Safer Science

Volume 10 Issue 5 | June 2015

Cover Story

Industrial and Academic Laboratory Safety Practices — Narrowing the Gap

There is a widening gulf between how safety is practiced in industry compared to how it is practiced in research laboratories, especially in academic settings.

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Featured Articles

The Power of Quiet Leadership

By Mark Lanfear

Many of the best, most effective leaders are introverts by nature, schoolyard nerds who grew up to be outstanding at drawing out the best in the people who work for them.

INSIGHTS on Metabolomics

By Angelo DePalma

Within the past few years, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have created new disciplines within biology while inspiring the creation of techniques and methods that take life science analytics to new levels of sensitivity, specificity and understanding.

Sections

Editor's Buzz

Off Course

Last month I took a mini vacation to Northern New Mexico, a place I fell in love with years ago when I drove from my home state of California to New York after college. Taos and the surrounding area offer some of the most enchanting landscapes I’ve ever seen.

Leadership and Staffing

Are You In Style?

Style. Not what color shoes to wear with blue pants. The style I’m referring to is behavioral style. Yes, we all have a behavioral style and understanding this will help you realize why that person down the hall makes you crazy and more importantly, what you can do about it.

Business Management

The SMART Lab

Many organizations encourage the use of SMART goals. There are many guides readily available, but they tend to be general, with no laboratory-specific examples.1, 2 Some contain a sample laboratory SMART goal but are otherwise general.3

Leadership and Staffing

The Introverted Manager

The business world is a web of interactions revolving around social events, social media, open office environments, work teams, and group activities. Extroverts dominate the business world and thrive in that environment.

Laboratory Technology

Well in Hand

Advances in miniaturization and microfabrication have resulted in handheld and portable instruments that are increasingly rapid and reliable.

Lab Health and Safety

Health Risks of Mercury — Symptoms, Effects, and Safe Handling

No, this is not an article about anger management. Nor is it about climate change or the T-1000 Terminator returning. If you have spent much time in a laboratory, you have most likely dealt with it though.

Lab Health and Safety Tips

Develop Specific Work Practices for Individual Experiments

This simple idea preceded by 15 years the requirements of the OSHA Lab Standard for "Standard Operating Procedures," "Control Measures," and "Special Provisions for Working with Particularly Hazardous Substances." Today it's not just a good idea, it's the law!

Lab Health and Safety

Hazardous Spill Protection

Ursus Remediation Testing & Technologies is an environmental services lab specializing in heavy metal and organic treatability studies, customized testing, and remediation services for engineers, scientists, and regulators to determine the most effective alternatives for achieving the remediation goals of a specific project. Services include sampling design, testing protocols, bench-level treatability testing, field dosage optimization, and in-field remediation implementation.

Ask the Expert

How to Develop Validated HPLC Methods

Michael Rummel has held the position of chief operating officer at InSource Diagnostics, an independent laboratory that focuses on medication monitoring and compliance testing, for several years. Since graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, Michael has pursued a career working in the analytical and clinical sciences. He has expertise in analytical chemistry assay development specifically with liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, assay optimization, and sample preparation optimization and development.

Product Focus

UHPLC for Biopharma Workflows

In biopharmaceutical research and manufacturing, many processes involve sophisticated separations. One of the most advanced separation technologies is ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC). “There are two reasons to use UHPLC,” says Ken Cook, sales support expert, bioseparations and bio market Europe for Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA). “The first is speed, and the second is resolution.”

Surveys

2015 pH Meters Product Survey Results

The expanded features in today’s pH meters reflect the broad use of this technology. Researchers use pH meters in a wide range of research fields—including biological and chemical, agricultural and environmental, and more—and virtually all kinds of manufacturing.

Ask the Expert

Tools for Gene Editing

Dieter C. Gruenert, PhD, (bottom left) is a professor of otolaryngology—head and neck surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and pediatrics at the University of Vermont (UVM). He has a PhD in biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley and was a postdoctoral fellow in carcinogenesis at L’Institut Suisse de Recherche Expérimentale sur le Cancer in Lausanne. He was co- director of the Gene Therapy Core Center at UCSF, director of the Division of Human Molecular Genetics at UVM, and head of the Stem Cell Research Program at California Pacific Medical Center. His research focuses on development of gene editing and cell-based therapies for inherited diseases and cancer. He has developed novel diagnostic and oligonucleotide-based therapeutic strategies to ameliorate disease pathology.

INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS on Neuroimaging

Accessing the brain to unravel its structure and function is one of the greatest scientific challenges. This delicate structure consists of many regions—all made from many, many parts and even more connections—that communicate through chemical and electrical mechanisms.

Product Focus

Focus on Cell Disruption

Renewed interest in cell biology has created the need for techniques that efficiently disrupt cells’ outer membranes while sparing their contents.

Product Focus

Fume Hood Add-Ons to Consider

To most lab workers, even those who spend much of their days at or near fume hoods, these safety enclosures are part of the furniture or infrastructure. A hood is a hood is a hood—except when processes require special services or utilities. While many hoods are indeed production-level, off-the-shelf products, almost any productivity- or safety-enhancing feature may be added to standard models.

Viscometers Vs. Rheometers

The need to measure a material’s fluid behavior varies based on what it is and how it will be used. That leads to a fundamental question: How do you know if you need a viscometer or a rheometer?

Surveys

Are You in the Market for an... Evaporator?

Evaporators have for decades been staples in labs and industries performing chemistry, including labs in the chemical, environmental, materials, life science, and forensics industries. Key applications include sample concentration, solvent recycling, extractions, and separation of solvent mixtures. Brought to you by:

How it Works

How a Moisture Analyzer in Food Safety and Quality Control Labs Works

Problem: U.S. food testing labs are closely monitoring discussions over proposed legislation regarding food safety. This year, lawmakers could approve more stringent safety standards. That means food laboratories will be looking for efficient and affordable equipment to help them adhere to regulations.

Laboratory Technology

June 2015 Technology News

The latest equipment, instrument and system introductions to the laboratory market.

Chromatography, Unified

First-of-its-kind system looks to increase speed and efficiency while reducing human error in analysis workflows

Products in Action

Designing an Ultra-Low Freezer You Can Trust for Your Sample Storage

Understanding "How It's Made Matters" was the tenet around which the Helmer Scientific Ultra-Low Freezer was designed and developed. Care was taken to focus on each aspect of the product to ensure that every component works together to create an optimized system that instills confidence in the user.