10
26204
1988
00:40
that an English mom in her teacup
11
28192
2816
00:43
actually was drinking a monster soup,
12
31008
3136
00:46
not very far from here. This is from London.
13
34144
3149
00:49
Fast forward 200 years.
14
37293
2842
00:52
We still have this monster soup around,
15
40135
2132
00:54
and it's taken hold in the developing countries
16
42267
2855
00:57
around the tropical belt.
17
45122
2416
00:59
Just for malaria itself,
18
47538
2563
01:02
there are a million deaths a year,
19
50101
2445
01:04
and more than a billion people
20
52546
1746
01:06
that need to be tested because they are at risk
21
54292
2648
01:08
for different species of malarial infections.
22
56940
3235
01:12
Now it's actually very simple to put a face
23
60175
2811
01:14
to many of these monsters.
24
62986
1795
01:16
You take a stain, like acridine orange
25
64781
2627
01:19
or a fluorescent stain or Giemsa,
26
67408
2117
01:21
and a microscope, and you look at them.
27
69525
3113
01:24
They all have faces.
28
72638
2380
01:27
Why is that so, that Alex in Kenya,
29
75018
2638
01:29
Fatima in Bangladesh, Navjoot in Mumbai,
30
77656
3228
01:32
and Julie and Mary in Uganda still wait months
31
80884
3421
01:36
to be able to diagnose why they are sick?
32
84305
3579
01:39
And that's primarily because scalability
33
87884
3026
01:42
of the diagnostics is completely out of reach.
34
90910
3032
01:45
And remember that number: one billion.
35
93942
3916
01:49
The problem lies with the microscope itself.
36
97858
3901
01:53
Even though the pinnacle of modern science,
37
101759
2376
01:56
research microscopes are
not designed for field testing.
38
104135
3135
01:59
Neither were they first designed
39
107270
1680
02:00
for diagnostics at all.
40
108950
2151
02:03
They are heavy, bulky, really hard to maintain,
41
111101
3388
02:06
and cost a lot of money.
42
114489
2301
02:08
This picture is Mahatma Gandhi in the '40s
43
116790
3405
02:12
using the exact same setup
that we actually use today
44
120195
3294
02:15
for diagnosing T.B. in his ashram
45
123489
2684
02:18
in Sevagram in India.
46
126173
2445
02:20
Two of my students, Jim and James,
47
128618
3327
02:23
traveled around India and Thailand,
48
131945
2320
02:26
starting to think about this problem a lot.
49
134265
2252
02:28
We saw all kinds of donated equipment.
50
136517
2475
02:30
We saw fungus growing on microscope lenses.
51
138992
2912
02:33
And we saw people who had a functional microscope
52
141904
2195
02:36
but just didn't know how to even turn it on.
53
144099
2951
02:39
What grew out of that work and that trip
54
147050
2640
02:41
was actually the idea of what we call Foldscopes.
55
149690
3751
02:45
So what is a Foldscope?
56
153441
1823
02:47
A Foldscope is a completely functional microscope,
57
155264
3549
02:50
a platform for fluorescence, bright-field,
58
158813
3130
02:53
polarization, projection,
59
161943
1575
02:55
all kinds of advanced microscopy
60
163518
2568
02:58
built purely by folding paper.
61
166086
3215
03:01
So, now you think, how is that possible?
62
169301
2861
03:04
I'm going to show you some examples here,
63
172162
1963
03:06
and we will run through some of them.
64
174125
1801
03:07
It starts with a single sheet of paper.
65
175926
3784
03:11
What you see here is all the possible components
66
179710
3371
03:15
to build a functional bright-field
and fluorescence microscope.
67
183081
4425
03:19
So, there are three stages:
68
187506
1809
03:21
There is the optical stage, the illumination stage
69
189315
2749
03:24
and the mask-holding stage.
70
192064
2468
03:26
And there are micro optics at the bottom
71
194532
1872
03:28
that's actually embedded in the paper itself.
72
196404
2874
03:31
What you do is, you take it on,
73
199278
2504
03:33
and just like you are playing like a toy,
74
201782
2776
03:36
which it is,
75
204558
3087
03:40
I tab it off,
76
208584
3030
03:47
and I break it off.
77
215039
2182
03:49
This paper has no instructions and no languages.
78
217221
2724
03:51
There is a code, a color code embedded,
79
219945
2319
03:54
that tells you exactly how to
fold that specific microscope.
80
222264
4611
03:58
When it's done, it looks something like this,
81
226875
2649
04:01
has all the functionalities of a standard microscope,
82
229524
2731
04:04
