Dear Reader,
Welcome to the October issue. In the previous month’s issue, we reflected on our approach to improvement: improving our research, as well as improving access to knowledge, methods, and personal development. How do we actually measure improvement—starting with the baseline? Where do we seek improvement? I believe that we can begin with evaluating a pattern within our own work or thinking that has become wearisome, needing a change. This month, I encourage you to think about personal or professional areas of your life in which you feel that you could do things differently.
In this issue, we are encouraged by Dr. Robert Stevenson to think differently about the nascent sector of hydraulic fracturing, with insights from a specialized ACS symposium on the topic (https://www.americanlaboratory.com/168058-ACS-Addresses-Fracking-and-Sustainability/). An excellent quote from the article: “…when prophets are pressed for solutions, their vision is not clear.” With the global demands for energy rapidly increasing, there is no option but to reevaluate our approach to energy supplies and distribution in order to establish a clear vision into the energy future.
In another feature, the importance and possibility of recreating the physiological activity of a very specific subset of organisms at very specific conditions (hypoxic) is outlined as it applies to cellular research (https://www.americanlaboratory.com/914-Application-Notes/168107-True-Hypoxia-Replication-Creating-Optimal-Conditions-for-Cell-Based-Research/). In an overview of the AACC’s meeting on “Emerging Clinical and Laboratory Diagnostics: The Portable Lab,” we receive insight into how advanced analyses are being made portable and accessible (https://www.americanlaboratory.com/913-Technical-Articles/168080-2014-Emerging-Clinical-and-Laboratory-Diagnostics-The-Portable-Lab/). We also go over nuances of LC column technology, the growing possibilities of automating PCR technology within the pharmaceutical laboratory, and the technology behind refrigerated centrifuges, and we are offered a thorough look into a study that focuses on environmental microscopy with the use of environmental transmission electron microscopy for studying catalytic reactions.
As we constantly reevaluate our work and personal development in the pursuit of improvement, let us remember that all of our efforts ultimately combine to improve the world of the future. Whether our focus is the study of disease, the treatment of disease, our use of the environment, the improvement of research methods, accumulating wealth of scientific knowledge accessible across related disciplines, or simply developing ways to engineer things more efficiently—we are all in this together.
As always, I look forward to hearing about your current and prospective research and work endeavors.
Best,
Emilia Raszkiewicz
Managing Editor
American Laboratory
[email protected]