The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content. Clear liquid droplets can bend light, acting like a lens. By exploiting this well-known phenomenon ...

Researchers in Australia have invented a new kind of optical lens that could be combined with a smartphone camera to create a microscope for diagnosing skin cancer or identifying agricultural pests.

Microscope lenses are typically made either by grinding and polishing glass discs, or pouring polymers into molds – both techniques can be quite involved, which is reflected in the price of the ...

Professor Timo Betz is a biophysicist at the University of Göttingen in Germany. His name is found on widely cited research papers with serious-sounding titles like Neurite branch retraction is caused ...

I lied. My smartphone isn't a microscope — yet. But there are some smart physicists who want to make that transformation possible very soon, if not for you and me at first, then for doctors who don't ...

A microscope is a scientific instrument used to magnify small objects so they can be seen larger than life. The simplest microscope is a single lens called a magnifying glass. The larger, more ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Federico Guerrini is a reporter covering tech policy and AI. For Thomas Larson, a University of Washington's graduate in ...

Van Leeuwenhoek's microscope's were simple gadgets by today's standards, with a spike to hold the object being studied and a single magnifying lens to look through. Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, the 17 ...