Stanford professor Manu Prakash and his students have developed a microscope that can be punched out and folded together from a sheet of paper, origami-style, for a cost of 50 cents each, lenses and LED lights included.

The microscope was created to address the problem of diagnosing diseased such as malaria in the developing world. In many cases, a diagnosis must wait, simply because no microscope is available. Prakash’s research team is field testing thousands of microscopes to help with the problem, and contributing to hands-on science education along the way. Learn more at foldscope.com or watch the TED talk below.