My journey to the microscopic world began with an ordinary microscope about a year ago. I faced various problems while using it like some thing grew on the lens and blurred the view, it was heavy and not easy to carry and so on. So, I googled ‘Microscope problems’ and watched a video on foldscope by Manu Prakash on TED. I got amazed and immediately decided to buy one. At last I got it only two weeks ago . Many of my problems were solved. I also got the solutions regarding collection of planktons by making a plankton net (https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=17431), making a portable reflection microscope (with foldscope) by a simple hack (https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=33534), making a super cheap centrifuge called ‘paperfuge’ (see http://web.stanford.edu/group/prakash-lab/cgi-bin/labsite/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Paperfuge.pdf for the full PDF). But some problems are left.

Your guess is right. It is the ‘Dye or Stain Problem’. Dyes/ stains have added a new dimension in microscopy. But dyes/stains for microscopic purposes are rare in many places. In most cases there is no shop where you can find them.

So, how can it be solved? The only answer is cooperation. If anyone who knows how to make dye out of cheap and available materials  help us by giving a nice post about making them, it would surely be solved. Anyone please make such a post so that we can have homemade cheap dyes.

There are many kinds of them. But only a few dyes would work. If you are to write such a post please tell us the process of using it (like how long the sample should be dipped inside the dye) and where it can be used (like some dyes only work for gram positive bacterias).

An Additional Request:

Please create a post for making a cheap microtome. This post is good (https://microcosmos.foldscope.com/?p=25948) but I need a better one for making it.

Note: The pictures were taken from internet.