TED演講：價值50美分的折紙顯微鏡

　　The year is 1800. A curious little invention is being talked about. It's called a microscope. What it allows you to do is see tiny little lifeforms that are invisible to the naked eye. Soon comes the medical discovery that many of these lifeforms are actually causes of terrible human diseases. Imagine what happened to the society when they realized that an English mom in her teacup actually was drinking a monster soup, not very far from here. This is from London.

　　就在西元1800年 有一個神奇的小裝置引起了眾人的關(guān)注 它就是顯微鏡 它的功用是 讓你看見那些 肉眼看不到的生命形式 很快在醫(yī)學(xué)上也發(fā)現(xiàn) 這些微小的生命形式也是造成 許多可怕疾病的成因 想像當(dāng)時的社會發(fā)生什么事 當(dāng)他們了解到 一位拿著茶杯的英國婦女 實事上正在啜飲一杯致病怪獸湯 這是在離這里不遠的倫敦

　　Fast forward 200 years. We still have this monster soup around, and it's taken hold in the developing countries around the tropical belt. Just for malaria itself, there are a million deaths a year, and more than a billion people that need to be tested because they are at risk for different species of malarial infections.

　　兩百年過后的現(xiàn)在 世界上依舊存在這些致病怪獸湯 只不過喝著他們的人大部分在開發(fā)中國家 還有赤道地區(qū) 就拿瘧疾來說 它一年造成了一百萬人死亡 而這世界上有十億人 因為高風(fēng)險而需要被檢測 以應(yīng)付不同種的瘧疾感染

　　Now it's actually very simple to put a face to many of these monsters. You take a stain, like acridine orange or a fluorescent stain or Giemsa, and a microscope, and you look at them. They all have faces. Why is that so, that Alex in Kenya, Fatima in Bangladesh, Navjoot in Mumbai, and Julie and Mary in Uganda still wait months to be able to diagnose why they are sick? And that's primarily because scalability of the diagnostics is completely out of reach. And remember that number: one billion.

　　現(xiàn)在要辨認(rèn)這些怪獸的身分 其實非常簡單 只要拿一個染劑，例如說吖啶橙 螢光染劑或吉姆薩染液 再搭配顯微鏡的話，你就會發(fā)現(xiàn) 它們?nèi)加凶约禾厥獾拿婷?如果真是這樣的話 那為什么住在肯亞的Alex 住在孟加拉的Fatima、來自孟買的Navjoot 還有烏干達的Julie跟Mary 仍舊需要等上幾個月 才能夠被診斷出他們?nèi)旧狭诉@個疾病? 這主要是因為對他們來說 以顯微鏡作為診斷工具是完全不可能的 然后請記住這個數(shù)字：十億人

　　The problem lies with the microscope itself. Even though the pinnacle of modern science, research microscopes are not designed for field testing. Neither were they first designed for diagnostics at all. They are heavy, bulky, really hard to maintain, and cost a lot of money. This picture is Mahatma Gandhi in the '40s using the exact same setup that we actually use today for diagnosing T.B. in his ashram in Sevagram in India.

　　這個問題主要是出自顯微鏡本身 即使現(xiàn)在科學(xué)十分發(fā)達 研究用顯微鏡并不是針對田野測試設(shè)計的 它們一開始也不是被設(shè)計 拿來作為臨床診斷的工具 它們很重、占空間、難以維護 而且需要很多錢才能擁有一臺 這張照片是40年代，甘地正在他的聚會所 用與現(xiàn)在完全相同的方式 在印度的塞瓦格蘭姆 診斷結(jié)核桿菌的存在

　　Two of my students, Jim and James, traveled around India and Thailand, starting to think about this problem a lot. We saw all kinds of donated equipment. We saw fungus growing on microscope lenses. And we saw people who had a functional microscope but just didn't know how to even turn it on. What grew out of that work and that trip was actually the idea of what we call Foldscopes.

　　我的兩個學(xué)生Jim和James 他們游歷了印度和泰國 并開始思考了這個問題 我們看了各式各項被捐贈去的器材 還有已經(jīng)長出真菌的顯微鏡片 我們也看見那些有一些人雖然有良好的顯微鏡 卻不知道該怎么使用它 我們從那次旅途中滋生出一些想法 我們把其命名為摺紙式顯微鏡

　　So what is a Foldscope? A Foldscope is a completely functional microscope, a platform for fluorescence, bright-field, polarization, projection, all kinds of advanced microscopy built purely by folding paper. So, now you think, how is that possible? I'm going to show you some examples here, and we will run through some of them. It starts with a single sheet of paper. What you see here is all the possible components to build a functional bright-field and fluorescence microscope. So, there are three stages: There is the optical stage, the illumination stage and the mask-holding stage. And there are micro optics at the bottom that's actually embedded in the paper itself. What you do is, you take it on, and just like you are playing like a toy, which it is, I tab it off, and I break it off.

