Foldscope: DIY microscope holds promise in battles against disease

Foldscope design, components and usage. 

(A) CAD layout of Foldscope paper components on an A4 sheet. 

(B) Schematic of an assembled Foldscope illustrating panning.

(C) cross-sectional view illustrating flexure-based focusing. 

(D) Foldscope components and tools used in the assembly, including 

Foldscope paper components, ball lens, button-cell battery, surface-mounted LED, switch, copper tape and polymeric filters. 

(E) Different modalities assembled from colored paper stock. 

(F) Novice users demonstrating the technique for using the Foldscope.

G) Demonstration of the field-rugged design, such as stomping under foot. Credit: 

Did they say fifty cents? That is how much researchers say it would cost, and maybe less, to make a microscope that you print on a piece of paper and then add some components and assemble in minutes, not hours.

Manu Prakash

Stanford University's Manu Prakash, an assistant professor of bioengineering, and colleagues have been working on merging principles of optical design with origami.

The result is something in the order of origami optics, or you might call it by the title of the team's paper detailing their work, "Foldscope: Origami-based paper microscope," submitted earlier this month on arXiv.


Prakash had presented the idea in a 2012 TED talk, and now the research paper, explaining the team's Foldscope, was authored by James Cybulski, James Clements, and Prakash, representing Stanford's departments of Mechanical Engineering and Bioengineering.

The authors wrote that they are presenting "ultra-low cost brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescence microscopes designed for rugged applications in science and education."

The end result is a light, rugged instrument with imaging capabilities for use as portable microscopes.

One motivating driver to create their Foldscope was as a low-cost medical screening tool in developing countries where medical researchers study organisms to guide treatment and practitioners cope with such diseases such as malaria.

In the online tech mag Gizmodo an article on Foldscope observed, "A cheap, long-lasting, easily transported microscope means quicker diagnosis and treatment in places where doctors can't count on a fully-stocked laboratory."

Another key benefit would be augmenting science education to children in developing and developed countries.

"By removing cost barriers, Foldscope provides new opportunities for a vast user base, said the Stanford team.

"Many children around the world have never used a microscope, even in developed countries like the United States. A universal program providing 'a microscope for every child' could foster deep interest in science at an early age."

One challenge in doing so has been availability of tools previously cost-prohibitive.

More Information: Foldscope: Origami-based paper microscope, arXiv:1403.1211 [physics.optics] arxiv.org/abs/1403.1211

Deet loses Effectiveness against Mosquitoes

The widely-used insect repellent Deet appears to be losing its effectiveness against mosquitoes, scientists say.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine say mosquitoes are first deterred by the substance, but then later ignore it.

They say more research is needed to find alternatives to Deet, which was first developed by the US military.

The research was carried out on Aedes aegypti, a species of mosquito that spreads dengue and yellow fever.

The findings are published in the journal Plos One.

Dr James Logan from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "The more we can understand about how repellents work and how mosquitoes detect them, the better we can work out ways to get around the problem when they do become resistant to repellents."

Vitamin C Is Beneficial Against the Common Cold in Men

According to an updated Cochrane Review on vitamin C and the common cold, vitamin C seems to be particularly beneficial for people under heavy physical stress.

In five randomised trials of participants with heavy short-term physical stress, vitamin C halved the incidence of the common cold.

Three of the trials studied marathon runners, one studied Swiss school children in a skiing camp and one studied Canadian soldiers during a winter exercise.

Furthermore, in a recent randomised trial carried out with adolescent competitive swimmers, vitamin C halved the duration of colds in males, although the vitamin had no effect on females.

Regular doses of vitamin C of one gram per day or higher have reduced the average duration of colds in adults by 8% and in children by 18%.

Although these findings unambiguously show that vitamin C has a biological effect on colds, taking vitamin C every day to shorten infrequent colds does not seem reasonable.

On average, adults have only a few common cold episodes per year and children have some half a dozen colds per year.

Few therapeutic trials, meaning trials in which vitamin C was given only after the first symptoms of a cold appeared, have been carried out and their results are not consistent.

Nevertheless, given the consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration and severity of colds in the regular supplementation studies, and the safety and low cost of vitamin C, the authors consider that it may be worthwhile for individual common cold patients to test whether therapeutic vitamin C is beneficial for them.

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki), via AlphaGalileo.

Harri Hemilä1, Elizabeth Chalker, Cochrane Acute Respiratory Infections Group. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Review, 31 JAN 2013 DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000980.pub4

Cassini image: Saturn's moon Dione against hazy Titan

The surface of Saturn's moon Dione is rendered in crisp detail against a hazy, ghostly Titan.

Visible in this image are hints of atmospheric banding around Titan's north pole.

The image was taken in visible blue light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on April 10, 2010.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 1.8 million kilometers (1.1 million miles) from Dione and 2.7 million kilometers (1.7 million miles) from Titan.

Scale in the original image was 11 kilometers (7 miles) per pixel on Dione and 16 kilometers (10 miles) on Titan. The image has been magnified by a factor of 1.5 and contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Study details machinery of immune protection against colitis and inflammatory diseases

Study details machinery of immune protection against colitis and inflammatory diseases ScienceBlog.com

Scientists report a protein made by a gene already associated with a handful of human inflammatory immune diseases plays a pivotal role in protecting the intestinal tract from colitis.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators led the research, which points to possible new strategies for combating colitis. Colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease associated with colon damage, resulting in abdominal pain, bleeding and other symptoms.

The work also expands the link between the Nlrp3 protein and Crohn's disease, said Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, Ph.D., assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Immunology and the paper's senior author.

