Glow-up Pics

Fluorescence microscopy paints beautiful pictures of living things. By attaching fluorescent proteins to molecules, scientists can track them in cells and find out how they work. This technology has enabled countless discoveries, but it can cost around £100,000. What if your lab can't afford that? And how can students get their hands on this equipment? Researchers in the USA may have the answer: a $50 fluorescence microscope they call the glowscope. In video tutorials, they explain how to build one from LEDs, a smartphone, and coloured plastic. Here, we see pictures of zebrafish embryos captured with glowscopes using six different smartphone cameras. They all show that a molecule (green) is restricted to a small area of the brain, which requires high sensitivity and resolution. Thanks to its low cost and simple design, the glowscope may soon bring the magic of fluorescence microscopy to a classroom, museum, or kitchen table near you.

Written by Henry Stennett

Henry Stennett

Writer

Henry is a science communicator at Cancer Research UK and a freelance writer. He used to research microbiology but now he’s got the writing bug.

• Image adapted from work by Madison A. Schaefer and colleagues
• Biology Department, Winona State University, Winona, MN, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Scientific Reports, March 2023