THE ASPIRATION and disposal of small volumes of liquid waste is a routine task in most clinical, biology, and chemistry labs, made easier and safer with a device like Vacusip, says Integra. With an integrated vacuum pump and long-life battery,…
Protein precipitation separation on a budget
PORVAIR Sciences says that the use of protein precipitation separation techniques is growing in chromatography labs. It has launched the Combipack in response to this trend, offering a new economic package for laboratories seeking to minimise costs. Combipack consists of…
Assay screens juice and honey for carbendazim
THE QUANTITATIVE analysis of carbendazim in juice and honey samples is made easier through the use of Bioo Scientific’s latest Elisa (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), the MaxSignal Carbendazim kit. The kit was developed in response to the US Food and Drug…
Nucleic acid extraction system now CE certified
ROCHE says its newly-launched Magna Pure 96 system for automated sample preparation is designed to better fulfill the needs of diagnostic customers. This latest IVD version of Magna Pure 96 is CE-certified for use in Europe, having previously been introduced…
Microplate helps automate solid phase extraction cleanup
THE Microlute 96 well SPE microplate from Porvair Sciences is designed to automate solid phase extraction (SPE) cleanup and analyte enrichment in busy laboratories. Porvair offers a number of sorbents, from C18 to Mixed Mode, in either silica or polymer…
Scalable bioreactor reduces experiment turnaround times
A NEW automated bioreactor system for parallel cell culture or fermentation has been launched by TAP Biosystems. Ambr 250 consists of a workstation which can automate independent parallel control of 12 or 24 single-use 250ml bioreactors for cell culture or…
Software streamlines research and reference management
A SUBSTANTIAL upgrade to EndNote, the reference management software from Thomson Reuters used by researchers and students worldwide, has been announced. Available in the UK and Ireland, Germany, Austria and Denmark from Adept Scientific, EndNote X6 keeps its users up…
Evaporator protects samples and increases productivity
GENEVAC’s HT Series II evaporators are equipped with the company’s proprietary SampleGuard temperature control technology to automatically detect when samples are dry, initiating the shutdown of evaporation and thereby protecting valuable samples from potential thermal degradation. Combined with the company’s…
Dry bath operates at two temperatures at once
THE NEW EchoTherm IC22XT digital chilling/heating dry bath from Torrey Pines Scientific can run two separate temperatures and two different sample blocks at the same time, effectively making it two heating/cooling blocks in one. The IC22XT can be used in…
Ballistic imaging at ultra-high resolution
THE SUCCESSOR to Specialised Imaging’s popular Sir2 high-speed camera, the Sir3, can acquire two separate full resolution images to provide displacement and velocity data on tracked objects. Mainly aimed at harsh environments associated with military proving grounds and industrial installations,…
Supporting high throughput screening in academic labs
THE NEW Centre for Biomolecular Science at the University of Nottingham, UK, has been given a recent boost with the installation of sample storage and tube-to-plate processing systems from TTP Labtech. The fully automated facility for the Managed Chemical Compound…
Weekly news: Curiosity is a lost opportunity
IT’S all eyes on the skies next week as the most promising laboratory of recent years finally gets commissioned. This particular installation has it all: state-of-the-art instruments, a clearly defined task in a field that is still substantially unstudied, and…
Protocol shows way to improved sulphur determination
A PROPRIETARY inductive coupled plasma – optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) sample preparation protocol allowing regular, reproducible detection of sulphur at trace levels of only tens of parts-per-million (ppm) has been developed by Warwick Analytical Service. The company says the new…
Better labelling for personalised medicine firm
PERSONALISED medicine specialist Lab21 has begun using a new labelling system from Episys to create labels for its diagnostic test kits. The Episys Ultimate Platinum package includes the Headers & Footers and Approvals modules, which Episys says will give Lab21…
Gene cloning made safer and more sensitive
AN ALTERNATIVE to ethidium bromide which is said to be more flexible in use as well as being safe and sensitive has been introduced by Cleaver Scientific. The company describes RunSafe as a significant new tool for gene cloning applications,…
