A method of identifying microorganisms comprising any of bacteria, archaea, eukaryotes, protists, rotifers, fungi and yeast cells, the method comprising automatically performing the steps of: - inoculating at least one microorganism onto a plate; and incubating the at least one microorganism so as to allow the development of at least one colony of microorganisms disposed in a region on the plate, wherein each of the inoculating and incubating is performed by an automated system in accordance with predetermined inoculation parameters and incubation parameters, respectively and further comprising: - acquiring data representing the region on the plate comprising a culture medium, and the at least one colony of microorganisms is disposed on the medium; - locating the position on the plate of a target colony of the at least one colony of microorganisms, in accordance with the data; - acquiring at different times data comprising an enlarged image of each of at least one individual colony being target colony; - exposing the target colony to a modulated coherent light beam, in accordance with the data; - monitoring at different times a diffraction pattern resulting from the diffraction of the light by the target colony; and - generating target colony data at different times indicating a species present in the target colony in accordance with monitored diffraction pattern and a reference diffraction pattern wherein the target colony data is generated by comparing the monitored diffraction pattern with the reference diffraction pattern comprising generating a comparison parameter based upon a comparison of the monitored diffraction pattern with each of a plurality of reference diffraction patterns, each reference diffraction pattern corresponding to a predetermined species; and identifying the target species present in the target colony as the predetermined species for which the generated comparison parameter has the greatest value and and wherein the modulated coherent light beam is configured to scan the plate along a path representing an inoculation track by which the at least one microorganism was inoculated onto the plate, wherein the modulated coherent light beam is a light generated by a source of coherent light modulated by a modulating element, which comprises optical elements that change the diameter, intensity and wavefront of the beam of the coherent light from source. - inoculating at least one microorganism onto a plate; and incubating the at least one microorganism so as to allow the development of at least one colony of microorganisms disposed in a region on the plate, wherein each of the inoculating and incubating is performed by an automated system in accordance with predetermined inoculation parameters and incubation parameters, respectively and further comprising: - acquiring data representing the region on the plate comprising a culture medium, and the at least one colony of microorganisms is disposed on the medium; - locating the position on the plate of a target colony of the at least one colony of microorganisms, in accordance with the data; - acquiring at different times data comprising an enlarged image of each of at least one individual colony being target colony; - exposing the target colony to a modulated coherent light beam, in accordance with the data; - monitoring at different times a diffraction pattern resulting from the diffraction of the light by the target colony; and - generating target colony data at different times indicating a species present in the target colony in accordance with monitored diffraction pattern and a reference diffraction pattern - acquiring data representing the region on the plate comprising a culture medium, and the at least one colony of microorganisms is disposed on the medium; - locating the position on the plate of a target colony of the at least one colony of microorganisms, in accordance with the data; - acquiring at different times data comprising an enlarged image of each of at least one individual colony being target colony; - exposing the target colony to a modulated coherent light beam, in accordance with the data; - monitoring at different times a diffraction pattern resulting from the diffraction of the light by the target colony; and - generating target colony data at different times indicating a species present in the target colony in accordance with monitored diffraction pattern and a reference diffraction pattern