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.

Quality assurance during production in a manufacturing plant.

Quality Assurance Improvement Across Industries

Precision is paramount. Imagine a pacemaker that fails mid-operation or a semiconductor flaw that causes a critical system crash. In industries, such as medical devices, electronics, and…

A fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) observed with an Ivesta 3 stereo microscope during fly pushing (sorting of the flies). The scale bar length is 1 mm. Image courtesy of M. Benton, EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany.

A Guide to Using Microscopy for Drosophila (Fruit Fly) Research

The fruit fly, typically Drosophila melanogaster, has been used as a model organism for over a century. One reason is that many disease-related genes are shared between Drosophila and humans. It is…

Example of a Leica stereo microscope, Ivesta 3, with integrated digital camera which can be used as a dissecting microscope.

Selecting the Right Dissecting Microscope

Learn how you can enhance dissection for life-science research and education with a microscope that ensures ergonomic comfort, high-quality optics, and easy access to the specimen.

Area of a printed circuit board (PCB) which was imaged with extended depth of field (EDOF) using digital microscopy.

Depth of Field in Microscope Images

For microscopy imaging, depth of field is an important parameter when needing sharp images of sample areas with structures having significant changes in depth. In practice, depth of field is…

Comparison when observing a rodent model organism with a Greenough versus CMO (common main objective) stereo microscope for a task like surgery.

Rodent and Small-Animal Surgery

Learn how you can perform rodent (mouse, rat, hamster) and small-animal surgery efficiently with a microscope for developmental biology and medical research applications by reading this article.

A portion of an early binocular microscope developed by John Leonhard Riddel in the early 1850s.

The History of Stereo Microscopy

This article gives an overview on the history of stereo microscopes. The development and evolution from handcrafted instruments (late 16th to mid-18th century) to mass produced ones the last 150…