Lab Update

Protein: The Building Blocks

The human body is a vastly complex and marvellous machine, and the oil that makes it all run smoothly comes in the form of protein. Protein strands comprise of a series of amino acids joined together in peptide bonds, and there are many different varieties of protein strand in the body. When they’re not building or repairing muscle tissue, they are acting as catalysts for biological reactions all over the body. Protein truly is a marvellous substance, and it doesn’t stop with the human body.

Thanks to fantastic scientific discoveries, we are able to manipulate protein strands to achieve some truly incredible things. Just take a look at this article from Food Production Daily on the production of whey protein coating in commercial packaging. So what other discoveries have we made about this dynamic substance?

Whey protein is not only being used to boost recyclability, it is a common supplement for body builders. Companies like Muscleforce Supplements here supply a myriad of useful protein supplements to add to your diet: and there are a lot of different kinds to choose from. You can often find high a protein count in foods like cottage cheese or a steak, but with supplements the protein strands are mixed in a solution which makes them easier to digest. The less work your body has to do breaking down the proteins, the quicker they will enter your system and begin building. This is why companies like Lucozade have never gone out of fashion. The three fact sheets, which you can download from the provided link, show just how vital protein is to our diets and how much of it can be found in energy drinks. Hydration fuels muscle mass, hence why many sports enthusiasts drink energy drinks to keep going, and take protein supplements to build up.

Regulating a high protein diet requires more, however, than simply supplements and drinks; supplements are after all designed to supplement, not replace. Thus a high protein diet must include high protein foods, such as red meat, lentils, and eggs. To make the most of every meal it’s worth consulting some high protein recipes which you can find on Food.com here.

According to The Dr Oz Show, as mentioned here on Nerdles, we are not getting enough protein in our diets. Your protein intake has much to do with your metabolism, and as Dr Oz says at the bottom of the article, whey protein powders can actually help speed up your metabolism and help you lose weight. Have I convinced you of proteins’ incredible versatility yet? How about this article from News-Medical on Alzheimer’s development? I particularly enjoy the line ‘This is the first time a protein that functions as a controller of motors has been reported.’

The human body is a complex machine, and we are only beginning to scratch the surface of its potential: and it all starts with the foundation blocks.

AU! Put Your Goggles On!

There are some jobs that require you to don a new suit so that you can look presentable in the office. Other jobs require you to wear a full hazmat suit, goggles, thick gloves, indestructible boots and a respirator, so that you don’t melt. Working in a lab might seem like a daunting experience to some, but it’s a real opportunity for those who have the passion for discovery. Science is not a subject to be taken lightly, just look at the most recent developments in the search for dark matter. The study of the properties of life and the universe is not all charts and diagrams, and with developments like this coming to light, more and more young people are aspiring to discover more about this universe.

While enthusiasm is certainly a good thing, scientists are known better for their practical thinking, so when you’re working with hazardous materials all day it is pivotal that the correct personal protective equipment is worn in the lab. It goes without saying that you should check and double check all of your own equipment before entering the lab, but what about your environment? Because of the nature of some scientific research, it should be your responsibility to watch each other for faults as well as your own, besides, I hear this helps encourage friendly competition as well as keeping everyone safe.

It doesn’t matter how gifted you are at separating chemical compounds, if someone else makes a mistake you could all end up in trouble for it. I suggest reading this short guide to lab procedures in case one or two of the fundamentals have slipped your busy brain.

I have nothing but respect for the study of science, but no one will respect carelessness. Take the time to remind yourself of proper lab procedure, and check every piece of equipment including your safety gear, your lab partners will thank you.

Doing the Heavy Lifting

When it comes to working in the lab, precision is everything. Essential for measuring accuracy and keeping test conditions optimal, precision was the reason for scientists originally wanting to split the atom as well as how they were able to do it. As with any experiment, or project, conducted within the lab, it is essential to have the right equipment. The right equipment can allow you to keep most of the variables at a constant and manage to look at one aspect of the experiment at a time as well as manage the items on your site much easier.

But not everything that you need can be fitted inside a cardboard box, glassware, microscopes and other pieces of conventional equipment will suit a certain type of experiment, but there may be plenty of experiments where you need to be operating materials on a much larger scale such as cutting large deal of metal with an industrial saw, or using industrial tools to create a new piece of equipment.

