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Science Lab

Science Lab

Science Lab

The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems offers scientific research and teaching material on the subjects of microscopy. The content is designed to support beginners, experienced practitioners and scientists alike in their everyday work and experiments. Explore interactive tutorials and application notes, discover the basics of microscopy as well as high-end technologies – become part of the Science Lab community and share your expertise!
These images show the microstructure of a hard metal with 10% cobalt which is used for heavy-duty tools. The large increase in magnification of the right image (compared to the left) has a risk of being outside the useful range or, in other words, empty magnification.

What is Empty Magnification and How can Users Avoid it

The phenomenon of “empty magnification”, which can occur while using an optical, light, or digital microscope, and how it can be avoided is explained in this article. The performance of an optical…
Multicolor TauSTED Xtend 775 for Cell Biology applications that require nanoscopy resolution for multiple cellular components. Cells showing vimentin fibrils (AF 594), actin network (ATTO 647N), and nuclear pore basket (CF 680R). Sample courtesy of Brigitte Bergner, Mariano Gonzales Pisfil, Steffen Dietzel, Core Facility Bioimaging, Biomedical Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.

The Guide to STED Sample Preparation

This guide is intended to help users optimize sample preparation for stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy, specifically when using the STED microscope from Leica Microsystems. It gives an…
An 8-color spectral unmixing result from a hyperspectral SRS (stimulated Raman scattering) dataset, showing the biochemically distinct structures of a fresh, untreated apple slice.

How to Prepare Samples for Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS) imaging

Find here guidelines for how to prepare samples for stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), acquire images, analyze data, and develop suitable workflows. SRS spectroscopic imaging is also known as SRS…
Image of a Siemens star, where the diameter of the 1st black line circle is 10 mm and the 2nd is 20 mm, taken via an eyepiece of a M205 A stereo microscope. The rectangles represent the field of view (FOV) of a Leica digital camera when installed with various C-mounts (red 0.32x, blue 0.5x, green 0.63x).

Understanding Clearly the Magnification of Microscopy

To help users better understand the magnification of microscopy and how to determine the useful range of magnification values for digital microscopes, this article provides helpful guidelines.
Molecular structure of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)

Introduction to Fluorescent Proteins

Overview of fluorescent proteins (FPs) from, red (RFP) to green (GFP) and blue (BFP), with a table showing their relevant spectral characteristics.
Micrograph of dinoflagellate cells. Scale bar = 1 µm.

How Marine Microorganism Analysis can be Improved with High-pressure Freezing

In this application example we showcase the use of EM-Sample preparation with high pressure freezing, freeze substiturion and ultramicrotomy for marine biology focusing on ultrastructural analysis of…
Patch pipette touching a murine hippocampal neuron. Image courtesy of A. Aguado, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.

What is the Patch-Clamp Technique?

This article gives an introduction to the patch-clamp technique and how it is used to study the physiology of ion channels for neuroscience and other life-science fields.
Neurons imaged with DIC contrast.

Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) Microscopy

This article demonstrates how differential interference contrast (DIC) can be actually better than brightfield illumination when using microscopy to image unstained biological specimens.
Image of MDCK (Madin-Darby canine kidney) cells taken with phase contrast.

Phase Contrast and Microscopy

This article explains phase contrast, an optical microscopy technique, which reveals fine details of unstained, transparent specimens that are difficult to see with common brightfield illumination.
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