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Jeffrey M. Perkel, Nature's technology editor, writes an article on smartphone science. The article appears today in the 4 May issue of Nature magazine. The article focuses on mobile phones and how these devices are helping to take conventional laboratory-based science into the field, the classroom and the clinic. 

Among other examples, Perkel discusses the work performed by Julien Colombelli, manager of the Advanced Digital Microscopy Core Facility at IRB Barcelona, who has combined, together with colleagues at ICFO and CRG, the power of smartphones and LEGO to illustrate the principles behind light-sheet microscopy. 

“The 'LEGOLish' system is not a true microscope, Colombelli says — it contains no magnification lenses. But it can image objects measuring 1–2 centimetres, about the size of a mouse embryo.”

Read more: Pocket laboratories

Reference article:

Pocket laboratories (open access)
Jeffrey M. Perkel
Nature (04 May 2017): doi:10.1038/545119a


Nature Jobs blog by Jeffrey M. Perkel: TechBlog: Smartphone science, no programming required

About IRB Barcelona

The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).