Would you believe it if I told you that you can see bacteria with a smartphone?

A joint study by the engineering department of the University of Pisa and San Diego makes it possible to turn our mobile phone into a microscope.

A small self-adhesive lens attached to the camera of a smartphone allows you to detect bacteria and cells. Normally, if you want to check for bacteria in food or in a wound, the classical microscope is not enough because the bacteria blend into the background.

Filters, e.g. red fluorescence, are needed to highlight them under the classical microscope. But fluorescence microscopes are very bulky and expensive. In contrast, this small device costing just a few cents has the same function as a fluorescence microscope because in addition to magnifying up to 100 times, the lens can highlight the fluorescence of bacteria and cells thanks to nanoscale slits of a size comparable to that of bacteria themselves.

By means of these optical properties, a doctor, working for example in distant and uncomfortable places, can observe suspicious foods and wounds and indicate the correct antibiotic therapy. Something absolutely incredible!

As for commercialization on the other hand, the project is still in the development phase, the first articles about it came out only at the end of November 2019.