Multiply the water supplies in a fume cupboard
A COMMON practice when multiple condensers are deployed in laboratory fume cupboards is to daisy-chain the devices in series. This can be effective, but means that the chilling effect of the water is not uniform. Asynt says its water manifold…
Pleated membranes make for convenient filtration
STERILE mixed cellulose esters (MCE) membranes offer the same quality and reliability as individually wrapped membranes, says Cole-Parmer, with the added benefits of hands-free convenience and reduced risk of membrane contamination from handling. The company has introduced a range of…
Software processes multiple genotypes in single run
A NEW Windows-compatible program enables clinical research labs to process up to six different genotype chemistries or size standards in a single analysis run. GeneMarkerMTP from SoftGenetics is described as a multi-template processor, developed to enhance the speed, flexibility and…
Chemical identification at nanometre scale
ELECTRON microscopy and scanning probe microscopy offer the scientific researcher powerful high-resolution imaging at the nanometre scale, but are poor at identifying the chemical composition of the structures they image. Spectroscopy offers powerful chemical identification, but has resolution limited to…
X-ray diffractometer optimised for structural biology
DESIGNED to meet the needs of the modern macromolecular crystallography laboratory, Agilent says its new GV1000 X-ray diffractometer is a revolutionary new instrument for the collection of high-quality diffraction data from crystalline samples of biological macromolecules. Launched this week at…
Maintaining charpy impact specimens at precise temperature
A LOW temperature bath that provides metallurgists and testing laboratories with precise temperature control when cooling specimens for impact testing has been launched by SP Scientific. The new CharpyCool has one of the smallest footprints on the market, the company…
Site will ‘revolutionise’ laboratory outsourcing
A NEW initiative to simplify and speed up the process of laboratory outsourcing promises to take the stress out of tendering. The Network Scientific Directory is an online matchmaking system that enables users to both source and submit tenders for…
Weekly news: statistics predicts London medal tally
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…
Downloadable posters cover fluorescent nucleotide probe synthesis
TWO RECENTLY-presented presented research posters discussing dye and quencher phosphoramidites and CPG solid supports for oligonucleotide synthesis are available for download from Link Technologies. The company reports that these posters generated a lot of interest when presented at the first…
Crystallography studies boosted by pipetting innovation
AN AUTOMATED screen optimiser from TTP Labtech promises to deliver the simple, reliable and fast set-up of screen plates to streamline laboratory crystallography studies. The new instrument, called the Woodpecker, is to be unveiled next week at the American Crystallographic…
Ceti microscopes outlined in new catalogue
A NEW catalogue outlining the Ceti microscope range has been published by Medline Scientific. The 44-page publication covers the entire Ceti range, launched recently at Achema 2012. Ceti microscopes include simple models aimed at the education market as well as…
Paperless and tamper-proof documentation for media preparation labs
THE INCREASING reliance of laboratories on electronic documentation brings with it both penalties and bonuses. A move towards paperless status has advantages in cost and reduced environmental footprint, but can add complexity to regulatory requirements. One example of this is…
Agilent claims European patent victory
AGILENT Technologies has today claimed a victory over rival Affymetrix, after a ruling from the European Patent Office upheld its opposition to a patent including the term ‘control probe’. Affymetrix’s European Patent EP 0853679, covering ‘Expression monitoring by hybridization to…
Forensic fingerprinting from spent cartridges
A NOVEL system to image fingerprints on spent gun cartridges has been made available to forensics experts thanks to a custom made lens from Resolve Optics. The new technique, Cartridge Electrostatic Recovery and Analysis (Cera), can extract fingerprints when other…
More details of Planet xMap 2012
LUMINEX has announced further details of its 10th annual Planet xMap congress, to be held on 10-11 October 2012 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. Over 500 leading scientists are expected to gather at the event, sharing information and discoveries…