We all know that organizations these days face changes like never before. Globalization, breakneck technological innovation, and increased competition result in a constantly evolving business environment. The same is true for laboratories. 

Implementing the improvements your lab needs for continued growth and success

Done right, the dreaded annual performance review can become a meaningful management tool

Reviews and appraisals can be a very helpful tool for employees and organizations to achieve better results

We are all experts in customer service; after all, we are customers every day of our lives. Furthermore, as department managers, we need to ensure that our phones are answered quickly and courteously, that our clients and potential customers have short wait times and are treated with care and respect, that our customers receive accurate and timely results, and that we conduct periodic surveys to ensure that our high standards are maintained.

How to deliver feedback effectively

The best mobile lab apps have ties to instrumentation and are freely downloadable

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

Contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, PhD, talks to Scott Sutton, PhD, principal of Microbiology Network, Inc., and Alison Buchan, PhD, associate professor, Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee, about the main sources and causes of contamination in a microbiology lab and how these problems can be minimized or eliminated. 

To prevent indoor air quality issues after new construction or renovations

Signing a rules agreement does several things. It makes you decide what the rules and policies are going to be. It shows everyone that you are concerned about health and safety. It keeps a permanent record of your safety standards.

Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) play crucial roles in most kinds of science and much of the R&D in industry—from agrochemicals and cosmetics to food and beverage.

As FTIR instrumentation has become more compact and reliable, it has experienced a type of commoditization. That does not mean that innovation has ceased.

With an instrument focused on removing matter from a space, the vacuum-pump industry sure creates a lot of “matter,” in terms of different devices. Vacuum pumps come in so many varieties that, well, it’s a regular vacuum-pump jungle out there.

All major vendors of ultra high-performance liquid chromatography systems (UHPLC) have overcome significant problems related to detection, speed, column life (although users still grumble), usability, interface, and the special circumstances of working at very high pressures. The next frontier in rapid chromatography is one every analytical scientist will recognize.

Whether its typical samples are liquids, solids, or gases, nearly every laboratory has an ultraviolet-visible spectrometer that serves as a workhorse for dozens of applications.

As a premed student at West Texas A&M University, Josie Longoria was like many citizens of her region—she wasn't aware just how much the environment, especially water, affects human health. An environmental chemistry class changed that … and her career path.

Whether to employ central washing stations or point-of-use washers located under a lab bench or in a corner is also something that has to be addressed with regards to laboratory glassware washers. The former provide an economy of scale and are popular with lab workers who, almost universally, hate to “wash the dishes.”

Gas chromatography (GC) is a common technique used in analytical chemistry for separating and analyzing compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition. GC is typically used for separating the different components of a mixture, improving the purity of a particular substance, or identifying a particular compound. GC is a ubiquitous technique, and the various GC instruments available are designed to achieve every requirement of the technique.

Things to consider when starting or running a cell culture laboratory

While there aren’t often obvious signals that your ultralow freezer is about to die, the experts say there are a few things you can look for.

Gas generators have become an alternative to high-pressure gas cylinders for supplying laboratory applications with high purity hydrogen, nitrogen, and zero-air. Until now, there has been no generator option for supplying high purity oxygen. Small pressure swing adsorption (PSA)-based oxygen generators are available for medical applications but do not offer the high purity generally required in the laboratory.

Problem: Bringing samples into a mineralized state is usually the first step for performing accurate inorganic analysis, aka metals trace analysis. This conversion of a usually non-homogenous insoluble mixture into a representative, homogenous aqueous solution using heat and acids is usually a prerequisite for further analysis work with spectroscopic or chromatographic techniques.

5 Questions to Consider When Buying Certified Reference Materials