Real-time PCR Systems Cepheid's Smart Cycler System PCR--a technique so common in today's laboratories that it is easy to forget its revolutionary impact--enables the specific amplification and detection of as little as a single copy of a particular nucleotide sequence. However, PCR has the potential to be used not just for the detection of specific sequences, but also for their quantification, because of the quantitative relationship between the amount of starting target sequence and the amoun

Nonradioactive Kinase Assay Kits Safety concerns and economic considerations have fueled a growing trend in the biomedical sciences: to shun the use of radioactivity when practical. Nonradioactive options for numerous applications have become widely available, including a number of nonradioactive kinase assay kits. Assays from different manufacturers employ a wide range of strategies. Most of these kits utilize antibodies, but two nonimmunochemical approaches use fluorescently tagged substrates

FluorChem CCD imaging of a western blot using a typical chemiluminescent substrate. In May of this year, Alpha Innotech Corp. of San Leandro, Calif., launched ChemiGlow, a luminol-based chemiluminescent substrate kit optimized for use with charge-coupled device (CCD) imaging systems. ChemiGlow represents a new product area for the company known for digital imaging systems such as ChemiImager™, a real time display CCD camera system for chemiluminescence imaging. Greg Milosevich, vice presi

CONTROLLING LIFE Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology. Philip J. Pauly. Oxford University Press, New York, 1987. 252 pp. $24.95. Few scientists today would consider modeling their professional development on the life of Jacques Loeb (1859-1924). Despite considerable accomplishments, Loeb felt embattled for most of his career. As a German Jew, he was alienated from American academic and social circles, and on several occasions his religion served to limit and even deny him prof