Optical investigations and manipulations often form the core of biological experiments. In a new report now published in Science Advances, Kazuki Okamato and a team of scientists in pharmaceutical sciences, neuroscience, medicine, physics and artificial intelligence at the University of Tokyo, Japan, introduced a new borosilicate glass material containing a rare-earth ion terbium (III) (Tb3+). The material emitted green fluorescence upon blue light excitation, much like green fluorescent protein (GFP) with wide compatibility across biological research environments. Using micropipettes made of terbium-doped glass, Okamato et al. targeted GFP-labeled cells for single-cell electroporation, single-cell transcriptome analysis and patch-clamp recording experiments under real-time fluorescence microscopic control. The glass also showed potential third harmonic generation upon infrared laser excitation, useful for online optical targeting of fluorescently labeled neurons in the neocortex in vivo. In this way, the terbium-doped glass simplified multiple procedures in biological experiments with broader applications in biomedical research.