If you are considering buying some heavy duty equipment for your site or your lab, it can be really worth looking at the second hand market. Used forklift trucks are available at a great price and can be a great starting point if you are looking for some advanced equipment. Before investing heavily in brand new equipment, you can use a used forklift truck to assess your needs, you’re likely to find that this machinery fulfills all of your criteria as well as making you a great saving.

Industrial equipment can allow you to scale up your experiments to the point where your only limits are the very limits of your imagination. The correct tools combined with ample materials allows for a huge number of experiments to be carried out and heavy lifting machinery will allow you to improve your efficiency by increasing the speed, scale and volume of each of your projects.

The equipment can be used for much more than ferrying goods and can allow you to really open up your lab into a much larger and ambitious project as you are unencumbered by many of the physical logistics that otherwise restrict the growth of your project/business

Getting Started With Astronomy

I had always been fascinated by the night sky, so when a friend of mine bought a book on astronomy and suggested a night out under the stars, I jumped at the chance. We looked up at the stars and picked out the constellations. Getting out of London, I could really see things properly for the first time, and from then on I was hooked.

I got up the next day and started looking for the best deals on used binoculars (tip-check out Ace Cameras) for our next trip out. I have since purchased increasingly more elaborate and expensive binoculars and telescopes, finding that I need to see more and more to experience the same high that I did on that first trip out- I feel like an addict!

There is nothing more rewarding than looking at the night sky if you know what you’re looking for and where to find it. As well as all of the books that are available (go the library if you don’t want to spend any money without trying it out first, you’ll also find loads of really useful info on the internet, check out http://www.lightandmatter.com/binosky/binosky.html for more information on looking at the sky with binoculars.

You may begin by wanting to find something specific in the night sky, if you’re a beginner, choosing planet that you want to see is a good place to start. Seeing it up close will be such a revelation I can assure you. If you’re just starting out you may want to look at the Messier Catalogue, which is a list of interesting objects in the sky, distinguished from ordinary stars. It was started in 1758 by a French astronomer Charles Messier who wanted to make sure that these nebulae wouldn’t be mistaken for comets. Each object has been given an ‘M’ number- and astronomers still use this today to identify the objects, in total their are 110 Messier Objects. A great site can be found at SEDS.org, where you can find out more about each object.

HAPPY GAZING!

Isolating the Lab

When it comes to laboratory conditions, one of the most important factors for experiments is to make sure that the lab is isolated from contaminants and clean. This is not because of the often feared myth that some lab will accidentally release some form of super-virus. But simply because a small amount of contamination can skew results on even the most simple and basic of tests. So much so that a small degree of contamination is often assumed on the part of lab technicians and so tests are repeated ad infinitum to ensure that contaminants aren’t producing wild outliers and contamination in general is a huge issue among professionals.

An important factor for reducing the number of contaminants in the laboratory environment is to make good use of wash basins and sanitation products. This is understandably a mandatory requirement for all lab technicians or anyone working within such a delicate environment. The wearing of disposable gloves and other protective gear is a good way to eliminate a lot of the possibility of cross-contamination, but extremely careful hygiene is also essential. As a good tip, look at how surgeons in operating theaters wash their hands; with high taps and low basins they wash their hands from the fingertips right to the elbow with their fingers facing up into the running water. This is different to how many of us wash our hands and it is to ensure that any contaminants are washed away towards the wrist or arm rather then trickling downwards towards the fingertips which are used more in the precise work.

One of the best ways to help to reduce the contamination of the outside environment is with roller shutter doors or PVC strip curtains on the entrances to the lab. These high speed doors can be of great help not just because they limit the amount of contaminants that can get into the lab, but also because they are great at insulation and can help you to create the perfect working conditions that are necessary. When it is easier to manage temperature controls, experiments can be performed at very precise conditions and proper insulation will mean that on average the results should come out more standardised.

Another important way to limit contamination in the lab is simply by limiting access to those who are absolutely essential to the project that is being worked on. Even if superiors or VIPs would like access to the materials, it is important to make sure that the fewest number of people possible have to deal with the materials in order to reduce the chances of accidental contamination.

