[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":91},["ShallowReactive",2],{"news-\u002Fnews\u002Fopenuc2-affordable-biophoton-microscope":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"authors":6,"body":10,"coverAlt":68,"coverCaption":69,"coverCredit":23,"coverImage":70,"date":71,"description":72,"draft":73,"extension":74,"hero":75,"license":76,"meta":77,"metaDescription":78,"navigation":79,"path":80,"reading":81,"seo":82,"sitemap":83,"stem":84,"summary":85,"tags":86,"updated":78,"__hash__":90},"news\u002Fnews\u002Fopenuc2-affordable-biophoton-microscope.md","openUC2: can biophoton imaging be made affordable?",[7],{"name":8,"role":9},"Martin Etzrodt","Open Science Institute",{"type":11,"value":12,"toc":62},"minimark",[13,25,36,41,49,52,55,59],[14,15,16,17,24],"p",{},"Benedict Diederich and the team at ",[18,19,23],"a",{"href":20,"rel":21},"https:\u002F\u002Fopenuc2.com",[22],"nofollow","openUC2"," have\npublished their own account of the biophoton microscope they built with us.\nIt starts with a question the Open Science Foundation (OSF) brought to them:\ncan the faint light emitted by living plant tissue be imaged on an open-source\nmicroscope, and can it be done without a camera that costs more than the rest\nof the instrument?",[14,26,27],{},[28,29,30,31],"strong",{},"Read the full post on the openUC2 blog:\n",[18,32,35],{"href":33,"rel":34},"https:\u002F\u002Fopenuc2.com\u002F2026\u002F09\u002F24\u002Fcan-biophoton-imaging-be-made-affordable-building-an-open-microscope-to-find-out\u002F",[22],"Can Biophoton Imaging Be Made Affordable? Building an Open Microscope to Find Out",[37,38,40],"h2",{"id":39},"what-they-built","What they built",[14,42,43,44,48],{},"The first step was a reference system on the openUC2 FRAME. It pairs two\nlow-magnification, high-numerical-aperture Nikon objectives, one facing the\nsample and one facing the sensor, with an Andor EMCCD camera cooled to -100°C.\nThis setup detected emission down to a few photons per second per square\ncentimetre over 30 to 60 minute exposures. It produced the\n",[18,45,47],{"href":46},"\u002Fnews\u002Fbiophoton-microscope-jena\u002F","first measurement campaign"," we reported in\nJune. The catch is the camera, which alone costs about twice as much as the\nmicroscope around it.",[14,50,51],{},"The second step was to replace it. Calculations by their colleague David\nsuggested that a back-illuminated, cooled CMOS camera of the kind used in\namateur astrophotography could detect plant biophotons if its sensor ran cold\nenough. The stock air cooling stopped at -10°C. The team cut off the cooling\nblock with a band saw, milled the surface behind the sensor flat, and attached\na water block fed with 10°C water from a chiller. The sensor reached -30°C, the\ntemperature the IMX571 datasheet gives as the best trade-off between dark\ncurrent and quantum efficiency. A second Peltier stage reached lower still, but\nbrought condensation and ice and used more power, so they dropped it.",[14,53,54],{},"First results from the modified camera show photon emission at the wound site\nof a leaf over a 30 minute exposure. The cooling adds nothing to the camera's\nfootprint.",[37,56,58],{"id":57},"why-it-matters-to-us","Why it matters to us",[14,60,61],{},"The Open Science Institute (OSI) wants this measurement to be possible for\ngroups that cannot buy a scientific EMCCD. A working low-cost detector is the\nfirst requirement for that. The next steps are calibration against the\nreference system and replicate experiments across species and stress\nconditions.",{"title":63,"searchDepth":64,"depth":64,"links":65},"",2,[66,67],{"id":39,"depth":64,"text":40},{"id":57,"depth":64,"text":58},"A small cooled CMOS camera on a wooden desk, its stock heat sink replaced by a machined aluminium water block with two metal hose fittings on top.","The back-illuminated CMOS camera after the modification: stock cooling removed, water block attached.","\u002Fimages\u002Fnews\u002Fopenuc2-affordable-biophoton\u002Fwater-cooled-camera.jpg","2026-09-25","Benedict Diederich and the team at openUC2 have\npublished their own account of the biophoton microscope they built with us.\nIt starts with a question the Open Science Foundation (OSF) brought to them:\ncan the faint light emitted by living plant tissue be imaged on an open-source\nmicroscope, and can it be done without a camera that costs more than the rest\nof the instrument?",false,"md","dispatch","CC BY 4.0",{},null,true,"\u002Fnews\u002Fopenuc2-affordable-biophoton-microscope","2 min",{"title":5,"description":72},{"loc":80},"news\u002Fopenuc2-affordable-biophoton-microscope","Our partners at openUC2 in Jena have written up how they built the biophoton microscope for the Open Science Institute, and how they cut its cost: a hobbyist astronomy camera, sawn open, milled flat and water-cooled to -30°C.",[87,88,89],"Open Health","Open Hardware","Instrumentation","1z0t2Q8toq0KPXNI5pnpoZfg2W9KigpSEHNuLCq1ZHM",1790322088020]