Poor management leads to poor morale, which leads to lack of focus, which leads to failure

Job satisfaction is often an elusive concept: performing— for pay—a task or a series of tasks that truly fulfill a person. Fulfillment, however, carries a different meaning for each individual. Some may find that competitive compensation provides satisfaction on the job, while others find gratification in recognition from their peers.

The business benefits of on-site hydrogen generation for gas chromatography

This year’s survey indicates new growth in the lower ranks of organizations

Choosing the correct balance for your application, or a series of balances that suit all of your application needs, is the first step in good lab weighing practices. If you choose the correct balance, calibrate it regularly, including any time the balance is moved to a new location, and keep it clean, your balance will reward you with many years of accurate operation.

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.

Pipettes can be found in almost every laboratory and, if you’re looking to buy one, there are many options— manual or electronic, single or multi-channel. Luckily, a few main considerations can help in deciding whether or not to buy the latest pipette technology.

Life sciences, health care, and chemical companies are the major end users of lab equipment. Cash flows of major companies within these sectors are increasingly subjected to higher scrutiny due to a rise in M&A activities and their increased investments in emerging markets. 

Five employee retention strategies for a high-performance environment

Why failures can and should be celebrated

Taking the guesswork out of lab equipment failure

A conversation with sample extraction experts Dr. Kang Xia and William Ickes

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

What is it that really works when it comes to keeping your top employees fully engaged? What is it that will keep them from looking someplace else?

Contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, PhD, talks to Sunia Trauger, PhD, director of the Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry facility at Harvard University, about the recent trends in mass spectrometry. Advances in instrumentation, automation, and remote access seem to be leading the way to improved detection, faster results, and more diverse applications. While challenges in sample prep and data analysis remain issues, access to emerging informatics tools and experience handling and analyzing samples seem to mitigate some of the problems.

This month we wrap up the ECP discussing housekeeping, laundry, waste handling, and PPE

Inspections get people involved in thinking about hazards and unsafe practices in the workplace. These should be done at least four times a year (monthly is better).

The most significant trend in modern lab furniture is the move away from fixed casework and lab benches toward modular benches, tables, and worktops.

Despite the “old tech” reputation of cold storage products, customer-driven innovation has been ongoing and steady. 

Freeze drying faces new challenges in storage and sample preparation.

The market for high-temperature ovens, operating between around 400ºC and 600ºC, is heating up, says Scott Miller, marketing manager at Carbolite (Watertown, WI).

Controls make up some of the most obvious advances

A diversity of materials and objects keeps this lab focused as much on the chemistry as the artwork

Environmental testing had been a sleepy marketplace until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began issuing strict regulations for air, soil, and water in the 1970s. Environmental law spawned thousands of large and small laboratories, many of which had been operating in nonenvironmental industries.

As the heart of the lab and its workflow, CO2 incubators can make or break the facility’s overall productivity. Douglas Wernerspach, business manager of CO2 and constant temperature at Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA), says researchers depend on CO2 incubators to be reliable and provide uniform conditions for cells.

Problem: Detecting impurities in any chemical reaction has always been important to the chemist and it is becoming increasingly important to detect those present at low levels, (e.g. 0.5%).

Problem: Liquid retention in pipette tips and interaction between the materials with which the tip is made and the sample it contains are a great concern. Sample loss percentage and the subsequent cost for purchasing additional sample becomes significantly more important when expensive reagents such as antibodies and siRNA inhibitors are being pipetted.