This is the best way to put a microscope in your pocket

Using a microscope to get a closer look at the world around you has never been easier — especially when you have your phone to help. There are quite a few clip- and stick-on lenses that turn your smartphone’s camera into a basic microscope, and they all let you make any number of small but surprising discoveries about the world around you. Like the fact that freshly cut hair can look like brittle strands of uncooked spaghetti when viewed up close, or that the surface of a dried black peppercorn is meteoric in its detail; full of tiny ridges and craters. 

The phone-microscope kit I’ve been playing around with lately is called Blips. I backed it on Kickstarter earlier this year, and it’s now available for anyone to pre-order. For $30 you get a pair of plastic lenses — one micro and one macro — in a matchbook-like bit of packaging, and, uh, that’s it. More expensive Blips kits include a stand and light source to better illuminate your subject, but if you’re a newcomer to this sort of home microscopy, the basic version will do you just fine. 

Blips is pretty great, but isn’t without its difficulties. The fact that it just sticks onto your phone with tape makes it ridiculously easy to set up, but also gives it a limited shelf life. For me, the tape lost its stickiness after about three weeks, and I lost the micro lens one day just taking my phone out of my pocket. You might, of course, be more careful than I was, but losing your purchase is a definite downside — especially when compared to more permanent clip-on lenses.  

The article was published on : theverge