Looking at the new products released this month, it appears many would be just as at home on a runway in Milan as on a sterile lab bench. So this has prompted me to make this the first annual "Lab Manager’s Next Top Model" competition and awards. Just to be clear, I am the sole judge and juror and only products released on our site over the last month have been included. So you can give this as little or as much weight as you like. However, I do think I have pretty good fashion sense...for a geek.

I have created the following 4 categories for competition: Best Dressed Benchtop Equipment, Most Colorful Consumable, Most Fabulous Floor Model and Sexiest Scrubs.

So why should you pay attention to industrial design in your lab? The main reason is that a product designed beautifully on the outside usually--not all the time, but usually--has the same amount of thoughtful engineering and attention to quality on the inside as well. That is the reason I am typing this on a MacBook and BMW can command such high prices for their autos. The segregation of quality through design is also evident when looking at the flood of lab instruments coming from markets that do not always respect US and European patent laws. An imitator is never a design innovator.

Best Dressed Benchtop Equipment - S1000 Series Flow Cytometers

• Accomodates up to 4 lasers and 11 parameters
• Built to provide the best price/performance in the market
• Enables signal retention up to 10,000 events per second
• Optimal fluorescence sensitivity to resolve dim events
• Intuitive software instrument control
• Provides analysis capabilities crucial for complex studies in diverse arease such as multicolor analysis, immune functions, genetics and proteomics

Stratedigm
Request Information

Most Colorful Consumable - Analtech HPLC Columns
Reversed-Phase columns offer unique features such as preferential retention of aromatic compounds, and they are complimentary to other reversed-phase materials such as C18, C8, and C4.
Analtech
Request Information

Most Fabulous Floor Model - GALAXY® Direct Heat CO2 Incubators

• 25mm Access Port Standard available for adding instrumentation or additional probes
• RS-232 Port Standard for communication and external instrument logging
• Perforated shelving system optimizes temperature, CO2 and RH recovery to minimize the effects of door openings and closings
• Innovative Sealed

New Brunswick Scientific
Request Information

Sexiest Scrubs - Wear Armor™ Personal Gear Lab Coats & Coveralls
Wear Armor™ fabrics provide protection and comfort whether you work in the laboratory sciences, engineering, medical, dental, home healthcare or environmental services industries. Wear Armor™ resists spills and provides advanced broad spectrum anti-microbial protection. In fact, it offers protection from blood and fluid strike-through and kills gram+ and gram- bacteria, as well as mold and fungi. Wear Armor's dual-side microfiber is smooth and liquid-unfriendly on the outside and soft like cotton on the inside to trans port humidity away from your body.
Lab Armor
Request Information