Lab Manager | Run Your Lab Like a Business

Cover Story |  Volume 7 - Issue 3  |  April 2012

Saving Energy, Saving Money

The best laboratory energy efficiency strategies focus on the big things first

Sections

Editor's Buzz

Springtime… Green time

Here in my neck of the woods in Northwestern New Jersey, spring arrived weeks ago, which the early and abundant forsythia flowers outside my office window testify to. No guarantee, however, that we won’t see snow on Easter.

Business Management

Saving Energy, Saving Money

In 2002, when Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California, decided to build the Molecular Foundry laboratory, they employed the help of Steve Greenberg, an in-house energy management engineer.

Looking for Someone Special?

“Hiring is your most important task,” the late Steve Jobs, former chief executive officer of Apple, Inc., told his managers. The reason? “The team with the best players wins,” according to Jack Welch, a chemical engineer and former chief executive officer of General Electric.

Leadership and Staffing

Lab Manager Academy: Digital Manners

E-mail etiquette to get the best results in your lab.

Science Matters: A New Approach To How You Hire

Many job seekers still know how hard it is to get hired. There’s no doubt that certain worker populations continue to feel the pressures and competition of finding employment. Nearly every global industry, after all, continues to evaluate their workforce strategies in the face of extreme demands for productivity and efficiency.

Computing and Automation

Automatic Identification

Performance and productivity expectations for the modern laboratory have never been higher. Test results must be accurate, timely, and provided in the most cost-effective way possible. Fortunately for lab managers, automation technology has advanced.

Laboratory Technology

Managing Chemical Inventory

The old proverb “The more things change, the more they stay the same” seems truer than ever. Certainly, the use of technology in the lab is making significant changes to laboratory work processes, but when all is said and done, the goals of the lab remain basically the same.

Improving Sustainability

Many companies have made the decision to improve the sustainability of their operations, facilities, and products. They are doing so in response to a variety of pressures, including shareholder demand, employee interest, the potential for cost savings, and customer inquiries.

Lab Health and Safety

Feeling Sleepy?

Feeling Sleepy?

This column is for research labs that involve animal procedures or surgeries. We encounter anesthetic gas use in many settings such as medical research, veterinary schools, dental research labs and dental colleges, and biological research facilities.

Lab Health and Safety Tips

Remove All Electrical Connections From Inside Chemical Refrigerators and Require Magnetic Closures

Standard refrigerators should not be used for storage of flammable or reactive chemicals.

Ask the Expert

Ask the Expert: What to Consider Before Consolidating Your Lab Services

David F. Beyerlein, vice president of global operations at MicroConstants, Inc., talks to contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, Ph.D., about the options he had available and the decisions he made regarding consolidating the servicing and maintenance

Product Focus

Product Focus: Electrophoresis

Product Focus: Electrophoresis

Electrophoresis relies on a basic process— particles moving in an electric field, more or less. Although known for more than 200 years, this phenomenon still drives fundamental techniques in many laboratories.

Product Focus: Sample Prep for Chromatographic Analysis

The Greek translation of chromatography— basically “color writing”— fails to reveal the breadth of this technology.

Product Focus: Total Organic Carbon Analyzers

The amount of carbon in an organic compound makes up the so-called total organic carbon (TOC), which serves as a crucial metric in a wide range of processes.

Product Focus: Gas Generators

Lug a tank of gas to an experiment station, break the connection to the old tank, unhook the device that keeps the tank in place, pull out the empty tank and wrestle in a full one, secure the tank in place, attach the regulator and repeat, repeat, repeat.

Surveys

17159

2012 Automated Liquid Handling Survey Results

In automated liquid handlers (ALHs) many customers are looking for modularity, flexibility, scalability, and upgradability.

2012 Centrifuge Product Survey Results

Centrifuges separate particles and structures suspended in liquid by applying thousands of gravitational force equivalents to the sample through spinning. Laboratories use centrifuges to clarify suspensions, separate liquids, isolate suspended

Lab Product

The Right Choice for CO2 Incubators

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.

April 2012 Technology News

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

Research-Specific Labs

Perspective On: A Biofuel Research Laboratory

Despite funding challenges, tow biofuel R&D labs continue to optimize methods and service the market.

Products in Action

New Mini centrifuge with BIG benefits

Labnet International is proud to introduce their new personal mini centrifuge, the PRISM MINI. Reliable and easy-to-use, the Prism Mini is compact and economical, allowing each workstation to be equipped with a “personal” centrifuge.

ELISA - An Aging Technique

While widely utilized, ELISA has significant limitations. In order to capture antigen of interest from the sample, a relatively large amount of sample is required. xMAP Technology offers an attractive alternative.

2Y Series of Balances Launched by RADWAG

At the beginning of year 2012, can be undoubtedly called a revolution in the global weighing market. The brand new 2Y series offers new software applications, so far unavailable in the laboratory weighing solutions.

Unity Lab Services Provides a Single Source for Integrated Lab Service

Unity Lab Services provides a single source for integrated lab service, support and supply management. Our customized service offerings and world-class service experts have the flexibility and experience to uniquely address your business needs.

How it Works

How a Bulk Liquid Dispenser with Both Peristaltic Pump and Syringe Dispensing Works

Bulk microplate-based liquid dispensing instruments typically use peristaltic pumps or microprocessor- controlled syringe pumps to perform reagent and cell dispensing. Each pump type has advantages and disadvantages depending on the reagent used and the lab's needs.

How it Works: An Immunoassay Plate Guide

Immunoassay plates are utilized for a range of mainly ELISA-based applications, some of which are extremely sensitive and contain detection limits in the range of 10 fmol.