　　什么是摺紙式顯微鏡? 一個摺紙式顯微鏡 具有完整的功能的顯微鏡 它是一個能夠把光學(xué)及螢光顯微技術(shù) 或是偏光顯微技術(shù)以及投影顯微法 還有其他所有先進的顯微技術(shù) 用摺紙完全實現(xiàn)的平臺 你一定在想，這怎么可能呢? 我要給你們看幾個例子 我們也會在這里做一些示范 從一張簡單的紙開始 你可以看到上面有各種可能的零件 可以用來做出具功能的 亮視野顯微鏡以及螢光顯微鏡 它有三個層級 鏡片、光源 還有固定樣本的地方 而在底部有微型的鏡片 它們就直接嵌在紙里頭 你唯一需要做的是，把零件取下來 就像你在玩玩具那樣 其實還真的蠻像的啦 我沿著標(biāo)示好的邊緣 把它取下來

　　This paper has no instructions and no languages. There is a code, a color code embedded, that tells you exactly how to fold that specific microscope. When it's done, it looks something like this, has all the functionalities of a standard microscope, just like an XY stage, a place where a sample slide could go, for example right here. We didn't want to change this, because this is the standard that's been optimized for over the years, and many health workers are actually used to this. So this is what changes, but the standard stains all remain the same for many different diseases. You pop this in. There is an XY stage, and then there is a focusing stage, which is a flexure mechanism that's built in paper itself that allows us to move and focus the lenses by micron steps.

　　這張紙上沒有任何說明和語言 取而代之的是一種附在上面的顏色密碼 它會精準(zhǔn)地告訴你 該如何組裝出一臺顯微鏡 完成之后，你會拿到像這樣的東西 它具有標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的顯微鏡所有的功能 像是一個XY平臺， 一個可以放上玻片樣本的地方 像我手上這個 我們不想改變制造樣本的方法 因為這方法是個很多年來 已經(jīng)被最佳化的標(biāo)準(zhǔn) 很多健康相關(guān)工作者 也已經(jīng)習(xí)慣這種樣本 所以我們改變的是顯微鏡 不過所有染劑使用的方法還是一樣 視是哪種疾病而定 你把它放進來 固定在XY平臺上， 之后有一個可以讓你聚焦的功能 它是內(nèi)建在紙本身的彎曲機制 能夠讓我們以微米的等級 去移動鏡片并讓鏡片聚焦

　　So what's really interesting about this object, and my students hate when I do this, but I'm going to do this anyway, is these are rugged devices. I can turn it on and throw it on the floor and really try to stomp on it. And they last, even though they're designed from a very flexible material, like paper.

　　這個產(chǎn)品最有趣的地方就在于 我的學(xué)生討厭我這樣 不過我還是要做 這些顯微鏡十分耐用 我可以啟動它并把它扔在地上 然后狠狠的踩 即使他們是用像紙一般 有彈性的材料做成 在我踩完之后，它們的功能還是能夠完好如初

　　Another fun fact is, this is what we actually send out there as a standard diagnostic tool, but here in this envelope I have 30 different foldscopes of different configurations all in a single folder. And I'm going to pick one randomly. This one, it turns out, is actually designed specifically for malaria, because it has the fluorescent filters built specifically for diagnosing malaria. So the idea of very specific diagnostic microscopes comes out of this.

　　另一個有趣的事實是，我手上的是 我們送出去用來診斷的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)工具 但是單單在這個資料夾里 我就有30種不同的摺紙式顯微鏡 每一個都有自己獨特的設(shè)計 讓我隨機挑一個 這個，事實上 就是專門為了瘧疾設(shè)計的 因為它有特殊的螢光濾鏡 可以用來診斷瘧疾 針對不同疾病設(shè)計顯微鏡的點子 就是來自這里

　　So up till now, you didn't actually see what I would see from one of these setups. So what I would like to do is, if we could dim the lights, please, it turns out foldscopes are also projection microscopes. I have these two microscopes that I'm going to turn -- go to the back of the wall -- and just project, and this way you will see exactly what I would see. What you're looking at -- (Applause) — This is a cross-section of a compound eye, and when I'm going to zoom in closer, right there, I am going through the z-axis. You actually see how the lenses are cut together in the cross-section pattern. Another example, one of my favorite insects, I love to hate this one, is a mosquito, and you're seeing the antenna of a culex pipiens. Right there. All from the simple setup that I actually described.

　　直到現(xiàn)在，你們都還沒機會看到 我用已經(jīng)組裝好的顯微鏡看到的東西 所以接下來我要示范一下 請把燈光調(diào)暗 這些摺紙式顯微鏡 也具有投影顯微鏡的功能 我手上有兩副顯微鏡，我要把它們 面對后面的墻壁 然后把我能夠看到的東西投影出來 這樣你們就知道它的功能 你們現(xiàn)在看著的是 (掌聲) 這是一個復(fù)眼的的剖面 而當(dāng)我要讓成像放大的時候 我可以通過Z軸來調(diào)整 你完全可以從這剖面 看見這些水晶體是如何被切下來的 另一個例子來自我最喜歡的昆蟲 我最喜歡咒罵的昆蟲 也就是蚊子 你現(xiàn)在看到的是尖音庫蚊的觸角 就在那邊 你能夠用我剛剛講的 簡單裝置看到所有的細節(jié)

　　So my wife has been field testing some of our microscopes by washing my clothes whenever I forget them in the dryer. So it turns out they're waterproof, and -- (Laughter) — right here is just fluorescent water, and I don't know if you can actually see this. This also shows you how the projection scope works. You get to see the beam the way it's projected and bent.

