This new popular science book from Octopus Books provides a rare chance to understand the science that makes the modern world tick (quite literally, in the case of the ubiquitous quartz watch). It covers everything from the way your smartphone…
IT CANNOT have escaped your attention that, here in the western world at least, we are currently in the middle of the annual panic-inducing spendfest we call Christmas. The wallet-emptying season seems to start earlier each year, presaged by the…
IN WHAT is becoming something of a Christmas tradition, Oxford Gene Technology has launched an interactive online game aimed at the laboratory. This year’s game invites players to build a snowman using a simple online interface, and then to share…
THIS picture was sent to us by Meiji Techno, which has just commissioned a new suite of 365 microscopes at the University of Liverpool, UK. The university’s new central teaching laboratory was opened last month, October 2012, just in…
EVEN an avowed sports philistine like myself cannot help but notice that there is a significant gathering of athletes taking place in London over the next few weeks. The fittest and strongest young men and women from around the world…
IT STARTED with an idle thought about what might be an appropriate collective noun for mass spectrometers, sparked by the announcement of another two new models from AB Sciex (as reported here). In the same way as we speak of…
THIS is one of those stories that makes you check the date on the press release, just in case it’s a spoof. As unlikely as it seems, though, this one is real: CERN, the European central laboratory for particle physics,…
SCIENTISTS and others in the laboratory sector might be interested in these unusual business cards, created by an Italian advertising agency. Although a microscope slide might be a little impractical compared to the more usual 350gsm stock most conventional business…
HATS off to Life Techologies, for the latest in its excellent series of promotional videos. The tale of PhDiva and the Mystery Band has just been released on YouTube, and has already scored a few thousand views. This clever animation…
NOVEL versions of the periodic table are everywhere these days, with Mendeleev’s grid being used to classify everything from social networks to bloggers, to comic books, and even heavy metal music. It’s all good pointless fun, and is something we…