Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

African scientists leverage open hardware

A growing emphasis on do-it-yourself science is helping researchers to equip labs in resource-limited areas.
  1. Abdullahi Tsanni

    1. Abdullahi Tsanni is a science writer based in Abuja, Nigeria.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Elikplim Ampofo, Mary Twumasi and Victor Kumbo pose for a photo holding a square piece of wood branded with the word 'Actifield'

Researchers Elikplim Ampofo, Mary Twumasi and Victor Kumbol attended the 2018 TReND in Africa Open Labware workshop in Cape Town, South Africa. Credit: Agnieszka Pokrywka

A 2018 article in the journal HardwareX details “an open source hardware setup to measure locomotor activity in rodents”. It has a simple design. But for developer Victor Kumbol, then a neuroscience master’s student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, that device, called Actifield, has had an outsized impact.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 582, 138 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01606-z

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links