The Biological Instrument type
In biological sciences, cryostats are
used to freeze specimens for sectioning and staining for use in looking at the sections under the microscope. Essentially, they are a type of microtome that takes specimens that are soft at room temperature, freezes them and then uses a very cold blade to finely section the specimens for microscopy. Temperatures are commonly needed to be at or below -20 degrees Celsius, necessitating the use of a cryostat to keep the specimen as cold as is necessary the entire time it is being sectioned.