Frugal Science Powered by Curiosity

More than 60 years ago, Richard Feynman gave a lecture titled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom: An Invitation to Enter a New Field of Physics", where he called on others to join the then-nascent field of nanotechnology. In a similar spirit, we wish to invite chemists, biologists, physicists, bioengineers, educators, high school students, and inventors of all backgrounds to join us in the emerging field of frugal science. In this Review, we define frugal science and use six case studies to describe the broad applications of frugal science, from synthetic biology to disease diagnostics. We conclude by establishing an argument for curiosity-driven research through frugal science to enable broader access in chemical and bioengineering research and drive innovation.