A dyeing art in microbiology

Staining techniques have long been used as an essential aid to the diagnosis of disease, cellular differentiation and bacterial identification, and they still have an important role in many disciplines in diagnostic pathology. Stains will be found in routine use in cytopathology, histopathology, haematology, microbiology and parasitology to study a range of specimens in both in vitro and in vivo conditions.

Where did it all begin?
Ask a tourist what Delft is famous for and the answer more than likely will be delicate blue collectable pottery rather than microscopes and staining techniques. Some of the most important origins of staining date back not to a scientist but to the Dutch draper known as Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1734), whose hobby was the grinding of glass which he used to examine threads in fabrics and later a variety of biological samples. Born Thonis Philipszoon, he became known as van Leeuwenhoek perhaps because he was born in a house on the corner of Lions Gate in Delft (van Leeuwenhoek translates literally as ‘from Lions Gate’).
      

Owing to his skills in grinding glass lenses, which at the time were no more than slivers of glass, van Leeuwenhoek today is credited with the discovery of the microscope, and further to this he was the first to observe blood cells and bacteria using this simple invention. It would be many years before others workers could confirm his observations.