Imagine a world where every child owns a microscope. A clever new method to fold a single sheet of paper to create a microscope may bring that dream closer to reality. In the Foldscope, invented by Stanford University engineers, folded paper creates a structure, which holds a lens and a LED in alignment. As users look, adjust the lens and change the focus, they can magnify objects more than 2,000 times with this simple, affordable and easily portable assembly. This level of magnification is close to what you can achieve with most laboratory microscopes. Leading developer Manu Prakash originally saw the Foldscope as an inexpensive way to diagnose diseases in developing countries. But he soon realized it could also help excite a new generation of scientists. "You learn to appreciate the microscopic world by actually exploring it yourself," he says. The inventors launched a beta test to see how the invention works in real practice. More than 11,000 applicants from 130 countries – ranging from six-year-olds to scientists nominated for the Nobel Prize – volunteered to use the Foldscope for an original research project. They plan to study bee parasites and identify micro-fossils. Reproducing those experiments may inspire students to make their own discoveries. If only every biology book had a Foldscope as the last page because we are not just imparting knowledge, but we are also imparting the tools to gain that knowledge.