To distribute it to marginalized schools..a Thai university turns old smartphones into microscopes for scientific research

Old smartphones have many uses, but it seems a university in Bangkok has found a smarter way to make use of them.

Chulalongkorn University announced - in a statement - that it will work in cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society to modify 500 old smartphones donated by Samsung Electrics, and turn them into microscopes using CU Smart Lens, which was invented by Sanong. Akassi is a doctoral professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Science.

The project is called "2,500 old mobile phone microscopes for marginalized schools", as the project aspires to re-use 2,500 old mobile phones.

The press release adds that the university and ministry will “use discarded cell phones in place of microscopes in schools deprived of scientific equipment across the country,” adding that “the project was created to promote equal access to quality education for students across the country by reusing equipment.” Old".

The statement does not give more details than that, and it appears that the phones will be "refurbished" with what is called "CU Smart Lens", but we do not know what exactly they are, or how they help turn phones into microscopes. The attached image in the statement shows a device provided by the university that displays on its screen something resembling swollen microorganisms.

But can the new lens use the phone's camera to take highly enlarged photos? An image in the smartphone shows the "X50" mark (X50); Which could indicate that the phone was refurbished to magnify the elements by a factor of 50.

Despite many unknowns, experts believe this is a great project that helps students and reduces waste, and they say we hope to see other institutions around the world take inspiration from this initiative.