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!

Latest Articles

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Consumables for Laser Microdissection
There are many different types of consumables for laser microdissection (LMD) systems. They cover a wide range of applications from basic to highly…
May 04, 2015
Tutorial
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Video Talk by Daniel Axelrod: Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy
Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy is a technique that only illuminates dye molecules near a surface. In this video, the pioneer…
Mar 09, 2015
Tutorial
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Immersion Freezing for Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy: Fundamentals
The high vacuum required in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) greatly impairs the ability to study specimens naturally occurring in an aqueous…
Feb 09, 2015
Tutorial
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Video Tutorials: Filling and Assembling of Different Carriers for High-Pressure Freezing
High pressure freezing (HPF) is a cryo-fixation method primarily for biological samples, but also for a variety of non-biological materials. It is a…
Dec 05, 2014
Tutorial
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3D STED (Stimulated Emission Depletion) Microscopy
The resolution needed to image subcellular architecture and dynamics in light microscopy is hindered by the diffraction limits as described by Ernst…
Oct 14, 2014
Tutorial
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Brief Introduction to Freeze Fracture and Etching
Freeze fracture describes the technique of breaking a frozen specimen to reveal internal structures. Freeze etching is the sublimation of surface ice…
Oct 01, 2014
Tutorial
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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…
Sep 22, 2014
Tutorial
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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…
Apr 01, 2014
Tutorial
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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…
Feb 04, 2014
Tutorial
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Video: How to Achieve Fast Precise Cutting Lines in Laser Microdissection
This video explains the laser beam deflection principle of Leica Microsystems‘ laser microdissection systems (Leica LMD). The laser, the beam…
Nov 18, 2013
Tutorial
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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…
Oct 02, 2013
Tutorial
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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…
Sep 13, 2013
Tutorial
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Brief Introduction to Coating Technology for Electron Microscopy
Coating of samples is required in the field of electron microscopy to enable or improve the imaging of samples. Creating a conductive layer of metal…
Aug 28, 2013
Tutorial
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Handbook of Optical Filters for Fluorescence Microscopy
Fluorescence microscopy and other light-based applications require optical filters that have demanding spectral and physical characteristics. Often,…
Aug 06, 2013
Tutorial
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Brief Introduction to High-Pressure Freezing
Water is the most abundant cellular constituent and therefore important for preserving cellular ultra-structure. Currently the only way to fix…
Jun 12, 2013
Tutorial
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Pinhole Geometry: Four Corners are Perfect
Square and hexagonal pinholes provide identical image signal levels, if the geometries are compared in a sensible manner. The amount of light passing…
May 23, 2013
Tutorial
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Step by Step Guide for FRAP Experiments
Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) has been considered the most widely applied method for observing translational diffusion processes…
May 17, 2013
Tutorial
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Gates Open for Improved Confocal Fluorescence and Super-Resolution STED
True confocal microscope systems feature single-point illumination and single-point detection. The method is called "optical sectioning" since the…
Jan 23, 2013
Tutorial