Common sense is the best approach

Every step that you take towards decontamination is just the application of very simple principals and methods that ensure that you are doing everything you can to create a clean environment. With careful planning and well thought out scientific method, there is no reason that your lab should suffer from major cross-contamination or temperamental environmental conditions on a regular basis.

Imperial vs. Metric

As you may have noticed, the UK uses a combination of both imperial and metric forms of measurement, unlike any other country in Europe. For example, buying petrol you will see the volume measured in litres, but go to the pub and beer is served in pints; similarly weights of ingredients are usually in grams, but babies are always pounds and ounces. Although we, as a country, have taken on some of the metric system it has not yet garnered enough support for the older imperial system to be completely taken away.

Steve Thoburn was known as a "Metric Martyr" for refusing to sell his produce in metric.

There are a few reasons behind this, the major one being that it is “traditional” to use such measurements, and also the fact that so many people have either lived with, or are being brought up with, the imperial system alongside the metric. I began my school life in 1990, and remember being taught with the metric system, but this has not stopped me preferring to use imperial whenever I can.

In fact, the thought of referring to someone as being 1.8m tall instead of 6 foot seems a bit strange and during my time working in a DIY store I had to get quite adept at being able to convert between the two, as all of the packaging was in metres and centimetres. This was absolutely of no use to most customers, as they still worked in feet and inches. A famous example of such a problem was highlighted in 2011, when Asda discovered that 70% of its customers were confused by metric measurements and preferred the imperial way. As a result of this, the company reverted to selling strawberries by the pound for the first time in over a decade!

Britain joined the European Common Market in 1973, and a requirement of doing so was to aim to change to the standardised measurements along with the rest of Europe, but the deadline was pushed back further and further every time. In 1995 it became mandatory for all European countries to use the metric system, but the UK was allowed special dispensation to continue using imperial until 2009, when only milk, beer and cider would be allowed to be measured in pints, and distances in miles. However, in 2007, the European Commission admitted that convincing Britain to get rid of its old system was a lost cause, and this is why we are allowed to carry on using both systems.

Asda went back to selling strawberries by the pound.

The whole debate has come back into the spotlight recently due to the Olympic Games being held in Britain, with Lord Howe, a former chancellor, foreign secretary and consumer affairs minister, stating that British weights and measures we “in a mess”. He stated that with many foreign visitors this year, the separate systems would cause a lot of confusion, and added, on the subject of two systems, that “It increases cost, confuses shoppers, leads to serious misunderstandings, causes accidents, confuses our children’s education and, quite bluntly, puts us all to shame.”

Still, no matter what is said regarding the apparently obsolete imperial system I feel as though we will be using it for many more years to come. I, for one, will continue to refer to people as being 6 foot and babies weighing 8 pounds, and I think many more people will do too.

Horizon 2020 and Elsevier

A quick update on the situation regarding research papers and the boycott of Elsevier – the Horizon 2020 programme, Europe’s “Framework Programme for Research and Innovation”, has recently confirmed that it is looking to invest £64 billion into funding research, where open access publishing “will be the norm”.

As this huge European investment comes into play, other institutions may follow suit and decide that they no longer need to rely on publishers to get their work out there. This is sure to please David Willetts, the universities and science minister, who recently expressed concern that if the UK were the only country to promote open access research then we could lose out financially.

One final thing to consider is that the Horizon 2020 pilot scheme used the “green” and “gold” models as outlined in my previous post. With Elsevier trying to explain its position and making concessions to apparently appease the dissidents while more and more of their customers decide to go elsewhere, it looks as though open access research is becoming a reality, and one that the publishers will have to come to terms with.

Research Journals for Free

Recently, the UK government has announced that it will be seriously looking into how to make academic research available online for free to all those who want it. In an early blog I mentioned about a few ways to go about finding scientific journals, and how only some of them were free, and even then it may only be the abstract available without payment. With this change in the pipeline it could mean an opportunity for the scientific community to stride forward with unhindered access to many hundreds, if not thousands, of research papers. This initiative has been dubbed the “Academic Spring” and aims to make the information currently kept behind paywalls to become more freely available to those who are interested in it.

