I had the opportunity last week to present in front of few dozen industrial scientists visiting stanford. The catch was I only had less than 10 minutes!

If I had to share one way that the foldscope really has changed the way I think about life :

I’d choose the fact that it provides a window into the physiology of tiny living organisms; their beautiful motions, dances and flows-a visceral reminder of the hallmark of life – that it is animate!

So, naturally I wanted to share this subtle, but personally important point. There were small challenges- preparing wet mounts, keeping organism alive and making sure the live projection from my iPhone to the big screen worked.

I took the risk (I had a couple backup slides) and everything turned out well. I’m sharing the video and a few images below in the hope of encouraging others to also share live demos; its tricky, requires preparation, but totally worth it!

Dive in!

Note: the larvae is of Culex tarsalis. I may have bungled up the name in the heat of the moment.

And here is one more picture from the event.

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