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The world鈥檚 first fully 3D-printed microscope can be made in a few hours and for a fraction of the cost of traditional ones.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just enabling, it鈥檚 empowering,鈥� says at the University of Strathclyde in the UK. She and her colleagues previously worked out how to 3D-print lenses like those used in microscopes, which led to the breakthrough.

For the body of the microscope, researchers used a design from , a publicly available resource for 3D-printing scientific instruments. Then, they added the 3D-printed, clear plastic lenses they designed, a store-bought camera and a light source, all of which were controlled by a Raspberry Pi computer processor.

Traditional microscope lenses often costs hundreds of pounds, and full microscopes can cost thousands, but this cost less than 拢50 to create. Without the added camera and the processor, the microscope weighs as little as 3 kilograms, says also at the University of Strathclyde.

It is a relatively fast process, too. 鈥淲ithin 3 hours, you go from having a computational design that you鈥檝e downloaded from the internet to having a working optical microscope,鈥� says Rooney. The researchers tested it by examining a blood sample and a thin section of a mouse kidney and found that they could see enough sub-cellular and anatomical detail that it could be useful for diagnosis.

at University College Dublin, Ireland, says that the 3D printers the team used are like those many hobbyists already have, which makes the new microscope accessible to many people.

The cheap and customisable 3D-printing approach could put the tools of scientific discovery in the hands of more people, says at the University of New South Wales in Australia. 鈥淎s a do-it-yourself class project, this would enable the new generation of students to experience the beauty of biology,鈥� he says.