In our Fifth Annual Salary & Employee Satisfaction Survey, the majority of you told us again that you were happy in your current work situations and had no plans to change careers. However, 13 percent fewer of you than in 2010 answered in the affirmative to the statement, “based on job is secure.”

To progress in their careers, lab managers need to develop new skills.

Lab managers are responsible for recruitment and development of chemists and other lab professionals. They often have to explain to the rest of the world the value added by the chemists and also educate the new recruits on what the various jobs entail. For lab employees, better understanding of jobs and available career paths can contribute to higher levels of job satisfaction.

There are managers who have learned to use psychological techniques to confuse, contort, and control members of their staff. You may never encounter one of these characters, if you are lucky. However, if you do run into such an unpleasant character, here are some tips on how to survive.

We all know that scientists who pursue advanced degrees like a Ph.D. are smart. They are driven. And they are no doubt passionate about their work. But can they cut it in the real world? Recent national media reports that debate the value of advanced degrees are shining a light on the need to have marketable skills that will work beyond the “ivory tower.”

For decades, labs have struggled to find clear solutions to better engage and retain their best employees. At some point, doesn’t it make sense to say, “Why don’t we just ask them?”

Results indicate general satisfaction though lingering job insecurity remains for some.

Ion chromatography (IC) is an instrumental technique used extensively in the environmental, pharmaceutical, life sciences, biotechnology, chemical, petrochemical, food and beverage, power generation, and electronics industries.

Microplate readers are widely used in research, drug discovery, bioassay validation, QC, and manufacturing processes for the detection of biological, chemical, or physical processes in samples contained in microtiter plates.

The pH meter is an essential piece of equipment in most laboratories, vital for many analytical and synthetic processes. Typical pH meters consist of a glass electrode connected to an electronic meter.

Within a decade of its discovery in 1983, Real-Time PCR—also called quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)— evolved into one of the most powerful and sensitive gene analysis techniques available.

Byron Brehm-Stecher, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University, heads the Rapid Microbial Detection & Control Laboratory that works to ensure the safety of the food supply through improved detection and inactivation of food-borne pathogens. While the laboratory uses a combination of several different analytical tools for rapid detection, a key emphasis lies on pre-analytical sample preparation (sample prep), which is the separation and concentration of target cells from complex samples and removal of interfering matrix components prior to detection. He talks about the common challenges associated with sample prep and what an ideal sample prep process should involve.

Chromatin states can influence transcription directly by altering the packaging of DNA to allow or prevent access to DNA-binding proteins, or they can modify the nucleosome surface to enhance or impede recruitment of effector protein complexes.

The function of molecular diagnostics is to analyze the composition of a patient’s genetic makeup in order to reveal any potential predispositions of that individual to specific diseases. Identifying these biomarkers can allow treatment options to be outlined that are likely to be effective in particular patients and not in others.

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

Although a mature product category, microplate readers are evolving towards greater functionality, flexibility, and throughput. All top instrument makers are focusing at least some efforts on multiplexing.

The question of limited access or general access to laboratory goods and services applies to a range of instruments, utilities, and competencies. These questions take on added significance for midsized or larger labs.

Whether your business is pharmaceuticals, mining, paints, or foods, you are probably working with smaller particles than you were a decade ago.

Best practices dictate that pipettes undergo preventive maintenance and calibration at least once per year. Calibration involves dispensing set volumes of a liquid, usually water, into the weighing pan of a calibrated balance.

Raman spectroscopy has undergone a revolution during the last seven to 10 years, largely as a result of massive investment in the telecommunications industry.

Of all the factors contributing to the performance of a pipette, the most critical are the skill and expertise of the operator.

There are a number of standard laboratory procedures and processes that need to be conducted at specific and stable temperatures.

Analytical balances are used to measure mass with a high degree of precision.

A Dozen Tips for Working Safely with Laboratory Glassware

One of the characteristics of an effective safety program is the availability of reference and resource materials.

Michael Glavanovich receives calls with all kinds of strange requests. Once, a woman phoned to ask him if a piece of meat tossed into her yard for her dog contained poison.

Microvolume assessment of bacterial culture growth was found to facilitate measurement of undiluted cultures. Comparison between microvolume and cuvette-based data requires the use of a conversion factor, which can be simply determined.

With the rapid pace and high demands of research that dominate today’s research laboratories, scientists require faster, more dependable, and safer means of accomplishing detail-oriented and potentially tedious liquid handling tasks, while producing reliable results that do not waste expensive reagents.

Highly concentrated nucleic acid and protein samples must be diluted before they can be read on most absorbance-based spectrophotometers, and conversely, diluted samples must be concentrated to within the spectrophotometer’s dynamic range before reading.

The global energy crisis is growing and is driving the costs of energy higher, making energy consciousness not only a necessity in terms of the environment, but also important for cost savings.