
CURRENT ISSUE | VOLUME 9 - ISSUE 3 | April 2014
COVER STORY
Growing Green
A voluntary program to change lab practices saves money while promoting sustainability
Editor's Buzz
Business Management
Leadership and Staffing
Laboratory Technology
Ask the Expert

Nongjian Tao, PhD, director of the Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute and professor in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, talks to contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, PhD, about a new technique called plasmonic-based electrochemical microscopy (P-ECM) developed in his lab for imaging localized chemical reactions from single nanoparticles. He talks about the advantages of this technique when compared to conventional optical microscopy and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) and its potential uses in diverse areas.
Products in Action

Analytical and QA/QC labs, under ever-increasing pressure to improve time to market, ensure compliance and realize cost savings, now have an all-inclusive informatics solution that gives them complete control over their methods and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) without having to purchase, integrate and validate software from multiple vendors.

Fluorescent western blotting is a powerful imaging technique which facilitates accurate protein quantification and multi-color analysis. At Abcam, we listened to the demands of our customers, and generated high quality Alexa Fluor® 680/790 conjugated secondaries, to a large number of target species, for fluorescent western blotting. As a result of this diversity and minimal spectral overlap of Alexa Fluor® 680 and 790, the reagents are ideal for multi-color analysis; furthermore customers can be reassured of the quality as Abcam publishes QC data for each individual product within the range.
Lab Health and Safety
Lab Health and Safety Tips
Product Focus

Learning to use evaporation starts very early in chemistry. For students, the process takes a very simple
approach, maybe just putting a solution in a beaker over a flame and waiting. That technique, though,
doesn’t provide the sophistication, control, or throughput that advanced techniques require. Consequently, scientists can use dedicated evaporators.
Research-Specific Labs
INSIGHTS
Surveys

CO2 incubators are designed to copy a cell’s natural environment with a relative humidity of around 95 percent, a temperature of 37°C and a pH of 7.2 to 7.5. They are most common in biology labs performing tissue or cell culture and are used in any process where cells need to be cultured for a few hours or many weeks or where cells need to be expanded or maintained.
Maintenance Matters
How it Works

Problem: Rotary vane, or oil-based, vacuum pumps, are a common piece of equipment found in most
labs. A vacuum pump is an accessory used with equipment such as freeze dryers, vacuum concentrators, glove boxes, and vacuum ovens. Just as in your car, the oil in a rotary vane pump needs to be changed periodically in order to run at its optimum. The ramifications of not doing regular oil changes is poor vacuum and seizing up the pump’s internal components, which can destroy an expensive pump.