News: - Researchers Create New Organic Gel Nanomaterials - Soft Materials Buckle Up for Measurement - Microbes for Groundwater MTBE - Movies Show Nanotubes Bend like Sluggish Guitar Strings - Strategic Lab Management Conference – Coming in October - Find What You Need … Fast!

Editor's Choice: - Dry Vacuum System Automatically Self-Cleans - FIB System Prepares Specimens Economically - Spectroscopic Ellipsometers

Looking to grind grains, corn, soy, forage for NIR or ICP? If you require professional solutions that combine high performance, ease of use, a maximum of operational safety and a long lifetime, then Retsch’s equipment is your only choice! Learn more>>>

Measure Temperature Where Thermocouples Fail! The Luxtron One measures temperature in harsh electrical noise (EMI, RF, microwave and MRI) or corrosive chemical environments. With no drift or recalibration needed, the Luxtron One is the one thermometer for all your temperature sensing needs. Learn more about Fluoroptic (R) Temperature Sensing. Learn more>>>

Soft Materials Buckle Up for Measurement
Buckling under pressure can be a good thing, say materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Writing in the June 13 issue of Macromolecules, they report a new method to evaluate the mechanical properties of soft polymers and gels, such as those used in contact lenses and as tissue-engineering scaffolds. For such applications, stiffness is an indicator for key material performance qualities, such as comfort and durability, and it is important to controlling cell adhesion.

The new method uses “sensor films” with known properties to report the stiffness (or “modulus”) of the soft substrates to which they are attached. more>>>

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Microbes for Groundwater MTBE
Max Häggblom’s Rutgers laboratory has taken an important step on the path to using microbes to rid the environment of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a toxic gasoline additive classified as a potential human carcinogen. It has contaminated virtually all groundwater in the United States through fuel spills and leaking underground gasoline storage tanks.

“While gasoline hydrocarbons are much more toxic than MTBE, they are just candy to microbes and don’t become as persistent a problem,” said Häggblom, a professor in Rutgers’ department of biochemistry and microbiology and the Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment on Rutgers’ Cook College campus. more>>>



Movies Show Nanotubes Bend like Sluggish Guitar Strings
In an exciting advance in nanotechnology imaging, Rice University scientists have discovered a way to use standard optical microscopes and video cameras to film individual carbon nanotubes - tiny cylinders of carbon no wider than a strand of DNA. The movies show that nanotubes can be "plucked" by individual molecules of water and made to bend like guitar strings.

"Nanotubes are fairly stiff, and when they are long enough, the bombardment by the surrounding water molecules makes them bend in harmonic shapes, just like the string of a guitar or a piano," said lead researcher Matteo Pasquali, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and chemistry, and co-director of Rice's Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory. more>>>



Strategic Lab Management Conference – Coming in October
Lab managers need to understand a vast array of quality systems requirements—systems that require intricate documentation and workflow management. Health, safety and environmental regulations are changing rapidly, and lack of knowledge about these changes is no excuse. Attracting and retaining quality staff is a major challenge. And within the next several years, the majority of lab managers will be involved in a major expansion, retrofit, renovation or replacement of their facility.

Reed Science Group’s Strategic Lab Management Conference will show you how to manage quality issues, comply with a changing regulatory environment, transfer technology to market, reduce capital and supply costs and evaluate state-of-the-art laboratory information management systems. more>>>


Find What You Need … Fast!
Looking for a balance, chiller, gas generator, lab washer, spectrophotometer, titrator, viscometer, or water purification system? Need it now? Visit www.LaboratoryEquipment.com, click on the “Buyers Guide” tab at the top of the page and type your keyword of choice in the Search window. Click on “Jump to results” for the Buyer’s Guide. Here you’ll find information on the technology you’re interested in, plus messages from vendors ready to meet your needs.

If your keyword is one of those highlighted in the box at the top of the Buyers Guide page, simply click on the word and go directly to the suppliers list. more>>>

Dry Vacuum System Automatically Self-Cleans Rietschle Thomas Puchheim’s programmable and self-cleaning dry vacuum system is suited for use with a rotary evaporator for stripping high boiling point solvents <160 C, such as DMF, or low boiling point solvents like methylene chloride using the vacuum controller. more>>>

FIB System Prepares Specimens Economically JEOL’s JEM-9320 single-column focused ion beam (FIB) system provides automated, high-speed specimen preparation at nearly one-third the cost of dual beam systems. Thin films and cross sections for failure and defect analysis are prepared at the nanoscale using S/TEM, TEM or surface observation. more>>>

	Spectroscopic Ellipsometers Horiba Jobin Yvon’s accurate and sensitive MM-16 spectroscopic ellipsometer extends the capabilities of classical ellipsometry. Along with measurements of thin film thickness and optical constants, the instrument delivers in 2 seconds the complete 16 elements of the Mueller Matrix in the visible range. more>>>