This article was taken from the September 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by <span class="s1">subscribing online.
For less than £15 you can hack your smartphone into a powerful viewer capable of 175x magnification. Kenji Yoshino, a science education fellow at Grinnell College in Iowa, made this project as accessible as possible: "Anyone could build it in half an hour and find any of the parts at a local hardware store," he says.
DISMANTLE THE LASER POINTER
Unscrew the laser pointer -- "A cheap £2 model works remarkably well," says Yoshino -- and push out the lens. One side will have a translucent strip - when assembled this side must face away fromthe camera.
PREPARE YOUR STAGE
Mark the plywood 2cm in from the front two corners and 2cm in from the middle of the back edge. Stack the camera stage on top and the specimen stage on top again with 2cm extending from the front of the base.
GET DRILLING
Drill through the entire assembly at the marked points. Drill a hole for the lens 2cm from the front of the camera stage and slot it into place. Then make a larger, shallow hole in the plywood beneath for the light source.
SECURE THE HOUSING
Fix the bolts through the holes. Add wing nuts and two washers, then slot the specimen stage on top. Screw a nut 1.5cm on to each bolt and rest the camera stage on top. Secure, then add the LED light on to the base.
FINISH AND OBSERVE
Line up the phone's camera with the lens, then place an object to view on the specimen stage. You can stack two lenses for 325x magnification: "At that stage you can see things on the cellular level," says Yoshino.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
