MicroscopesBlog: Expert's reviews, news, notes on Microscopes, Centrifuges, Lab Coats, Pipettes, Lab Safety, & more Lab Products!

A big part of working in most research labs these days has to do with pipetting. Whether one has to transfer acids, bases, DNA, or aqueous solutions, using different types of pipettes is a daily occurence in the lab. microscopes.com has a plethora of different pipetting devices to help your everyday needs. We carry serological pipets, transfer pipets, volumetric pipets, pipettors, burets, syringes, and many more liquid transfer devices. We are constantly adding new brands such as Axygen, BD, Barnstead, Heathrow, Kimble/Kontes, Labcon, Nalge Nunc, Sorensen, and Wheaton to our website. When transferring liquids, always use proper lab technique in order to conserve product. If transferring several different liquids, please be aware that small mistakes in volume can add up to big mistakes overall and affect your data and the results of your studies. Don't hesitate to contact the laboratory technical specialists on-site for any help with application questions.

Whether one is using a spectrophotometer for sample analysis in the visible range or in the ultraviolet range, it is important to know what you plan to do with your reader before purchasing one. Microscopes.com has many spectrophotometers for sale by Thermo, Beckman, and Unico. The ones we currently carry are intended for UV and visible work. The first thing that we would need to know is what wavelength is needed to be read. Anything below about 280-300nm is considered in the UV light range. Most visible specs usually read in the 400-1100 nanometer range, however. It is also important to know how many samples you intend to read in one session. Many current spectrophotometers currently have multi-sample platforms which allows you to read one 'blank' and several samples in a row, without removing your cuvettes from the photometer. Speaking of which, it's extremely important to know what type of cuvette you need for your application. Readings below 250nm require a quartz cuvette. Reading in the upper UV range, however, (260-340nm) can use special plastic cuvettes with UV windows. Readings in the visible range can use disposable cuvettes that are usually very inexpensive to buy.

With the New Year upon us, try to take a moment or two today to coax a few secrets from snowflakes that fell on Monday. A cheap magnifying glass gets you part of the way. A microscope gets you even closer to pulling back the curtain on delicate, complex formations that are as fleeting as they are stunning. Getting a sense of their beauty sometimes requires a closer look and an understanding of what you're seeing. The easiest to spot with the naked eye is the "stellar dendrite," whose six symmetrical arms can feature elaborate branches and designs worthy of holiday stationery. But not every snowflake is a perfectly formed, asterisk-shaped wonder. Some are needlelike, and others are columns or plates. Still others are globular, sandlike blobs or flecked with bits of pollution. All of them have endured a harrowing journey through the atmosphere that makes them unique. Each flake is a collection of crystals, which start out as a tiny droplet of water in a cloud high in the Earth's atmosphere. When it freezes, the particle of ice grows into a six-sided plate because of the way hydrogen and oxygen molecules bond. As it grows, branches spring from the corners. The more water vapor condenses on the crystal, the more those arms grow. Its earliest moments, though, are pretty rough. Snowflakes are bashed and battered as they tumble toward the ground, changing shapes rapidly as they pass through different temperatures and humidity. So what are that chances that any two are exactly alike? Pretty darned small. Even though some may look similar, snowflakes hide a staggering array of possible arrangements - a tiny jagged branch here, a bulbed tip there and on and on. It's unlikely that any two complex snowflakes in the planet's history have ever been exactly the same. That's part of the magic of pausing to watch them fall and taking a closer look. With over 6 billion people on the planet, surely a few of us can be spared to ponder the subtle mysteries of snowflakes.