Welcome to Diatom Lab, the scientific laboratory company founded in 2016 (VAT number IT 01635810193).
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Our company specialises in:
- Ground-
- Ground-
The creation of microscope slides and arrangements of Diatoms, Radiolarians and other microscopic specimens for Optical Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), produced through innovative, never published, State-of-the-art techniques. For further information please visit www.diatomshop.com. Our preparations allows you to observe Diatoms and other microscopic objects in Very High Definition! Diatom Lab produces prepared microscope slides of the highest quality: our laboratory stands out for the use of unique cutting-edge materials, technologies and procedures.
- Test slides for Optical Microscopy (for further information please visit www.diatomshop.com) produced through new and never published techniques:
venture into the Micro and Nano structures! Download the free article: Barone, S. 2023. Diatoms: the best microscopic objects to check, set and compare optical microscopes and contrast techniques, Microscopy and Analysis, 65: 13-18 (ISSN 2049-4424)
- Calibration slides (stage micrometers), Reticles.
- Scientific photography and microscopy imaging services: we provide scientific imaging services using our state of the art Zeiss Axio Imager.A2 and other microscopes in full frame or high resolution CMOS camera format. Various illumination techniques are available. Click on this link to download the pdf file with the Diatom Lab's Zeiss Axio Imager.A2 microscope configuration (objectives, condensers, etc.). We can image your specimens, or specimens we prepare on your behalf. Please contact us to discuss your requirements
Our clients:
Diatom Lab counts many important research centres, universities, colleges, environmental organizations, and microscope companies from all around the world among its customers, such as CNRS - IEMN, Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (France), Australian National Measurement Institute (Australian Government, Department of Industry, Science and Resources), Institut d'optique Graduate School / Institute of optics (France), Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH (Jena, Germany), Leica Microsystems Inc. (Buffalo Grove, IL, USA), Deutsches Optisches Museum (Jena, Germany), Optika microscopes (Ponteranica, BG, Italy), Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (Prague, Czech Republic), Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA), Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (Los Angeles, CA, USA), Dorset County Museum (Dorchester, United Kingdom), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (New York, USA), Rockefeller University (New York, USA), Eastern Washington University (Washington, USA), University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, USA), Institute of Biology Leiden University (Leiden, The Netherlands), Hohai University 河海大学 (Nanjing, China), Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (San Francisco, CA, USA), Sainsbury Wellcome Centre - UCL (London, United Kingdom), University of South Bohemia České Buděovice (České Buděovice, Czech Republic), Yonsei University Industry Foundation (Seoul, Republic of Korea), Italian National Research Council or CNR (Italy), TUMCREATE (a multidisciplinary research platform of the Technical University of Munich – TUM - at the Singapore Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise), Gymnase de Morges (Morges, Switzerland), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Andor Technology Ltd (Belfast, England), Biozol Diagnostica Vertrieb (Germany), Nanolive Sa (Switzerland), Edinburgh Instruments Ltd. (Livingston, United Kingdom), MKT engineering GmbH & Co. KG (Berlin, Germany), OptiXs s.r.o., Laser and Laboratory Instruments (Czech Republic), Dalcon Environmental (Australia), Eurofins Environment Testing (Australia), Greencolab (Universidad do Algarve, Portugal), Navitar (Rochester, NY, USA), Junia ISEN - Institut Supérieur de l'Electronique et du Numérique (Lille, France), Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany), Eurofins Scientific (New Zealand), in addition to many private customers who purchase our diatom preparations. Click here and here for the contracts signed with the Italian National Research Council or CNR (https://www.cnr.it/en). For feedback from private customers about our diatom preparations, please see our 100% positive eBay feedback on thousands of transactions (link)! Diatom Lab sells products online or, less often, through our business eBay page to promote our products amongst private customers
They wrote about us:
David Walker is the editor of Micscape Magazine:
- Walker D., 2021. Note on 'diatom dotting' at low magnifications. Resolving Stauroneis phoenicenteron, Micscape Magazine, 306 (ISSN 1365 – 070x) “Acknowledgement: The author used the invaluable 'Test Slide version 2.0' (Diatom Cubed mountant) supplied by Stefano Barone of Diatom Lab"
- Walker D., Exploring the Diatom Lab prepared slide of an integrated circuit chip, Micscape Magazine, April 2020, Issue 289, ISSN 1365 – 070x: "The slide is impeccably prepared / mounted", "In my view the slide is excellent value for money and maintains the high standards set by the Diatom Lab shop (I have a number of the diatom slides)";
- Walker D., 2023. Exploring the Diatom Lab 'Microscope Test Slide in Commemoration of Edmund J. Spitta' with Near UV . Micscape Magazine, 328 (ISSN 1365 - 070x) link
- Bulletin of the Quekett Microscopical Club, Nov 2019, No.77, ISSN 1350-9128, pp 22-25: the article recognizes Diatom Lab preparations as expertly-prepared and three microscope images of our slides have been published, such as a detail of the Diatom Test Slide version 2.0 with the comment “image chosen by editor to show the incredible resolution of this excellent slide”;
- JMC Scientific Consulting Ltd, Jonathan Crowther, “UV microscopy –Designing a UV condenser” Last modified October 26, 2020, jmcscientificconsulting.com: "As a quick test I imaged a sample slide of Gorgonian sea fan spicules (from Diatom Lab). These guys make high quality microscope slides great for microscopy testing and imaging, and I’d recommend checking them out if you want slides for imaging";
- Memmolo P, Carcagnì P, Bianco V, Merola F, Goncalves da Silva Junior A, Garcia Goncalves LM, Ferraro P, Distante C. “Learning Diatoms Classification from a Dry Test Slide by Holographic Microscopy”. Sensors (Basel). 2020 Nov 7;20(21):6353. doi: 10.3390/s20216353. PMID: 33171757; PMCID: PMC7664373 (you can download the publication by this link as a PDF document): "Acknowledgments: Diatoms in the glass slide were prepared by Stefano Barone - Diatom Lab, and purchased from www.diatomshop.com" (a Diatom Lab microscope slide of 50 selected, micromanipulated Diatoms was used for this scientific publication. This slide was sold to the Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems (ISASI) National Research Council (CNR) of Italy (https://www.cnr.it/en)
Interesting facts about Diatoms:
Diatoms are unicellular organisms, specifically microalgae, and live in waterways, oceans, and soils; they produce approximately 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen on Earth; they are primary producers in the food chain and constitute nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans; since the discovery of the microscope, architects and artists have been inspired by Diatom forms.
"Few objects are more beautiful than the minute siliceous cases of the Diatomaceæ: were these created that they might be examined and admired under the higher powers of the microscope?” (Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species).
"The revelations of the Microscope are perhaps not excelled in importance by those of telescope. While exciting our curiosity, our wonder and admiration, they have proved of infinite service in advancing our knowledge of things around us" (Joseph Leidy)
“Rerum natura nusquam magis quam in minimis tota est” = “Nature is nowhere as great as in its smallest works” (Pliny the Elder)
Please feel free to contact us with questions regarding quotes for customized products and services. We will do our best to answer your request as soon as possible.
