Earlier this year, the Marine Biology Research Program was chosen as a Beta tester of the latest in microscope technology – the PrakashLab Foldscope – from Stanford University. 10th grade Marine Research Scholar, Jose Martinez, stepped up to the challenge of building and testing the scope. To prepare, he wrote down a comprehensive step-by-step guide to building the scope. After 45 minutes of work he was able to successfully project an image of an amoeba on to a dark wall using the Foldscope and his cellular phone lamp. Jose is formulating a project to record all things microscopic associated to the Hudson River Estuary. For a great video on Foldscopes in Ted Talks click here and for more images of Jose’s work click here.