One of the best cases for the use of Open Source application and research is in the area of Science. In advancing shared knowledge, ideas, and research around the world, others can help improve on those concepts. Releasing these ideas in a way others can benefit from it helps everyone.

"...With open-source blueprints, components from the 3-D printer and smartphone camera, the UC2 (You. See. Too.) modular system can be combined specifically in the way the research question requires—from long-term observation of living organisms in the incubator to a toolbox for optics education...."

The Vision: Open Science

"...The researchers publish construction plans and software on the freely accessible online repository GitHub, so that the open-source community worldwide can access, rebuild, modify and expand the presented systems. "With the feedback from users, we improve the system step by step and add ever new creative solutions," reports René Lachmann. The first users have already started to expand the system for themselves and their purposes. "We are eager to see when we can present the first user solutions."

The aim behind this is to enable open science. Thanks to the detailed documentation, researchers can reproduce and further develop experiments anywhere in the world, even beyond well-equipped laboratories. "Change in Paradigm: Science for a Dime" is what Benedict Diederich calls this vision: to herald a paradigm shift in which the scientific process is as open and transparent as possible, freely accessible to all, where researchers share their knowledge with each other and incorporate it into their work...."

read more at : https://phys.org/news/2020-11-microscope-open-source-optical-toolbox.html