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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.
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.
All employees are accountable for something, but very few fully understand exactly what they are accountable for, according to a new study conducted by Wayne Hochwarter, the Jim Moran Professor of Business Administration in Florida State University’s College of Business, and research associate Allison Batterton.
Abusive bosses who target employees with ridicule, public criticism, and the silent treatment not only have a detrimental effect on the employees they bully, but they negatively impact the work environment for the co-workers of those employees who suffer from “second-hand” or vicarious abusive supervision, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.
There are many different signs that it’s time to upgrade your fume hood, but vendors say safety is the number one reason.
Sample preparation (“prep”) is a tedious, time-consuming task but a necessary part of nearly every analytical workflow, regardless of industry or laboratory type.
Arguing against lab automation is becoming more difficult, particularly for sample prep. With reagents and solvents costing what they do, a business case based on direct cost savings for critical materials stands on its own.
Despite protestations to the contrary, automation is not something to undertake casually. Due to the dizzying array of possibilities and workflows, the technology has not yet achieved the simplicity of consumer products.
A comprehensive review of sample preparation would require a multivolume work. Beyond that, covering the possible number of workflows given the hundreds of potential “unit operations” would fill an encyclopedia, especially when solids (rock, soil, animal tissue) are considered.
A Question and Answer with Select Automated Sample Prep Experts