Md. Hasan Zaki, Ph.D., a St. Jude postdoctoral fellow, is first author of the study, which appears in the March 18 online edition of the journal Immunity.

Researchers demonstrated that in a mouse model of colitis, Nlrp3 plays a pivotal role in keeping the intestinal tract intact, thus preventing further damage that occurs if intestinal bacteria leak into the body.

Nlrp3 works by anchoring a large, multi-protein complex known as the Nlrp3 inflammasome where the messenger protein interleukin 18 (IL-18) is made. IL-18 belongs to a family of molecules known as cytokines, which shape the body's immune response.

In this study, researchers showed IL-18 produced by the Nlrp3 inflammasome helped mice maintain healthy colon by triggering production of more epithelial cells to compensate for those damaged or destroyed by colitis.

"This paper provides the basis for more effective, potentially disease-modifying approaches to treatment," Kanneganti said. She added that in this study, scientists showed the specific pathway activated in the epithelial cells lining the colon for IL-18 production.

Previous studies linked changes in the NLRP3 gene to several auto-inflammatory problems in which a person's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. The gene is part of the body's innate immune response. That is the branch of the immune system programmed to act immediately against infectious diseases and other threats.

"I believe if we target molecules that are part of the innate immune response we can find cures for many diseases, including cancer," Kanneganti said. She and her colleagues focused on Nlrp3 in colitis after reports that patients with Crohn's disease, another disorder characterised by chronic intestinal inflammation, had low levels of the protein.

In a series of experiments, scientists demonstrated that the Nlrp3 inflammasome not only helps protect against chemically induced colitis in mice, but also showed how and where in the body the protection occurred.

The researchers demonstrated that in response to colitis, the Nlrp3 inflammasome is activated in the epithelial cells lining the colon, where IL-18 can be produced.

Investigators also established that IL-18 is crucial for protecting the colon from colitis. In fact, researchers reported that injecting IL-18 into mice that lacked the molecule eased colitis symptoms.

The other authors of this study are Kelli Boyd, Peter Vogel and Michael Kastan (all St. Jude) and Mohamed Lamkanfi (Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium).

This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute and ALSAC.

To read the full article click here

Water woes could undermine Yemen's drive against Al-Qaeda

Water woes could undermine Yemen's drive against Al-Qaeda

Impoverished Yemen is reeling under the threat of Al-Qaeda, northern Shiite rebels and southern secessionists, but a lack of water is putting its ancient capital at even greater risk, experts say.

Within a decade -- or even less -- Sanaa could become the first waterless capital in the world, they warn, adding the outlook is also bleak for the rest of this parched country where wells in some regions are already dry.

A conference in London
on Wednesday will discuss Yemen's anti-terrorism drive, but it is unclear whether the water woes that experts say are likely to fuel more insecurity are on the agenda.

Water disputes and riots in this largely tribal nation could squeeze Yemen's struggling government, undermining its ability to remain focused on an increasingly alarming security situation.

The United States and major European powers, concerned about the possible fallout from a resurgent Al-Qaeda, have been pressuring Sanaa to uproot the Islamic militants. Yemen says it needs arms, training and funds to do that.

"The situation in Yemen is rapidly deteriorating in the face of several challenges, all of which have the potential to develop into a serious crisis within the next five years," the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a report last year.

High Tech Giants Fighting Against Malaria

Tech giants are putting their expertise to good use outside of the corporate arena by using IT to combat malaria by ensuring drugs are more readily available.

Dubbed SMS for Life, the solution - jointly developed by IBM, Novartis and Vodafone - is being used in association with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, to boost availability of anti-malarial drugs in remote areas of Tanzania.

SMS for Life brings together mobiles, SMS and web-based tech to help track and manage the supply of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs and Quinine injectables. Put together, these can greatly reduce the death toll linked to malaria, which totals almost one million people each year in Africa - most of which are young children and pregnant women.

After visits to clinics, hospitals and dispensaries across Tanzania, IBM, Novartis and Vodafone initiated a five-month pilot of the SMS for Life solution, covering 135 villages and over a million people in different geographic locations across Tanzania.

Healthcare staff receive automated text to remind them to check drug stocks every week. Then, using toll-free numbers, they can reply by text to a central UK-based database. Once stock levels are determined, deliveries can be arrange before they completely run out.

IBM interns - dubbed Extreme Blue - were heavily involved in the project, as was Vodafone's development partner MatsSoft.

“This is an example of a truly innovative solution helping solve a humanitarian problem. After spending time on the ground, we created a project plan, developed the application with Vodafone and Novartis and established the best way to deliver the pilot, working with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health," said Peter Ward, project manager for IBM, in a statement. "We expect other countries will also be able to benefit in the future.”

During the pilot benefits were clear almost immediately. Indeed, during the first few weeks, the number of locations reporting zero stock levels went down by more than 75 per cent. As a result, the authorities are considering extending the roll-out country wide.

“The SMS for Life programme has already had a positive effect in Tanzania. I've seen district medical officers ordering urgent stock replacements for various health facilities," said Winfred Mwafongo, senior health officer for Tanzania's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in a statement.

"During a visit to 19 rural health facilities in one district alone, I saw huge improvements in their inventory management systems. I'm very impressed with the results so far and look forward to following the rest of the pilot through to completion."

Shock Horror Posters Against Binge Drinking in UK Universities

One of many life sized posters of an unconscious girl which have been placed around the floors of Loughborough University toilets, to warn the students of the dangers of binge drinking. Good luck with that!