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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!
Light sheet microscopy tilescan of zebrafish.

Using U-Shaped Glass Capillaries for Sample Mounting

The DLS microscope system from Leica Microsystems is an innovative concept which integrates the Light Sheet Microscopy technology into the confocal platform. Due to its unique optical architecture,…

The Fundamentals and History of Fluorescence and Quantum Dots

At some point in your research and science career, you will no doubt come across fluorescence microscopy. This ubiquitous technique has transformed the way in which microscopists can image, tag and…
Colon tumor cells, fluorescently labelled and lineage traced from a multicolor tracer.

Multiphoton Microscopy – a Satisfied Wish List

The colorful picture shows colon tumor cells, fluorescently labelled and lineage traced from a multicolor tracer. The gray color codes for the second harmonic generation (SHG) signal from Collagen 1.…

Practical Applications of Broad Ion Beam Milling

Mechanical polishing can be time consuming and frustrating. It can also introduce unwanted artifacts when preparing cross-sectioned samples for electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) in the scanning…
Basalt imaged with crossed polarizers

Digital Microscopy in Earth Science

Classical polarized light (compound) microscopes can only be used for prepared samples, because the working distance they offer is insufficient for whole samples. This means that thicker and bigger…
Spherical aberration describes the fact that waves which pass through the centre of the lens are refracted less than the waves which pass through the edges of the curved lens.

Eyepieces, Objectives and Optical Aberrations

For most microscope applications, there are generally only two sets of optics which are adjusted by the user, namely, the objectives and the eyepieces. Of course, this is assuming that the microscope…
Multiphoton microscopy of an unstained mouse skin section acquired using the 4Tune detector.

Mission Impossible Accomplished: Tunable Colors for Non-descanning Detection

Leica Microsystems’ 4Tune detector, the key component of the SP8 DIVE Deep In Vivo Explorer, provides spectrally tunable image recording with non-descanning detection. An innovative solution for…
Steps of Koehler Illumination

Koehler Illumination: A Brief History and a Practical Set Up in Five Easy Steps

The technique of Koehler Illumination is one of the most important and fundamental techniques in achieving optimum imaging in any given light microscope set-up. Although it should be routinely used as…
Mammalian cell culure. Phase contrast and fluorescence image.

Introduction to Mammalian Cell Culture

Mammalian cell culture is one of the basic pillars of life sciences. Without the ability to grow cells in the lab, the fast progress in disciplines like cell biology, immunology, or cancer research…
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