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Smartphones are notorious for their poor camera quality. So it comes as a slight surprise that smartphones' photography capabilities are being utilized to study viruses. Dr. Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA and his team recently developed an attachable microscope for smartphones that can capture images of single viruses. The camera microscope is precise enough to photograph viruses measuring at just 150 nanometers. To put that in perspective in one inch there are 25,400,000 nanometers!
The cell-phone microscope's body is composed of a 3-D printed fluorescent microscope, an external lens, and a laser diode. The laser diode "illuminates" samples at a sharp 75 degree angle to prevent scattered light from interfering with the images. The microscope part attaches to the phone and lines up with the phone's built-in camera.
In one test Dr. Ozcan's cellphone-microscope was able to photograph single human cytomegalovirus particles measuring in at a mere 300 to 150 nanometers. Human Cytomegalovirus is a member of the herpes family and infects between 50% to 80% of adults in the U.S. by the age of forty. The cellphone-microscope has even photographed nanoparticles, "specially marked fluorescent beads made of polystyrene", as small as 90 to 100 nanometers wide. Scanning electron microscopes and photon counting confocal microscopes confirmed the cellphone-microscope's results. The images produced by the smartphone represent "the first time that single nanoparticles and viruses have been detected using a cellphone-based, field-portable imaging system."
It is unknown how much the cellphone-microscope will cost or when it will be available.
References:
Kisliuk, B. "UCLA researchers' smartphone 'microscope' can detect a single virus, nanoparticles" UCLA Newsroom. September 16, 2013.
MedlinePlus. Cytomegalovirus Infections (2013).
Shubber, K. "Nokia 808 PureView smartphone used to fluorescence image viruses." Wired.co.uk. September 17, 2013.
Whitwam, R. "UCLA smartphone microscope can detect a single virus, nanoparticles." Geek. September 17, 2013.
Photo Credit:
UCLA.