Punishments may guide behavior more effectively than rewards.

Dr. Donald Sakaguchi, professor of genetics, development and cell biology at Iowa State University, talks to contributing editor Dr. Tanuja Koppal about the time and cost savings generated in his lab due to a recent investment in a high-content screening (HCS) system. While his research group can now set up more experiments to look at different cell types and conditions, they also spend more time carefully designing the experiments and optimizing the conditions and later analyzing the vast amounts of data generated from each experiment.

Problem: Lab managers frequently need access to a wide variety of equipment that is too expensive to purchase.

Four Ways to Motivate Employees

Douglas Kiehl is a principal research scientist at Eli Lilly & Company, and is currently leader for the Spectroscopy & Raw Materials team. His group performs characterization and structural elucidation of impurities, related substances, and contaminants as well as testing and qualification of process raw materials through development and commercialization. Additionally, his team leads Lilly’s technical strategy for evaluating extractables and leachables associated with pharmaceutically relevant materials. 

Brownfield sites—mainly abandoned or soon-to-be abandoned industrial facilities—pose huge challenges to governments, communities, and engineering firms charged with restoring them to common uses. At issue are contaminants—chemicals and metals—that if not remediated pose public health concerns.

When HR professionals talk about rewards and recognition in the workplace, it’s easy to hit the default button that leads directly to bonuses or  “attaboys.” After all, every employee appreciates a nice check or a public pat on the back for a job well done, right? Incentivizing workers this way definitely has a long-standing place in generating goodwill and improving morale with employees.

Rising up the corporate ladder with kids in tow marks women for an extra helping of gender discrimination, new research finds.

A start-up lab has entrepreneurial requirements that must be met in order for it to successfully develop into a full-fledged business

The chemical fume hood is probably the single most-used piece of equipment in research laboratories. Often, the chemical hood is shared by lab personnel, and occasionally it’s shared between labs.

Combining chromosomes from different organisms started as soon as someone created a hybrid. “In natural breeding,” says geneticist Kulvinder S. Gill of Washington State University in Pullman, “we transfer genes through hybridization—transferring pollen from one plant to another.” He adds, “It can, for example, be pollen from wheat to rye or rye to wheat.”