　　對了，經(jīng)過我妻子的實地測試 也就是把我忘在衣服口袋的摺疊顯微鏡 連同臟衣服一起拿去洗 烘干完之后 我們發(fā)現(xiàn)它們可以防水 (笑聲) 這里有一杯單純的螢光水 我不知道你們看不看的見 不過你可以從這看出投影鏡片是如何運作的 你可以看光束被投射以及彎曲的情形

　　Can we get the lights back on again?

　　可以再把燈打開嗎?

　　So I'm quickly going to show you, since I'm running out of time, in terms of how much it costs for us to manufacture, the biggest idea was roll-to-roll manufacturing, so we built this out of 50 cents of parts and costs. (Applause) And what this allows us to do is to think about a new paradigm in microscopy, which we call use-and-throw microscopy. I'm going to give you a quick snapshot of some of the parts that go in. Here is a sheet of paper. This is when we were thinking about the idea. This is an A4 sheet of paper. These are the three stages that you actually see. And the optical components, if you look at the inset up on the right, we had to figure out a way to manufacture lenses in paper itself at really high throughputs, so it uses a process of self-assembly and surface tension to build achromatic lenses in the paper itself. So that's where the lenses go. There are some light sources. And essentially, in the end, all the parts line up because of origami, because of the fact that origami allows us micron-scale precision of optical alignment. So even though this looks like a simple toy, the aspects of engineering that go in something like this are fairly sophisticated.

　　因為時間快用完了 接著我要很快的讓你們看看 我們需要花多少成本來制造這些 我們最大的想法是采用連續(xù)卷軸式制造 所以可以用50美分就制造出了這個 (掌聲) 而這樣的成本讓我們可以 想出顯微鏡的新應(yīng)用范例 也就是可拋式顯微鏡 我要給你一個快速的寫照 讓你們知道上面的零件有哪些 這里有一張紙 這是我們在思考這個想法的時候畫的 這是一張A4大小的紙 你可以親眼看到三個層級 如果你把注意力放在右上中間 可以看到光學(xué)元件 我們不得不想出辦法 在紙上以高產(chǎn)率來制造鏡片 因此，它利用一個自動組裝的制程 和表面張力 在紙上生產(chǎn)出無色的鏡片 那就是鏡片在的地方 還有光源 最后這些零件不得不排列整齊 這樣才能符合摺紙的形式 因為摺紙能夠讓我們 以微米的精準(zhǔn)度來做光學(xué)校正 所以即使這看起來像一個簡單的玩具 在里面蘊含的工程技術(shù) 也是相當(dāng)復(fù)雜的

　　So here is another obvious thing that we would do, typically, if I was going to show that these microscopes are robust, is go to the third floor and drop it from the floor itself. There it is, and it survives.

　　另外還有一件我們不得不做的事情 基本上，如果我要告訴你們 這些顯微鏡十分耐用 我們要從三樓把它們丟下去 就像這樣，而且它還完好如初

　　So for us, the next step actually is really finishing our field trials. We are starting at the end of the summer. We are at a stage where we'll be making thousands of microscopes. That would be the first time where we would be doing field trials with the highest density of microscopes ever at a given place. We've started collecting data for malaria, Chagas disease and giardia from patients themselves.

　　所以對我們來說，下一步行動 就是完成田野的實地測試 我們將從今年夏末開始 我們正在制造上千個顯微鏡 這將會是我們第一次 讓一個地方擁有最高的顯微鏡普及率 并做實際測試 我們已經(jīng)開始從病患那收集有關(guān)瘧疾 美洲錐蟲癥和梨形鞭毛蟲癥的數(shù)據(jù)

　　And I want to leave you with this picture. I had not anticipated this before, but a really interesting link between hands-on science education and global health. What are the tools that we're actually providing the kids who are going to fight this monster soup for tomorrow? I would love for them to be able to just print out a Foldscope and carry them around in their pockets.

　　而我希望能夠讓你們看見 雖然我以前從沒想過 那就是動手作的科學(xué)教育 以及全球健康問題 之間的有趣聯(lián)系 在未來，我們該給那些 正在對抗致病怪獸湯的孩子們 什么樣的工具呢? 我希望他們能夠 直接列印出一個摺紙式顯微鏡 并放在口袋中隨身攜帶

　　Thank you.

　　謝謝

　　(Applause)

　　(掌聲)