Lab Equipment News

Scientists are intrigued by a new study that suggests viruses might be provoked into mutating themselves into extinction. "Lethal mutagenesis" would allow researchers to develop drugs to expedite the mutation rate in viruses. A key factor in making this idea successful: newly developed mathematical models which focus on the evolution of overall sets of genes.

These optical tweezers are so precise they can feel resistance from tiny concentrations of pathogens in blood samples. In reality, the tweezers are tightly focused laser beams, able to isolate and manipulate a virus-covered microsphere, for example. Use of the technology should facilitate detection and measurement of disease-causing agents.

In the hunt for oil and gas, geophysicists have turned their attention to GPU computing. Accelerated computing using graphic processing cards creates more accurate images of what lies beneath the Earth's surface. In particular, a technique known as "spectral decomposition" produces higher quality data, which can then be reverted back to visually appealing geologic structures.

Handling large quantities of metabolic data has long been a challenge for scientists and researchers. But a new software tool known as BioSynLab® is said to substantially reduce the time involved in analyzing enormous data sets. The software provides visualization tools to "create pictorial representations of the data."

"Eighty percent of the annual sea level rise can be attributed to accelerated land ice loss from glaciers, Greenland, and Antarctica." How do scientists know this? By applying a new satellite measurement technique called space gravimetry. The technique involves monitoring the relationship between ice loss, the earth's gravity field, and satellite orbit speed.

Protein testing is an expensive process and requires more blood than you might imagine. So, a new innovation that is cheap and requires only a single drop of blood is welcome. Technology Review describes a microfluidic chip that helps doctors monitor proteins by measuring the amount of light radiating from a "bar code."

Some researchers have dubbed nanoparticles "the asbestos of the 2000s." Why is this emerging technology so little understood when it comes to health and safety? Science Daily explores this question in a report entitled, "Nanoparticles Trigger Cell Death?"

For more on this subject, subscribe to the GlobalSpec e-Newsletter, DirectU2 The world of Nano Technology.

For the second time this year, a facility in Boulder, CO has experienced a lapse in safety and security. Radioactive material, nickel-63, contained within some older gas chromatographs, has essentially disappeared from the lab. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has recommended the laboratory change its inventory procedures, and improve its lackluster safety culture.

Is the current economic crisis really dampening the hopes of new and soon-to-be graduates? Chemical & Engineering News has released their annual piece on employment prospects, and the outlook is not all gloom and doom — provided you are willing to think creatively about pursuing a career.

On the Arizona-Utah border, geologists see dinosaur tracks; where paleontologists see potholes. "Those marks aren't created by wind and water," say the former. "They most certainly are not footprints," counter the latter. Both groups do agree on one point: "the holes are atypical to others in the area."

Raising a Pint to Life

Will "BioBeer" bring happiness and long life?