Science Lab

Learn. Share. Contribute. The knowledge portal of Leica Microsystems. Find scientific research and teaching material on the subject of microscopy. The portal supports 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.

Brief Introduction to Specimen Trimming

Before ultrathin sectioning a sample with an ultramicrotome it has to be pre-prepared. For this pre-preparation, special attention must be paid to the sample size (size of the section), location of…

Glycerol Spraying/Platinum Low Angle Rotary Shadowing of DNA with the Leica EM ACE600 e-beam

Glycerol spraying/low angle rotary shadowing (Aebi and Baschong, 2006) is a preparation technique used in biology to visualize structures yielding insufficent contrast with other techniques, due to…

Sample Preparation for GSDIM Localization Microscopy – Protocols and Tips

The widefield super-resolution technique GSDIM (Ground State Depletion followed by individual molecule return) is a localization microscopy technique that is capable of resolving details as small as…

Brief Introduction to Freeze Substitution

Freeze-substitution is a process of dehydration, performed at temperatures low enough to avoid the formation of ice crystals and to circumvent the damaging effects observed after ambient-temperature…

Acousto Optics in True Confocal Spectral Microscope Systems

Acousto-optical elements have successfully replaced planar filters in many positions. The white confocal, regarded as the fully spectrally tunable confocal microscope, was not possible without this…

Nobel Prize 2013 in Physiology or Medicine for Discoveries of the Machinery Regulating Vesicle Traffic

On October 7th 2013, The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2012 jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof…

Thermodynamic Considerations Regarding the LN2 in a High Pressure Freezer

Employing liquid nitrogen (LN2) as a coolant in the complex process of high pressure freezing raises certain considerations regarding phase transition not only of the liquid sample to be frozen but…

Brief Introduction to Contrasting for EM Sample Preparation

Since the contrast in the electron microscope depends primarily on the differences in the electron density of the organic molecules in the cell, the efficiency of a stain is determined by the atomic…

Brief Introduction to Glass Knifemaking for Electron and Light Microscope Applications

Glass knives are used in an ultramicrotome to cut ultrathin slices of samples for electron and light microscope applications. For resin and for cryo sections (Tokuyasu samples) the knife edge must be…