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Comment by bdg | Hacker News Reader

I'm an adult with a good income... and I have a $600 microscope on my wish list just because I think it would be great to have one (the same way other people have home theater systems, I build out a home lab).

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You and me are thinking similar thoughts. Something else I want to do, you see how people build public libraries and community libraries? I want to build public and community laboratories. Chemistry, physics, biology labs that any random kid or adult can walk into and do science stuff for free or for as close as possible to free. With smallish libraries that have all the books related to that stuff.

I love that idea and look towards things like makerspaces to kickstart it.

Personally I would take up a franchised "Mythbusters Comminity lab" happily

My local library (Toronto) has a "digital innovation hub" where you can use 3d printers, 3d scanners, studio video cameras, green screens, DJ decks, and Arduino. I think it is a step in the right direction for libraries.

What I really want is a good microscope that I can hook up to my DSLR. It would be really cool to get one that can resolve around 20 megapixels.

I want one with a 4K video chip, high-enough quality optics to match the 4K sensor, and a connector capable of streaming the 4K video to the TV. It would be nice if it were modular, so you could get one sensor unit and two bases: a 10-20x for looking at bugs, fingertips, etc., and a 300-1200x for cells in tissue or micro-organisms.

The whole family could sit on the sofa in front of the TV with the microscope and explore together.

(And yes I would want to be able to press a button and get high-quality screen captures that could be offloaded via a USB port.)

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