Technology

History: Buckminster Fuller, a scientist from UK was a remarkable inventor, architect and a designer. He was responsible for the Geodesic dome among other designs but the most fulfilling design was the bathing unit, called Dymaxion that was a very unique concept. This design came from his observations while in the navy that exposing soiled…

All the scientists when asked whether they use some kind of lab automation answer – “Of course” but recently a survey conducted by Lab Equipment showed that nearly 35% of the respondents do not use any lab automation systems. However that is still a large number of respondents who do use the lab equipment. Among…

Ushio has made a great detector that can detect toxins, drugs and many other agents using a new method of detection that was published earlier in 2011.  The technology is interesting. The detection reagent is a Variable region fragment ofHeavy chain antibody (VH) that has the quenched fluorescence group embedded in its structure. This is…

Vanadium Dioxide is an interesting material. It functions as a metal at some temperatures and then as an insulator at other temperatures. The microscopic reason for the transition is unknown but the ways this can be used is interesting. Transition metal oxides make for interesting studies. They are normally an insulator that does not allow…

Dr Hagan Bayley’s lab has been working on ion channels, pores and droplet based technologies. Dr Gabriel Villar from that group just published a paper in Science that shows the formation of unique droplets submerged in hydrocarbons/oil. The formation of these droplets is interesting but what is unique is that they can form interactions amongst…

Many visitors come to Philadelphia to learn about American history and make a compulsory stop to see the Liberty Bell. However, what is relatively unknown to most of them is that there is a great chemical technology library, museum and a center for scholars less than three blocks away called the Chemical Heritage Foundation. There…

Microsoft Kinect was originally invented as a good way to control gaming but due to its good flexibility has quickly turned into a good way to control things. In biology, it has not been used as much to control microscopes or other expensive devices but Dr David McGloin at the University of Dundee in UK…

Currently the line of thinking is that technology is complex and we need to complex instrumentation and thoughtful experiments over a long period of time before a new technology is created. However, consider time. We take for granted that the clock divides the day into 60 minutes, with 60 seconds per minute and 24 hours…

It is surprising that something has common as ink that we use for writing has been innovated in so many ways but not too many innovations are successful. The purpose of ink, whether in a pen on paper or in printer on paper has been primarily used to display objects on paper and that is…

Fluorescence technologies with flow cytometry have been used in the clinical sciences for many purposes since it has been established method. This is standardized for clinical analysis but also for other research based applications. It however suffers from one limitation that it is limited to 20 independent channels and is very complex to setup 20…