Date: November 23, 1998Tools Breeders of transgenic mice assist researchers by isolating genotypes of significant interest and maintaining a ready supply of laboratory animals. Mountains will go into labour, and a silly little mouse will be born. -Horace, Roman poet Rodents have been the bane of human civilization from its inception. From the infestations of the great Roman granaries at Alexandria to the Mongol trading routes that brought the Himalayan brown rat and its constant companion

Dilbert reprinted by permission of United Feature Syndicate Inc. Are you a bench scientist looking for promotion or a change of pace? Highly coveted upper-management positions don't always fall into the laps of the most technically competent people in the company. Unfortunately, everything that scientists learn about the natural world doesn't necessarily prepare them for the ins and outs of business. Often, the only lesson that scientists carry into business from science is the Darwinian princi

Photosynthetic Harvest Inc. Turns Plants Into Chemical Factories With Its New Rhizosecretion™ Process There was once a controversial radio talk-show host in San Diego, later turned news anchor, who used to give lectures about how environmentalists had misunderstood how nature works. He would begin his lectures with a story to illustrate his point. One billion years ago, before humankind roamed the earth, life flourished and had evolved rapidly into multifarious communities of organisms.

Date: November 9, 1998Comparison of Disruptors With names such as cell crushers, grinders, disintegrators, and pulverizers dominating the field, the business of cell disruption is not for the faint of heart. Some of the functions of these machines are so twisted and diabolical that they would make the Marquis de Sade wince. These devices do the dirty work of the research world, ripping and tearing at the fabric of plants and animal tissues with extreme prejudice to both forms of life. Many scie

Date: October 26, 1998Comparison of Pipette Fillers In the golden age of chemistry, it was said that a good chemist could identify specific compounds by the mere taste and touch of a substance against the tongue, lips, and fingers. It has also been said of this same period that there was no such thing as an old chemist. Although chemists today may not have the same adventurous, if foolhardy approach, they have perhaps traded unbridled enthusiasm for caution. The horrible death from radium pois

Axon Instrument's Clampex Data Acquistion Graphic Interface As researchers use patch clamp technology to probe ever deeper into the subtle phenomena of cell physiology, they leave behind the macrocosm of human experience and enter the microcosm of the cell. The key to understanding these cellular phenomena, beyond or beneath the human senses, is to find ways of analyzing information that produce visually accessible results. The problem of extracting meaningful data from recorded observations

Penetrating ever farther into the submicron world, microscope designers have broken through the diffraction barrier that once stood between researchers and the mysterious depths of the nano world. Simultaneously acquired topographic and NSOM images of j-aggregates of pseudocyanine embedded in polyvinylsulfate. Courtesy of Paul Barbara and Dan Higgins, Univ. of Minnesota Researchers are now returning from this vast hidden frontier with images that are both startling in their beauty and compe

The Polaroid camera has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a party novelty. Its simple, one-step function made Polaroid photography an instant success. Although the quality of the image suffered and neither duplication nor enlargement was practical, the immediate satisfaction of having the "evidence" in hand moments later was a gimmick that expanded the boundaries of human social interaction. However, for the serious business of scientific photography, the standard 35 mm format was s

enzymes by appealing to the obsession over purity Date: September 28, 1998 Specialty Enzymes Every once in a great while a discovery is made that not only sheds light on the true genius of nature but leaves one completely amazed that it could possibly work that way. The discovery of restriction enzymes in the mid 1970s and the explication of their role in nature was one of those discoveries. For biologists attempting to apprehend the way in which organic life reproduces itself, the finding ca

From inventory to the laboratory, the requisition of chemicals for research has just entered the computer age. David Perry's Chemdex Corp., an on-line marketplace for chemicals, may revolutionize the way researchers obtain specialty biochemicals in the research industry. Until recently, the process of ordering chemicals for research has had all the convenience and much of the flavor of a Persian bazaar. With hundreds of manufacturers and distributors vying with one another for a share of this