As in our previous Salary & Employee Satisfaction surveys, the results this year continue to reinforce the idea that laboratory professionals are for the most part happy in their careers and derive meaning and satisfaction from the work they do.

Anyone who works in a lab quickly learns the value of labware washers. Today, washers are almost as common in laboratories as they are in kitchens.

Two interesting and fairly recent trends in GC systems are “fast GC” and the use of hydrogen as the carrier gas.

Thermal analysis is the broad category of at least 20 techniques that measure some fundamental property of matter as a result of adding heat.

Conflict and disagreement are not always bad. In fact, they are essential to high-performing work teams.

Unfortunately in the world of business, whether it’s in the sciences or any other large global industry, managers don’t have the luxury of being able to sit back, analyze the workplace every four years, and understand just a portion of what’s going on in the competition.

In this month's Science Matters column, the Kelly Global Workforce Index survey, by global workforce solutions company Kelly Services, reveals that there is a strong desire for jobs that fulfill vital psychological needs of employees—something that is fueling a global shift in workplace dynamics.

Staff reductions and corporate restructuring frequently result in fragmentation of high-performance work teams. Because they are often a cost-effective means of accomplishing corporate goals, some of these teams need to be reconstructed.

A competitive spirit within any organization–business or research lab–is only fostered when management is trusted and members of that organization feel that their talents and contributions are appreciated and nurtured.  Create that atmosphere and winning will happen. 

Mass spectrometry (MS) has not quite become a routine acquisition for every lab that might benefit from it. Nor are MS instruments yet capable of serving routine users and experimenters equally well. But the characteristics and performance of instrumentation serving high and low-end applications overlap more now than ever.

Scientists started using true vacuum pumps more than 350 years ago, and investigators used suction pumps for more than 400 years before that. Consequently, removing gas to create a vacuum is not new in science. Nonetheless, the way of removing that gas keeps changing.

Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry is arguably the most common as well as one of the oldest forms of absorption-based analysis. UV and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are contiguous: UV wavelengths range from 10 to 4000 angstroms; they are visible from 4000 to 7000 angstroms.

Gene sequencing is all about data—3.2 gigabytes for a single human genome, with several times that for making raw sequences relevant to real-world problems. Mining the genome for medical intelligence multiplies the data “crunch” for gene sequencers and value-added services that annotate gene sequences for their relevance to protein and metabolite concentrations, and to both diseased and healthy states.

Alexander Sherman, director of systems in the Department of Neurology and director of strategic development and systems at the Neurological Clinical Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses why the right choice and setup for data collecting, data handling, and data sharing infrastructure is important to help establish successful research collaborations.

Now is a good time to purchase an analytical balance if you’re in the market. Thanks to software algorithms that translate electrical signals to weight and improved user interfaces, analytical balances are now much faster in terms of measuring than they used to be. They are also much more accurate because of the efficiency of the algorithmic evaluation that turns data points into weight data and higher data acquisition speed.

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

In this month’s cover story, author John Borchardt describes the changes that have taken place since 2008 in priorities for hiring new laboratory employees.

The new PRESTO® from JULABO represents the state-of-the-art in liquid temperature control for modern laboratories. Models in this redesigned line of temperature-control instruments are the air-cooled A30, A40 and the water-cooled W40. These

Problem: There is little doubt that cell-based assays are becoming a mainstay across the pre-clinical drug discovery process. Many of these assays are end-point based, where live cells are cultured in microplates, incubated with compounds of

Problem: Poor quality antibodies are a major stumbling block for scientists detecting new protein targets in immunological applications. The prevalence of such antibodies is significant; reactions to recent, high-profile retractions of several

Problem: Performing long-term, cell-based applications with living cells using a multimode microplate reader is becoming more and more popular in life science research.

As more therapeutic proteins enter the market, an even larger number accumulate in biopharmaceutical drug pipelines. In order to improve assay quality and manage the growing workload, automated systems are needed to provide qualitative and quantitative information.

While safety can never take a backseat to energy savings or productivity concerns, BSC manufacturers have invented enhancements to provide safety, increase productivity, and conserve energy.

The Cleveland Fire Department's mobile lab begins and ends with equipment.

Getting a new drug into the hands of patients is no easy feat. Pharmaceutical companies have to go through a myriad of tests in cell cultures, animals and humans before discovering and developing treatments for illnesses.

Some chemicals have a short life expectancy. Others will remain good for a long time. Solvents that form peroxides are one example of substances requiring periodic testing. Ethers, vinyl compounds, alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes are some of the

Guidelines for an effective exposure control plan.

Probably the single most common item of personal protection in the laboratory is the glove. Yet it is also the item most likely to receive the least amount of thought or consideration and may be the most misunderstood.

Ultrapure water system lowers endotoxin content below prescribed limits.

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

Out-of-level situations are so detrimental to the results of an experiment that balances can now be equipped to document levelness via an alibi memory, which will allow managers and external auditors to see when weighing results could possibly be tainted.

Whether vacuum is utilized for analytical purposes in corporate R&D or in government or university laboratory settings, those who depend on vacuum pumps do not expect vacuum to have color. However, in very significant and measurable ways, vacuum can be green.

Five trends in laboratory planning and construction that will impact future research facilities.

A dynamic shift in the way researchers conduct their work has had a profound effect on the design of their facilities. Emphasis has focused on three main components: establishing large open labs, the distribution of utilities to and within the lab, and the auxiliary spaces that both support the research experiments and promote collaborative dialogue between colleagues.

Six competencies needed to survive inevitable career ups and downs.

New and multi-faceted hiring strategies lab managers need in their arsenal.

To increase efficiency and drive down costs, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are increasingly turning to multi-vendor asset management service providers for maintenance of their equipment throughout its life cycle from financing to disposal.

With many companies merging with other companies and/or acquiring laboratories, many laboratories find themselves dealing with trying to get a variety of informatics solutions to work together. After the mergers or acquisitions are finalized, these labs are required to harmonize and share systems. 

The need for storage and management is more pressing than data generation.

Reliably tracking samples as they make their way throughout the scientific process is difficult yet absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, transcription errors, wrong versions of files or other mistakes are all too common and can lead to delayed product rollouts—or may even result in a product never making it to market.