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Download PDF In Murfreesboro, Arkansas you can visit Crater Diamonds State Park and with a little digging, you’ll walk out with a diamond1. One visitor walked out with an 8.52-carat gem. In Franklin, New Jersey and nearby Sterling Hill, you can find 350 different mineral species, two dozen of which haven’t been found anywhere else2. The Jade Cove Trail in…

When you hear the word “metallurgy,” what comes to mind? For this author, the first thought was an allergy to metals. Boy, was I wrong! Metallurgy is a branch of science and technology concerned with the properties of metals and their production and purification. If that sounds fascinating yet a bit removed from your daily life, you would be mistaken.…

Download PDF Lasagna noodles are characterized by a long, rectangular shape with rippled edges. If those edges aren’t rippled properly (e.g., spacing, height, etc.) the correct weight of the product won’t fit into the box designed for it and the customer won’t get the amount of product they paid for. That’s just one small detail of product packaging, which makes…

Testing in the food and beverage industry has been primarily centered on detecting microbial and chemical contaminants. These types of tests are vital to the general consumer, as these contaminants can cause illness outbreaks if not detected promptly. However, in the last two decades, food safety and testing labs find themselves not only testing for contaminants but also for food…

The process of farming has changed little in thousands of years. A farmer works the fields in preparation for planting, plants the seeds, tends to the plants as they begin to grow, harvests the crop, and starts the cycle over and over again. However, as the Earth’s population continues to rise, the food production demand will also escalate. The UN…

Download PDF If you have cereal in the morning, the nutritional labeling you’re bound to see on the side of the box is due to the efforts of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is just one example of inter-agency cooperation. The USDA is made up of 29 agencies and offices with…

Download PDF In an earlier article, “LIMS In Manufacturing,” we looked at the role laboratory information management systems (LIMS) played in manufacturing/production operations, as well as their relationship to other control/database systems. This article is going to shift the focus to the source of those manufactured/production operations: research and development. Before we get into informatics, let’s look at the working…

With all that’s going on in the world and its economies today, there’s no better time for manufacturers to turn to robotics solutions. From labor shortages and inflated material costs to supply chain backups and a potential recession, manufacturers are faced with many challenges. Those manufacturers who must design, produce, and test their products in controlled laboratory environments are no…

Download PDF Can a laboratory operate successfully without the use of laboratory informatics? To some, the answer is always “yes, informatics makes it easier, but it isn’t a requirement”, and that is true in a technical sense, but in reality, the practical answer is “not anymore”. The use of informatics in the environmental industry is an example we’ll be looking…

No matter where you stand on the impact of global warming, you can’t discount the shift in thoughts and actions to protecting the environment, addressing climate change, and pursuing sustainability. President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act on August 16, 2022, which allocates more than $300B to be invested in energy and climate reform. Not only are consumers giving…