We know there are organisms so small that they are invisible to the human eye and yet incredibly important for our well-being. They live in and on our bodies,influence our health and are being used to prepare and process food. Some can transform milk into yogurt, some ferment our beers and wine, others make our bread fluffy. But how can we know so much about them, if they are invisible to the eye?

Luckily, scientists of the past created the tools to detect these organisms and their activity. In this workshop you will be able to build one of them yourself*, a foldable microscope which can be used with a smartphone or an open source microscope module for a Raspberry Pi (single-board computer) using 3D printed parts, switches and LEDs. With them you can take close-up pictures and more importantly learn about the micro universe that we live in.

We will show you how different the world looks under a microscope. You will see unexpectedly stunning structures and details. Or do you already know how hairy a fly actually is? There will be some samples prepared by us, and you are welcome to bring anything you want to take a closer look at. The foldable microscope will enable you to see the patterns in the wings of a fly or the different cells in a plant leaf. With the Raspberry Pi microscope module we can try to identify residual yeast from the bottle of wheat beer you had last night. If you want to go more advanced we can try to sample some of your breakfast yoghurt to check for lactic bacteria in there.

Take part in the workshop and discover the beauty of the micro universe!

Note:

-  For a small donation you can take the microscope you built with you
-  Foldable microscope: No experience needed (age > 8)
-  Microscope module for the Raspberry Pi: very basic knowledge about single-board computers (age > 12)
-  *You can also use our pre-built ones if you just want to learn about the micro universe!