Lab Manager Magazine^®

Product Focus: Viscometers

Published: May 8 2013

Many industries measure viscosity. “The use of viscometers runs the gamut,” says Robert McGregor, general manager of marketing and sales for high-end lab instruments at Brookfield Engineering (Middleboro, MA). “The biggest user is the quality control department using single-point measurement.” Research scientists also use viscometers to see how a material reacts to being sheared.

Product Focus: Polarimeters

Published: May 8 2013

To measure the rotation of linearly polarized light going through an optically active or chiral molecule, researchers use a polarimeter. As Alex White, product specialist at Anton Paar USA (Ashland, VA), says, “There is now more demand for polarimeters in all industries that use or need to measure optically active samples, as polarimeters have the capability of being very accurate, precise, robust, and user-friendly.” He adds, “Anton Paar has seen significant growth in polarimeter sales, particularly in the pharmaceutical, food, and flavor and fragrance industries. This demand has in turn led to more requests from universities to use our polarimeters for research.”

Product Focus: Microplate Readers

Published: May 8 2013

The history of microplate readers— now on the market for more than 30 years—explains the ongoing increase in applying this technology. Plate readers are used in many applications, including bioassay development, diagnostics, drug discovery, food testing, and quality control. The expanding range of applications parallels the large number of detection modes, including absorbance, AlphaScreen, fluorescence polarization, time-resolved fluorescence (TRF), time-resolved fluorescence energy transfer (TR-FRET), luminescence, and spectrophotometry. In a survey by Lab Manager, 90 percent of the respondents used absorbance detection and roughly threequarters also used AlphaScreen and fluorescence polarization.

Product Focus: TOC Analyzers

Published: April 8 2013

Product Focus: Evaporators

Published: April 8 2013

Evaporators are a common

Going Greener

Published: April 4 2013

  Papers, Ph.D. students, and so on make up the traditional outputs of science laboratories, but these days energy consumption matters more and more. That consumption includes the energy to condition the air and drive the analytical platforms. Disposable plastic, reagents, and other items also contribute to a lab’s consumption. Those consumables raise growing concerns as labs around the world strive to be more efficient, more “green.” Today’s vendors supply more options than ever to build a green operation. Nonetheless, much more work needs to be done to modernize labs.

Customization, Shrinking Size, and Other Features Open New Applications

Published: March 9 2013

Assays from academics to industry require shakers. In the life sciences, for example, Ira Augenzucker, product line manager at Labnet International, a Corning Life Sciences company in Edison, NJ, says, “The new uses of shakers basically mimic what you see in the industry, which is an increase in the use of genomics.” He adds, “Shakers are used in almost every application in some fashion.” For example, he points out the wide use of shakers in cell culture work.

Specific Applications Require Particular Features

Published: March 5 2013

A glove box consists of a sealed box with the inside accessible only by gloves. “Although their use is getting broader all the time,” says Laura Geenen, product manager at Bel-Arts Products (Wayne, NJ), “they are really used for two basic ideas: Protect what you work on from the environment, such as an analytic balance on a production floor, or protect you from what you work on, such as a virus.”

Technologies Even Enhance Samples for Specialized Assays

Published: January 30 2013

Filtration makes up a key procedure in a wide range of laboratories, from basic biological and chemical research to industrial applications, including food processing, pharmaceuticals, and more.

Bar-Based and Overhead Platforms Make New Ways to Mix

Published: January 30 2013

Researchers use stirrers for many laboratory applications, from dissolving powders to mixing reagents. To get the right results, it takes more than placing a stir bar into a vessel and turning on the stirring device.

Product Focus: Non-Gassed Incubators - Advanced Controls Keep the Temperature Accurate Throughout the Box

Published: December 10 2012

To grow a culture of bacteria, researchers typically use an incubator. The so-called non-gassed or microbiological incubators come in many styles, and usually provide temperature options of 5 to 70 degrees Celsius, although most researchers grow bacteria at 37 degrees Celsius.

Product Focus: CO2 Incubators - New Environmental Precision Gives Researchers More Control

Published: December 6 2012

To culture cells reproducibly, scientists seek a consistently controlled environment. “At the end of the day, a customer just wants to grow cells,” says Uwe Ross, president at BINDER (Bohemia, NY).

