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Product Intelligence: GC Systems—Separating Compounds for Decades
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Josh P. Roberts
Gas chromatography (GC) is a mature technology that has been in use since the 1950s to separate compounds and identify sample components. This article provides an overview of GC systems, detailing ... read more
Product Intelligence: Sonicators: The Science of Cavitation
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Lina Genovesi
Sonicators, also known as lab ultrasonic homogenizers, are utilized for the sonication of small laboratory samples. They find application in the degassing of liquids, removal of viruses from tissues ... read more
Product Intelligence: Take Your Samples Around the World in an Environmental Test Chamber
Monday, February 17, 2014
Caitlin Smith
An environmental test chamber is a valuable tool to use when environmental conditions need to be simulated. Also known as environmental simulation chambers, they measure the wear-and-tear of simulated... read more
Pittcon 2014®: Explore…Evaluate…Engage
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Janeth K. Pifer
Pittcon®, the largest annual conference and exposition for laboratory science, provides a once-a-year venue to discover breakthrough advances in scientific research, technology, and instrumentation to... read more
Forensic Toxicology: Meeting the Demands of Two Slaves—Science and the Law
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Robert A. Middleberg
The poisoning of living things takes two forms, accidental and purposeful, with both resulting in potentially disastrous outcomes. read more
Science-Based Hydraulic Fracing: Review of the ACS Regional Meeting
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
Robert L. Stevenson, Ph.D.
The above headline is not a typo, since there is no “k” in “hydraulic fracturing.” This correction was just one of many misconceptions addressed in a daylong session on hydraulic stimulation of petro-... read more
Product Intelligence: Precise Automation for High-Throughput Liquid Handling
Friday, January 10, 2014
Katriona Scoffin
An automated liquid handling system is a valuable labor-saving tool that both increases precision in the laboratory and automates repetitive motion, thus reducing the occurrence of injuries caused by ... read more
Product Intelligence: Microwave Digestion Technology for Fast and Safe Sample Preparation
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
Katriona Scoffin
This article gives an overview of the stages of microwave digestion and offers important system selection criteria. When choosing an instrument to carry out microwave digestion, one needs to consider ... read more
Bioassays and Bioanalytical Method Development 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Robert L. Stevenson, Ph.D.
Biotherapeutics are generally large molecules with a heterogeneous complex structure that is directly related to their ability to modulate biological reactions. This precludes defining a meaningful ... read more
Results are in for the Second sbv IMPROVER Challenge on Species Translation
Friday, November 08, 2013
Robert L. Stevenson, Ph.D.
Species translation involves searching for biological mechanisms of action (MoA) that are common to different species, in this case, humans and rats. In addition to the interesting scientific question... read more
Specifying a Water Purification System for the Laboratory
Thursday, November 07, 2013
Steve Mines
The selection, operation, and maintenance of a reverse osmosis (RO) water purification system should be straightforward. However, systems are often 1) inaccurately specified, i.e., not matched to the... read more
Precision Medicine Will Digitize Humans, But Who Pays?
Thursday, November 07, 2013
Robert L. Stevenson, Ph.D.
In a serendipitous confluence of events, I was finishing the 2013 edition of Eric Topol’s book, "The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution will Create Better Health Care," ... read more
Product Intelligence: Differential Scanning Calorimetry—A Fundamental Thermal Analysis Tool
Friday, October 25, 2013
Josh P. Roberts
Differential scanning calorimeters (DSCs) are valuable tools that are used to determine the heat capacity and thermodynamic transition of a wide variety of samples. DSCs are employed in many areas, ... read more
Product Intelligence: CO2 Incubators: Keeping Cultured Cells Healthy
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Caitlin Smith
A CO2 incubator is crucial for growing and maintaining cultured cells. CO2 incubators can be water-jacketed, in which the layer around the incubator has heated water, or air-jacketed, also known as ... read more
The Story of MALS
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Philip J. Wyatt
The concept of measuring light scattered from a solution at each of a plurality of angles simultaneously began in late 1976 in a very unlikely application. At that time, scientists from Science ... read more
45 Years of American Laboratory
Friday, October 04, 2013
Robert L. Stevenson, Ph.D.
October 1988: I remember it well. My lab overlooked the parking lot at Varian Associates. We were expecting a visit from Bill Wham and Ken Halaby, the founders of American Laboratory magazine. read more
How Personalized Medicine Led to the Convergence of LIMS and LIS
Friday, October 04, 2013
Trish Meek
When the Human Genome Project mapped all 20,000+ genes in the human body in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it cost roughly $3 billion. read more
The Biofuels Story
Friday, October 04, 2013
Wayne Collins
The story of biofuels begins with biomass. Simply stated, biomass is any plant or animal material of recent origin, as opposed to plant or animal material that, over millennia, has transformed ... read more
Microcentrifuge Buyers Guide
Wednesday, October 02, 2013
Josh P. Roberts
A microcentrifuge is an invaluable tool that finds application in research, academic, and clinical laboratory settings. In order to select the right microcentrifuge for your purposes, you will need to... read more
Product Intelligence: Pipets: Delivering Precise and Accurate Liquid Volumes
Friday, September 20, 2013
Katriona Scoffin
This article explains the different pipets available and modes of operation. Important considerations when looking for a pipet include ergonomic factors, such as hand position and the amount of force ... read more