3D printed laser chip-hacking device uses $20 laser pointer; costs $500 to build (pcgamer.com)

Well that sounds very interesting! I've got one of these https://github.com/newaetech/chipshouter-picoemp which is fun to play with, need to attach to my CNC machine sometime.

It looks like they repurposed the OpenFlexure microscope with epi-illumination (IE, they pass laser light through the objective "backwards" to focus it down on the sample)