Product Focus: Pipettes - New Designs Reduce Fatigue and Increase Throughput

Published: December 4 2012

Few labs these days could survive without pipettes. Many assays require pipetting, and the increasing size of multiwell plates demands more steps than ever.

Modeling and Simulating Science: Computation Unravels Old and New Questions in Biology and Chemistry

Published: December 4 2012

Scientists use models to unravel how something works. If you’ve ever taken variously sized balls and arranged them as the planets in our solar system, then you’ve made a model.

Rotary Evaporators: All-in-one Versions and Other Options Enhance Efficiency and Safety

Published: November 9 2012

In 1950, the late biochemist Lyman C. Craig of The Rockefeller University developed a simple rotary evaporator. The first commercial version came from Walter Buchi in 1957.

Lab Washers : Advanced Features Make This Technology More Effective and More Green

Published: November 6 2012

Once when helping a friend do the dinner dishes, she said, “You wash them so thoroughly.” I laughed and said, “I wash dishes like lab glassware.”

Mills and Grinders: Improved Accuracy and Speed Create New Possibilities

Published: November 5 2012

To grind something solid, many of us might think of a mortar and pestle as the original grinding machine. In fact, that technology goes back at least to 1550 BCE, when one was described in Egyptian writing. Many other hand-powered mills and grinders followed, leading to powered devices in today’s many forms.  

Product Focus: Lab Ovens

Published: September 4 2012

This technology dries glassware, controls crucial experiments and more Lab ovens appear in many settings, from basic research to industrial work. Moreover, scientists can choose from a wide range of options. “In the scientific world

PCR Reagents: Making it Possible to Amplify More Accurately, Even with Problematic Sequences

Published: June 6 2012

To get enough DNA for processing, such as sequencing the chain of nucleotides, researchers turn to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A series of reagents drive this process, and that includes polymerase, buffers, and so on. To make it easier for

Freeze Dryers: More Ways to Lyophilize Samples

Published: June 5 2012

The use of freeze dryers extends from applications in academic labs to zoos. Moreover, this technology contributes to basic research and manufacturing. For example, scientists at a zoo might use a freeze dryer to increase the concentration of a

Centrifuges: Adding Safety and Versatility to High-Speed Separations

Published: June 1 2012

When it comes to common technology in a laboratory, centrifuges rise toward the top of the list. If a scientist wants the liquid at the bottom of the tube, but it’s distributed along the sides in droplets, centrifuge it. Need to separate the

Thermal Cyclers: Expanding Uses Spawn The Need For More Devices

Published: May 9 2012

This year marks the 25th anniversary of commercial thermal cyclers for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In brief, this technology amplifies segments of DNA. In such a device, PCR tubes go in holes in a thermal block. With everything loaded, the

LIMS: Expanding Integration and Capabilities

Published: May 9 2012

A laboratory information management system (LIMS) consists of software with the ability to perform a wide variety of tasks. This technology can help a researcher develop the workflow for a new experiment or high-throughput assay; control the

Fume Hoods: Energy Savings, Staff Safety, and an Integrated Approach make up Key Planning Considerations

Published: May 9 2012

The fume hood in your lab might seem ancient, unless you imagine Thomas Edison working in the early 1900s under a fireplace chimney. In the summer, though, Edison’s idea failed to create enough draft as outside temperatures increased.

Total Organic Carbon Analyzers

Published: April 6 2012

The amount of carbon in an organic compound makes up the so-called total organic carbon (TOC), which serves as a crucial metric in a wide range of processes. For instance, TOC can indicate the quality of water or the cleanliness of a

Sample Prep for Chromatographic Analysis

Published: April 6 2012

Balancing the needed increases in selectivity with the desire for generic methods The Greek translation of chromatography— basically “color writing”— fails to reveal the breadth of this technology. The range of

Gas Generators: Convenient, Cost-Effective and More Accurate

Published: April 6 2012

Lug a tank of gas to an experiment station, break the connection to the old tank, unhook the device that keeps the tank in place, pull out the empty tank and wrestle in a full one, secure the tank in place, attach the regulator and repeat, repeat,

Electrophoresis: Improving the Safety and Sensitivity While Speeding Up the Process

Published: April 6 2012

Electrophoresis relies on a basic process— particles moving in an electric field, more or less. Although known for more than 200 years, this phenomenon still drives fundamental techniques in many laboratories. Despite that long history, this