Cover Story | Volume 8 - Issue 2 | March 2013
Steady As She Goes
Fifth annual investment confidence report reveals some bright spots
Sections
Editor's Buzz
Confident/Somewhat Confident
The good news from this year’s confidence report is that the laboratory industry, by and large, is moving in the right direction—forward—though in slightly smaller steps than we would have hoped.
Surveys
Steady as She Goes: Fifth Annual Investment Confidence Report
Fifth annual investment confidence report reveals some bright spots.
2013 HPLC System Product Survey Results
High-performance/pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is, for many scientists, an essential chromatographic technique.
2013 Lab Oven Product Survey
The past couple of decades have brought big changes in lab ovens
Are You in the Market for a Microscope?
While the technology and fundamental operation behind visible light microscopes has not changed much in 200 years, the wider field of microscopy has continued to greatly evolve.
Business Management
The Procurement Dilemma
Creating a win-win relationship with suppliers in order to obtain the best products and prices.
Defining the New Art of Risk Management
Risk management in this economy goes well past the usual definitions of safety and compliance.
Leadership and Staffing
Resolving Conflict in the Workplace
Most managers and employees fear conflict at work because it can reduce productivity, negatively impact teamwork, and consume valuable time that could be better spent elsewhere. Unfortunately, conflict is inevitable, so we might as well learn to deal with it.
Motivate Your Lab
How to run an efficient and creative lab without micromanaging
Laboratory Technology
HPC Storage Solutions
Address the needs of your applications at each step in the life cycle.
Prepared for Power Failure?
Checklists and advanced management planning can keep your lab up and running
Technology News - Pittcon 2013
The equipment, instruments, and systems introduced to the laboratory market at Pittcon 2013
Ask the Expert
Latest in Field Instruments: Applications for Water Testing
Matthew Sullivan, an environmental specialist in the Field Operations section of the Bureau of Environmental Services for the city of Portland, Oregon, talks to contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, Ph.D., about how field testing, particularly for water analysis, has changed over the years. The testing equipment is now better suited for field analysis, in terms of its size, compactness, and robustness. The newer instruments have also allowed for sampling and testing to be done remotely and in an automated fashion. Overall, field instrumentation is striving to provide faster, cheaper, more robust, and more real-time measurements for routine analysis.
Product Focus
Product Focus: Microscopes
Most exciting time since Abbe
Product Focus: Laboratory Power
More than just power supplies
Product Focus: Glove Boxes
Specific applications require particular features
Product Focus: Shakers
Customization, shrinking size, and other features open new applications
Lab Health and Safety
Blood, Sweat, and Fears (Part I)
This month the Safety Guys aim to raise awareness and discuss the prevention of blood-borne pathogen (BBP) exposures, beginning with an overview of the OSHA standard and a discussion of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s universal precautions.
Lab Health and Safety Tips
Organize a Safety Committee
Your department should have a safety committee. Academic institutions and companies should all have safety committees. The committees should consist of employees, supervisors, faculty, staff, administration, and students.
Research-Specific Labs
Perspective On: A Biofuel Lab
Testing, testing, testing.
Time to Upgrade?
Time to Upgrade? Microplate Readers
Need for new abilities drives upgrades and new purchases
How it Works
How a Guided Pipetting System Works
Published studies, such as those documented by Artel®, have shown how a change in environmental barometric pressure creates volume variations, which alters the pipetting accuracy of air displacement pipettes. This effect is particularly noticeable when pipetting small volumes.
How a Calibration-Free, Dry-Storable pH Meter Works
pH, one of the most fundamental properties in all of nature, is measured in nearly every industry including general laboratory research, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage processing, environmental testing and agriculture. Despite the importance of measuring pH, traditional glass pH meters have long suffered from problems associated with calibration and maintenance.
How Temperature Monitoring Works
A researcher or lab manager’s worst nightmare is to walk into their lab and find a freezer, refrigerator, or any temperature controlled storage unit that has failed overnight and ruined or jeopardized precious samples, specimens, tissues, or products—not to mention the loss of countless hours of research.
How RTVC Membranes Work
Counting the total number of live microorganisms (TVC/TVO) on a Petri dish is one of the main laboratory procedures. It has been used worldwide in microbiological, medical, food, biotechnological, and environmental laboratories ever since the Petri dish was invented more than 120 years ago.