This $4 handmade microscope is a not-for-profit tool for schoolkids in New Delhi, India. Fashioned almost entirely from the world's wonder-material, bamboo (the Japanese use the stuff to build scaffold), the microscope features a 20x magnification lens, and is focussed simply by cranking the lens up or down.
According to Usha Menon, founder of Jodo Gyan (translation: "linking knowledge"), Indian children learn by rote, which is both boring and leads to a lack of real understanding. The microscopes bring them the "joy and wonder of science", and have proved so popular that Menon has expended production at the factory (and her home) to the roof.
Definitely not coming to a store near you soon (unless you live near Delhi).
Microscopes made from bamboo bring biology into focus [Nature Medicine via BoingBoing]
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