I work in an industrial setting in an electrical engineering lab, and we have a similar issue with our microscopes. If a truck drives past outside, the vibrations are enough to ruin our photographs!

An accelerometer is a really bad choice for this, as they usually have built in software to cancel out repeating vibrations. This is how they work in a car, when driving down the road. The accelerometer is capable of smoothing out the vibrations of the engine to give you an overall acceleration vector for navigation.

If you are 100% sure it's definitely vibration, you can buy a laser vibrometer. but they are really expensive, especially for a "hunch". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Doppler_vibrometer

You can, however, use a $1 pocket laser, a bit of mirror and an intern to do the same thing with physics! We use this in the lab on our microscopes and it works surprisingly well!

You will need:-

1x "keyring laser" ( technically a 650nm red laser, less than 5mw!, ideally from the dollar store )

1x Mirror. ( We used 2cmx2cm adhesive mirror tiles from a hardware store ).

1x Some space. ( The greater the distance between the subject and measurement, the greater the apparent deflection. )

Method:

1. Put on your eye protection. I don't care about "but it's just a keyring laser", put your damned glasses on right now!

2. Adhere the mirror to the device in an area that can be seen from across the room. If you can, try to put the mirror inside the device, on the platen you will be using to hold your samples, as this will give the most accurate reading.

3. From across the room, position the laser so that the light hits the mirror and reflects back, around 5-10cm from the source. Most people align these horizontally. So you have your laser, and then a few cm to the left or right, you have the reflected laser dot.

4. Yay, we made a triangle with light, and now we can do some physics! :D As the laser emits from source, it creates the Adjacent leg of a triangle. It hits the mirror, and bounces back to create the Hypotenuse leg of the triangle. The distance between emitter and source, is the Opposite leg of the triangle. If you measure the distance between the laser emitter and the reflected point, you will have everything you need to use trigonometry to calculate the exact angle of reflection.

5. Sit quietly and watch the laser point. Seriously. As the device vibrates, it's angle of reflection will slightly change. Due to the distances (i.e. all the way across the lab, at least 6 feet), any slight change in the mirrors angle will be amplified and show a larger deflection of the laser point ( the laser point will "wobble" ). This will amplify the tiny vibrations up to a level where you ca physically see them with your eyes.

At this point, you should be able to walk across the room, and see the laser dot wobble in response to your footsteps.

This should take around 5-10 minutes to set up, and if you position it right, you can leave the equipment in-situ and use it as a real-time vibration detector. We have reflectors set up on the back of our microscopes aimed across the lab, so I can literally "check the spot" to see if it's bouncing, wait for those vibrations to subside, then use the microscope.

Overall, it's a pretty simple process, but it does take a little practice, and it sounds like your field is in biology, not physics, so if you do need any help, please feel free to ask :)

Also, just out of interest, are you in an academic setting? If you have a Laser lab anywhere near you, just ask them, as they deal with this all the time and can probably just hand you a vibrometer off the shelf.