For many years, bamboo has been used for various construction projects due to its favorable strength-to-weight ratio and remarkable flexibility. Bamboo is still used as construction scaffolding in building skyscrapers. And bamboo also makes beautiful (and functional) fishing rods.

Bamboo is being rediscovered: In addition to bamboo being made into clothing, this iconic Asian grass is being crafted into microscopes.

Related to te green-theme/eco-friendly quality of bamboo, my college friend, Nina Dudnik, co-founded Seeding Labs, which sends “old but serviceable” laboratory equipment to the developing world.

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Microscopes made from bamboo bring biology into focus : Article : Nature Medicine
In a remote village in eastern India, dozens of underprivileged children are for the first time marveling at the elaborate details of flower petals with the help of a microscope—made out of bamboo.

Fitted with a times20 lens, the light, compact and ecofriendly microscope is proving a boon for dozens of cash-strapped schools, granting students firsthand access to an otherwise unaffordable scientific tool.