High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods are commonly developed on instruments different to those used for routine application. The following article describes the challenges this poses for users.

There are different technical and administrative requirements on the one side for active storage of chemicals and on the other side for passive storage of chemicals. When do we refer to active storage and when to passive storage? Discover, what is important for safe hazardous substance storage in this article.

The characteristics of human skin are heavily dependent on the hydration of the tissue. Its water content also changes its interaction with textiles. Up to now, it has only been possible to determine the interaction between human skin and textiles by means of clinical trials on human subjects. Now, Empa researchers have developed an artificial gelatine-based skin model that simulates human skin.

In freshwater lakes, large amounts of the greenhouse gas methane are oxidized by bacteria before it can be emitted into the atmosphere. A study in Lakes Rotsee and Zug has now shown that the bulk of this work is done, not by “classical” methane consumers, but by filamentous bacteria previously known only as contaminants of water supplies.

Will manual pipettes still be around in 50 years’ time? What challenges lie ahead? What opportunities? Two Eppendorf experts share their views with LP. The conversation was conducted by Dr. Ilka Ottleben.

As recently as 60 years ago, it was almost impossible to pipette small amounts of liquid in the microliter range safely and reproducibly. Many breakthroughs, particularly in the fields of molecular and chemical research, would not have been conceivable in the milliliter range.

It has been assumed that the Vikings were trading in stockfish, but so far solid evidence has been lacking. With new methods, it is possible to extract ancient DNA from fishbone remnants and reveal the source of the stockfish.

Using four low-cost smartphone cameras and some simple colored backlighting, researchers could construct a tomographic particle image velocimetry (PIV) system that is capable of quantitative flow visualization.

Subjects, such as resource optimization or better energy usage, have arrived in the laboratory. What does this mean for the most important separation method, chromatography? An inventory shows the amount of optimization potential in the technology that is more than 100 years old.

Electronic devices are becoming continually smaller, more flat and multifunctional and their “inner life”, the microelectronic systems, along with them – thanks to 3D integration.