$500 AFM, Anybody?

Press release here

Quote:

Research-grade AFMs typically cost $100,000 or more, and use custom hardware, however, the newly designed low-cost version could cost less than $500 to produce. The design brief for the student teams was to build a functional nanoscope, using only LEGO, Arduino microcontrollers, 3D-printed parts and consumer electronics. The event was co-sponsored by the LEGO Foundation, and involved active participation by Chinese high-school students, as potential users of such low-cost science tools. It took just five days for the student team to demonstrate the scanning functionality of their AFM, earning them the award for Best Technical Design.

Further info from Wired Magazine:



UCL students build low-cost, Arduino-powered, Lego atomic force microscope

Quote:

The project isn't purely altruistic, however. Pyne is hoping that by spreading these low-cost open source microscopes to schools across a country like China, crucial information about the effects of pollution, for example, can be crowdsourced. The schools get low-cost access to high-tech scientific tools and researchers potentially get access to data uploaded by ranks of newly-inspired teenage scientists.

via JREF Forum http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=265877&goto=newpost