Low-cost Fluorescence Microscope

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FULL INSTRUCTABLE LINK HERE: www.instructables.com/id/Low-...
Fluorescence microscopy is an imaging modality used to visualize specific structures in biological and other physical samples. The objects of interest in the sample (e.g. neurons, blood vessels, mitochondria, etc.) are visualized because fluorescent compounds attach to only those specific structures. Some of the most beautiful microscopy images are collected with fluorescence microscopes.
In this video, I will go over the basic principles of fluorescence microscopy and a cheap USB fluorescence microscope I made. These systems usually cost thousands of dollars, but this one costs only $100. The designs I present here utilize a smart phone, a dSLR, and a USB microscope. All of these designs also work as brightfield microscopes.

[@simonstergaard]

Excelent..

[@alexecheverria]

Great! Can you share the model of the cheap usb microscope?

[@jbumstead21]

Thanks, the model can be found here: www.instructables.com/id/Low-cost-Fluorescence-and-Brightfield-Microscopes/

[@irishguy200007]

Can I use my biological microscope I already have?

[@lint2023]

Very interesting. BTW, volume is very low. I had to crank to 100% to hear even with external speakers.

[@irishguy200007]

Why hasn't to be a blue light and not the standard whitish light on motic and then combine it with a filter to.only allow green light to pass through.

[@irishguy200007]

Also can I use my biological microscope that I have and swap out the light source to a blue light?

[@AbhishekKumar-wi6zo]

Can you tell what kind of lenses you used and the resultant magnification

[@chinaobservernetwork854]

Why does this green filter use a blue LED light as its light source? If you use a UV filter or a blue filter, what color light should be used as the lamp source?

[@irishguy200007]

Why can't I use my motic biological microscope with white light and simply use that green filter to filter everything except the green light?

[@edmonlee9311]

because you need the blue light to excite instead of just white

[@tommynavis8025]

I think it may be an issue of intensity. With white light you're shining an assortment of photons, and relatively few of them are the wavelength you want, so the image will be nearly invisible. By using a light source that is just blue you can send just the photons you want. There are probably other explanations as well, like the filter may not be effective for wavelengths that aren't green or blue, so you'll get some distortion. Just random thoughts that are probably wrong. Hope you found your answer in the last year without this comment.

[@chinaobservernetwork854]

@@tommynavis8025 Why does this green filter use a blue LED light as its light source? If you use a UV filter or a blue filter, what color light should be used as the lamp source?

[@martindevonshire1952]

because the light at 488nm excited the sample, it then emits light in the green range of the spectrum, white light is a mux of all wavelengths of light, if you used a white light then the sample would emit green light but the light source would too which would give you very high background and you would not be able to see your samples

[@irishguy200007]

Can someone explain if one shines blue light instead of white light then filter the blue light before it gets to the camera how one gets any image at all. Is he saying that the blue light gives energy to the flourescencent particles or something. I love science but I fucking hate it when I cannot understand exactly or it makes no sense to me.

[@martindevonshire1952]

because when a fluorescent sample absorbs light some of the energy is absorbed, the sample then emits light of a longer wavelength. take a look at this image www.fpbase.org/spectra_img/egfp.png?twitter=1 x axis is wavelength of light, Y is intensity of light . The left, blue peak shows how effective light is at providing an activation energy to the fluorescent material, the right green peak is the range and intensity of light that this particular material (green fluorescent protein) emits , the top of each peak, known as the lambda max represents the best wavelength of light to shine on the material for the biggest fluorescence effect (488nm), the right one shows you which wavelength to monitor for the greatest sensitivity(507nm). if you were to use a white light then it would have an emission at 488nm which would be your excitation wavelength but it would also emit light at 507nm too and way more than your sample, i hope that made sense