The relationship between form and function in carbon dioxide incubators has led to evolutionary changes in incubator design. In addition to tried-and-true waterjacketed CO2 incubators, most vendors now offer incubators that employ direct heating.

If the voluminous patent filings for new compressors, refrigerants, insulation, and power management are any indication, refrigeration technology is one of the most-researched engineering topics affecting lab operations.

Aside from safety, saving energy is the trend in fume hoods these days. Hoods are energy hogs that suck thousands of cubic feet of conditioned air per hour, 24 hours per day, out of buildings; replacement air must be heated or cooled depending on the season.

While fully manual operations can be built around microplate formats, doing anything substantive without a microplate reader is virtually impossible. Detection modes define the instrument’s experimental capabilities.

Equipment for dispensing and aspirating liquids runs the gamut from handheld pipettes that cost less than $100 to mid-range benchtop units to complex, fully robotic systems that cost $1 million or more.

Imaging encompasses a wide range of techniques that enable visualization of hidden features of samples, structures, or organisms. Imaging occurs at many scales, from medical magnetic resonance imaging of patients to individual atoms. This INSIGHTS on Imaging Systems focuses on the lower end of size domains in the typical operating range of—but not limited to—microscopy.

The pros and cons of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) compared with ultra-high performance LC (UHPLC) are by now the stuff of legend.

Centrifuges work on the principle of sedimentation facilitated by an apparent angular force that draws components of a rotating sample away from the center of rotation. Although centrifugation theory is straightforward, its engineering literature is voluminous due to the number of industries and research operations that depend on the operation.

Today's laboratory designers understand that in environments that support complex tasks, workflow should dictate design, not the other way around.

Things to consider when starting or running a cell culture laboratory

Environmental testing had been a sleepy marketplace until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began issuing strict regulations for air, soil, and water in the 1970s. Environmental law spawned thousands of large and small laboratories, many of which had been operating in nonenvironmental industries.