Biology Lab Glassware List and Their Uses, Grouped by Task

Biology practicals ask different things of glass than chemistry does. Samples are alive or were alive, so glassware must be easy to clean and to sterilise. It must also be clear enough to see small changes. This guide sorts biology lab glassware by the task it serves, from the microscope bench to the culture shelf. It then covers care, sterilising and what to state when you order.

What Biology Lab Glassware Needs to Do

Most biology work falls into five jobs. You prepare and view specimens under a microscope. You stain them. You grow microbes or cells. You measure and mix solutions. Finally, you store samples and reagents.

Each job has its own set of glass. A school lab needs a modest version of each set. A university or medical college lab needs more of it, in more sizes.

Biology Lab Glassware for Microscopy and Staining

Slides and Cover Glasses

Plain microscope glass slides carry a specimen for viewing. Cavity slides have a shallow well, which holds a drop of pond water or a live sample. Cover glasses are thin squares or circles laid over the specimen. They flatten it and protect the objective lens.

Many labs also use prepared slides of stained tissue sections, such as a leaf or stem cross-section. These let a class study tissue that is hard to cut by hand. Store slides in microslide boxes so they stay clean and do not scratch.

Watch Glasses

A watch glass is a shallow glass dish. Biology students use it to hold small specimens, soak tissue in stain, or cover a beaker. It is cheap and breaks easily, so order spares.

Coplin Jars and Staining Jars

A Coplin jar holds several slides upright, apart from each other, in a stain or a wash. A staining jar or trough does the same job for a larger rack of slides. These keep staining tidy and cut the amount of stain you use.

All of this glass goes with a good microscope. Our laboratory microscopes category lists student, binocular and research models.

Glassware for Culture Work

Petri Dishes

Petri dishes are shallow dishes with a loose lid. Students pour agar into them to grow bacteria and fungi. Glass petri dishes can be sterilised and reused many times. Plastic ones come sterile and go in the waste after one use.

Culture Tubes and Bottles

Culture tubes hold broth or slanted agar. McCartney bottles are small, thick-walled screw-cap bottles for media and cultures. B.O.D. bottles are used in water testing to measure biochemical oxygen demand.

Conical Flasks

A conical flask is the usual vessel for making up and sterilising culture media. Its narrow neck can be plugged with cotton wool or foil. It is also used in fermentation and yeast experiments, where it can be fitted with a bung and delivery tube.

Glassware for Measuring and Mixing

Biology labs still need measuring glass. Solutions for osmosis, enzyme and food tests must be made up to known strengths.

• Beakers: for mixing, warming and holding liquids. Their lines are only approximate.
• Measuring cylinders: for measuring volumes more closely than a beaker can.
• Volumetric flasks: for making a solution to an exact volume.
• Pipettes: for moving small, set volumes. Graduated and bulb types are both common.
• Burettes: less common in biology, but used for titrations such as vitamin C tests.
• Test tubes and boiling tubes: for food tests, enzyme tests and small reactions.
• Glass rods and funnels: for stirring and for filtering extracts.

Glassware for Storage and Drying

• Reagent bottles: narrow mouth for liquids, wide mouth for solids, amber for light-sensitive stains.
• Dropping bottles: for stains and indicators used a drop at a time.
• Balsam bottles: for mounting media used to make permanent slides.
• Specimen jars: for keeping preserved specimens on display or in store.
• Desiccators: for keeping dried samples and hygroscopic reagents free of moisture.

See our glass bottle range for the reagent, dropping, balsam, McCartney and B.O.D. bottles in the catalog.

Common Biology Practicals and the Glass They Use

Sterilising and Caring for Glassware

Much biology glassware is sterilised in an autoclave. Borosilicate glass copes with repeated autoclave cycles far better than soda-lime glass. Loosen caps before autoclaving so pressure can escape. Let glass cool before you handle it.

Clean glass soon after use, before residues dry. Take chipped or cracked pieces out of service. Follow your institution's biosafety rules, your safety officer and the autoclave maker's manual for all culture work and waste.

Ordering Biology Lab Glassware

Build the list from your practical plan and class size. Count how many groups run each practical at once, then add spares for items that break often, such as slides, cover glasses and watch glasses. For each line, state the capacity or size, the glass type, and the quantity.

Many buyers order the glass together with other teaching aids, such as educational charts and botany models like a flower model or plant cell model. Our biology lab equipment category covers these, along with dissecting equipment and slide accessories. The main laboratory glassware category lists flasks, beakers, burettes and bottles.

For chemistry-side items, see our chemistry lab glassware list. Prices are quoted on request, based on quantity, specification and delivery country. Send your list through the quote request page, with any tender reference.