just like an XY stage,
83
232255
1881
04:06
a place where a sample slide could go,
84
234136
4421
04:10
for example right here.
85
238557
2540
04:13
We didn't want to change this,
86
241097
1512
04:14
because this is the standard
87
242609
1372
04:15
that's been optimized for over the years,
88
243981
1853
04:17
and many health workers are actually used to this.
89
245834
2696
04:20
So this is what changes,
90
248530
1461
04:21
but the standard stains all remain the same
91
249991
2167
04:24
for many different diseases.
92
252158
1775
04:25
You pop this in.
93
253933
2932
04:28
There is an XY stage,
94
256865
3886
04:32
and then there is a focusing stage,
95
260751
1973
04:34
which is a flexure mechanism
96
262724
1866
04:36
that's built in paper itself that allows us to move
97
264590
2553
04:39
and focus the lenses by micron steps.
98
267143
2981
04:42
So what's really interesting about this object,
99
270124
2133
04:44
and my students hate when I do this,
100
272257
1883
04:46
but I'm going to do this anyway,
101
274140
1761
04:47
is these are rugged devices.
102
275901
1956
04:49
I can turn it on and throw it on the floor
103
277857
4577
04:54
and really try to stomp on it.
104
282434
2952
04:57
And they last, even though they're designed
105
285386
2375
04:59
from a very flexible material, like paper.
106
287761
3463
05:03
Another fun fact is, this is what we actually
107
291224
2852
05:06
send out there as a standard diagnostic tool,
108
294076
4055
05:10
but here in this envelope
109
298131
1769
05:11
I have 30 different foldscopes
110
299900
2391
05:14
of different configurations all in a single folder.
111
302291
5731
05:20
And I'm going to pick one randomly.
112
308022
1812
05:21
This one, it turns out, is actually designed
113
309834
2082
05:23
specifically for malaria,
114
311916
1563
05:25
because it has the fluorescent filters built
115
313479
2311
05:27
specifically for diagnosing malaria.
116
315790
2097
05:29
So the idea of very specific diagnostic microscopes
117
317887
3928
05:33
comes out of this.
118
321815
1766
05:35
So up till now, you didn't actually see
119
323581
2939
05:38
what I would see from one of these setups.
120
326520
2957
05:41
So what I would like to do is,
121
329477
1681
05:43
if we could dim the lights, please,
122
331158
1626
05:44
it turns out foldscopes are
also projection microscopes.
123
332784
3665
05:48
I have these two microscopes that I'm going to turn --
124
336449
2534
05:50
go to the back of the wall --
125
338983
1753
05:52
and just project, and this way you will see
126
340736
1708
05:54
exactly what I would see.
127
342444
2120
05:56
What you're looking at --
128
344564
1786
05:58
(Applause) —
129
346350
2383
06:00
This is a cross-section of a compound eye,
130
348733
2636
06:03
and when I'm going to zoom in closer, right there,
131
351369
2351
06:05
I am going through the z-axis.
132
353720
2244
06:07
You actually see how the lenses are cut together
133
355964
3024
06:10
in the cross-section pattern.
134
358988
1573
06:12
Another example, one of my favorite insects,
135
360561
2556
06:15
I love to hate this one,
136
363117
1977
06:17
is a mosquito,
137
365094
1781
06:18
and you're seeing the antenna of a culex pipiens.
138
366875
3762
06:22
Right there.
139
370637
3363
06:26
All from the simple setup that I actually described.
140
374000
4213
06:30
So my wife has been field testing
141
378213
1773
06:31
some of our microscopes
142
379986
2000
06:33
by washing my clothes whenever I forget them
143
381986
2481
06:36
in the dryer.
144
384467
2029
06:38
So it turns out they're waterproof, and --
145
386496
2800
06:41
(Laughter) —
146
389296
1788
06:43
right here is just fluorescent water,
147
391084
2498
06:45
and I don't know if you can actually see this.
148
393582
1550
06:47
This also shows you how
the projection scope works.
149
395132
2389
06:49
You get to see the beam the
way it's projected and bent.
150
397521
3653
06:56
Can we get the lights back on again?
151
404199
2940
06:59
So I'm quickly going to show you,
152
407139
1787
07:00
since I'm running out of time,
153
408926
2049
07:02
in terms of how much it costs for us to manufacture,
154
410975
2426
07:05
the biggest idea was roll-to-roll manufacturing,
155
413401
3080
07:08
so we built this out of 50 cents of parts and costs.