There have been grumblings concerning the cost of journals for some time now, but it wasn’t until January this year that everything came to a head with the blog of a prominent Mathematician, Tim Gowers. He was frustrated at the fact that research that was largely publically funded was being held behind the paywalls of large publishing companies such as Elsevier, and so vowed to cease submitting and reviewing papers for them. This post evidently hit a nerve, and there have been over 400 comments in the past couple of months alone, discussing the situation and what can be done. Since this post was made, many other prominent researchers and institutions have followed suit, and so it seems that something is finally being done to make the flow of information a little more fair.

Could this be replaced by free, online papers?

It’s not all good news, unfortunately, as the process at the moment is one whereby the research papers are published in peer reviewed journals, which firms charge access to. The peer review is a very necessary step for such scientific papers, as it ensures that the results and conclusions gleaned from the base research are scrutinised to make sure the findings are actually useful and correct. Without such review, the papers could potentially lose some reputability, but this has been considered and a couple of solutions brought forward already. One such solution is the “gold model” which has the funders of the research cover the cost of the peer reviews, while the “green model” allows the paper some closed time before it is released into the ether, during which it can attempt to raise the necessary money required.

The founder of the well known information sharing site, Wikipedia, has also joined the discussion, and has been asked by the government to help provide his insights into the situation. Jimmy Wales, if you weren’t aware, has overseen the exponential growth of Wikipedia until it is seen now as perhaps the largest and most prolific base of free information on the internet, and so his appointment into the taskforce should not be seen as that great a surprise.

Journal costs rise every year, prompting calls for change.

Even the prestigious Harvard University has released a memo to its 2 100 teaching and research staff that outlines the growing problem faced by all academic insitutions across the planet, stating that the university faces an “untenable situation” with journal costs rising to nearly $4 million per year. When such a successful and long standing university is showing signs of being unable to cope, it is easy to see why many others are in the same, dire, situation. Not surprising when some journals cost around £15 000 per year!

Not everyone is happy with the idea, however, and fear that without the publishers around to regulate how the information is made available, we will lose out on the strong, reliable infrastructure that has been built up over the many years of standard, peer reviewed journals. At the moment, the government science minister has commissioned a report that will enable both sides to look objectively at the cost, the benefits and also the downfalls of such a move; and so it will only be a matter of time before we truly know which route will be taken.

Is Lab Insurance Necessary?

One of the most important things when dealing with potentially dangerous chemical or
biological agents in a lab is proper insurance to cover against the unthinkable happening
to one of your employees.

However, it is also important to make sure that you aid your employees in receiving the best possible advice in their own personal insurance policies. Putting your people in touch with their own independent financial advisor will mean that they will know about all the products available to them and exactly what cover they offer.

There are many dangers in a lab - insurance gives peace of mind.

Independent financial advisors are people who are regulated by the FSA to give you the best advice possible on what to do with your money. Along with giving you help
on the best insurance package for you, they are able to provide impartial advice that will allow you to choose the best policy to cover your needs, as well as those of your laboratory and employees.

As well as the obvious costs that are covered by insurance, there are the lesser known costs that may not be apparent. If there were an accident in a laboratory, then there would be investigations carried out by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) and the UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) to ensure that all required criteria are followed. Certain policies even cover the costs of these proceedings, and so it is well worth checking out just what is covered and what isn’t!

How Lab Management Can Help You

If you want a successful lab, you’ll need a good lab manager. When it comes to organising the members of the team, delegating tasks to the relevant specialists and ensuring the day to day workings of the laboratory run smoothly, a confident and capable leader is essential.

Delegation is key to success.

There are many firms who will take this job on for you, and offer a thorough and reliable service that will ensure the lab in their charge is in the best of hands. The areas that are most important to these management companies include evaluation, training, implementation and accreditation; meaning that the important work carried out by the members of the laboratory team can go on unhindered. Indeed, the work being undertaken should be boosted by successfully implemented management strategies.

When you consider that a great deal of time is wasted due to poorly thought out processes, as well as putting the wrong person in the wrong role; these management companies start to seem a lot more attractive. There may not be enough time or manpower to come up with fresh new ideas, let alone the ability to implement them throughout the entire laboratory, and so it is down to emergent companies to take the lead and provide the service.

It’s not just management companies that are in demand, but also individuals who are possessed of the right drive and determination. The ideal candidate would be someone who is not only strong on the practical side of running a laboratory, but is also management minded enough to see the big picture and be able to delegate to ensure everyone is being used to the best of their abilities.