You remember your high school biology lab’s microscopes: heavy, complicated and expensive machines that you wouldn’t dare take home, let alone into the field. Now imagine one made of paper. The Foldscope project, which went live online today, totally turns the old-school scope on its head with a microscope that can be assembled in less than 10 minutes from paper and an inexpensive lens.

The Stanford University lab behind Foldscope foresees it being used for education and healthcare in areas where access to basic scientific equipment is difficult. The microscope costs less than $1 and could be used to dramatically increase the number of people screened for malaria.

“Our microscope has all the little bells and whistles of a traditional microscope, but it is all implemented in a different medium,” bioengineering assistant professor Manu Prakash said in a video.

Foldscope is made of thick paper, glue, a…