156
416481
3122
07:11
(Applause)
157
419603
2859
07:14
And what this allows us to do
158
422462
2095
07:16
is to think about a new paradigm in microscopy,
159
424557
2336
07:18
which we call use-and-throw microscopy.
160
426893
2017
07:20
I'm going to give you a quick snapshot
161
428910
2089
07:22
of some of the parts that go in.
162
430999
1763
07:24
Here is a sheet of paper.
163
432762
1459
07:26
This is when we were thinking about the idea.
164
434221
2089
07:28
This is an A4 sheet of paper.
165
436310
1355
07:29
These are the three stages that you actually see.
166
437665
1981
07:31
And the optical components, if you
look at the inset up on the right,
167
439646
3430
07:35
we had to figure out a way to manufacture lenses
168
443076
2427
07:37
in paper itself at really high throughputs,
169
445503
2312
07:39
so it uses a process of self-assembly
170
447815
1859
07:41
and surface tension
171
449674
1112
07:42
to build achromatic lenses in the paper itself.
172
450786
3536
07:46
So that's where the lenses go.
173
454322
1445
07:47
There are some light sources.
174
455767
1612
07:49
And essentially, in the end,
175
457379
1385
07:50
all the parts line up because of origami,
176
458764
3178
07:53
because of the fact that origami allows us
177
461942
3271
07:57
micron-scale precision of optical alignment.
178
465213
2980
08:00
So even though this looks like a simple toy,
179
468193
2629
08:02
the aspects of engineering that go in
180
470822
1914
08:04
something like this are fairly sophisticated.
181
472736
2686
08:07
So here is another obvious thing that we would do,
182
475422
3235
08:10
typically, if I was going to show
183
478657
1593
08:12
that these microscopes are robust,
184
480250
1505
08:13
is go to the third floor and
drop it from the floor itself.
185
481755
3838
08:17
There it is, and it survives.
186
485593
3323
08:20
So for us, the next step actually
187
488916
2177
08:23
is really finishing our field trials.
188
491093
1839
08:24
We are starting at the end of the summer.
189
492932
2105
08:27
We are at a stage where we'll be
making thousands of microscopes.
190
495037
2927
08:29
That would be the first time where we would be
191
497964
2144
08:32
doing field trials with the highest density
192
500108
2085
08:34
of microscopes ever at a given place.
193
502193
2555
08:36
We've started collecting data for malaria,
194
504748
2080
08:38
Chagas disease and giardia from patients themselves.
195
506828
3796
08:42
And I want to leave you with this picture.
196
510624
2094
08:44
I had not anticipated this before,
197
512718
1925
08:46
but a really interesting link
198
514643
1687
08:48
between hands-on science education
199
516330
1895
08:50
and global health.
200
518225
1258
08:51
What are the tools that we're actually providing
201
519483
2926
08:54
the kids who are going to fight
202
522409
2180
08:56
this monster soup for tomorrow?
203
524589
1918
08:58
I would love for them to be able to just print out
204
526507
2358
09:00
a Foldscope and carry them around in their pockets.
205
528865
2129
09:02
Thank you.
206
530994
2906
09:05
(Applause)
207
533900
4443

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Manu Prakash - Physicist, inventor
TED Fellow Manu Prakash is on a mission to bring radical new technology to global health.

Why you should listen

An assistant professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, Manu Prakash is a physicist working at the molecular scale to try and understand no less than how the world really works. As he told BusinessWeek in 2010, he is humbled and inspired by nature’s own solutions to the world's biggest problems. "I build and design tools to uncover how and why biological systems so often outsmart us. 

I believe one day we will be able to understand the physical design principles of life on Earth, leading to a new way to look at the world we live in."

Born in Meerut, India, Prakash earned a BTech in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur before moving to the United States. He did his master’s and PhD in applied physics at MIT before founding the Prakash Lab at Stanford.

Prakash's ultra-low-cost, "print-and-fold" paper microscope won a $100,000 grant from the Gates Foundaton in 2012.

More profile about the speaker
Manu Prakash | Speaker | TED.com