Page 60 - Blog
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November 21, 2011
The National Institutes of Health, the primary medical research agency in the United States, is sponsoring a new competition for undergraduate students to design and develop innovative solutions to unmet health and clinical problems. This program, called The Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) challenge, is being organized by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) section of the NIH. At stake are $10,000 prizes in three categories – diagnostic devices, therapeutic devices, and technology to aid underserved populations and individuals with disabilities. Competitors must be full time undergraduate students and permanent residents of the US in order to qualify. Dr. Zeynep Erim, the architect of the challenge, said that the NIBIB’s objective for the participants is “to force the boundaries of their design skills and knowledge to develop innovative biomedical technology for health care.” Hopefully the spirit of this competition inspires them to
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November 17, 2011
You can now create and order a customized sample pack for any of our membrane disc filter materials through the Sterlitech website! We’ve always been happy to provide these sample packs for our customers to experiment with and now it’s easier than ever to acquire the filters you want. Get started by visiting our Membrane Filter Sample Packs page and choosing the material you wish to sample. From the material page build your sample pack by selecting the pore size/diameter combinations you want to try from the drop down menus. Each sample pack contains five pore size/diameter combinations of two filters each, for a total of ten filters per sample pack. If you want to sample five different pore sizes and diameters, you can. If you want all ten filters to be identical, you can do that too. The custom sample packs operate on a flat pricing structure, so there’s no added cost for mixing different options. If you still can’t find the sample option you need, contact one of our reps and we’ll help
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November 15, 2011A new report from Lux Research indicates that the worldwide market for membranes is expected to nearly double by 2020, from $1.5 billion to $2.8 billion (USD). One of the main reasons for this growth is advancements in membrane technology which will increase their utility. Improvements in fouling resistance and chemical tolerance open the door for membranes to be used in applications that they couldn’t perform before, such as industrial water treatment. Another reason for optimism in the membrane industry is the continued market strength in the industries that purchase membranes. The food & beverage, pharmaceutical, desalination, environmental, and biotechnology sectors all commonly use membranes in their processes and are all expected to continue growing in the United States and around the world.
What do you think? Do you see yourself using membranes more often 10 years from now? Also visit Filtration + Separation for more information on this report.
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November 07, 2011
This month’s Laboratory Equipment magazine features a reader survey on liquid handling devices that shows just how common these items are in the lab. In fact, 91% of the respondents indicated that they are using a liquid handling system, and about 75% are using their equipment at least several times per week. The most commonly used devices are pipets (75%) and pipet tips (70%), followed closely by syringes (68%) and then filters (67%). Less popular items include flow controllers (16%) and liquid level meters (10%). Overall, 80% of respondents said that they are completely or mostly satisfied with their equipment. Hopefully that group includes our customers… The uses for liquid handling devices are spread out across a range of applications without any dominant focus. The most frequent applications are basic research (36%) and sample preparation (34%). Less common answers include wastewater (16%), pharmaceutical (16%), and water analysis (20%).
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November 03, 2011Are you buying more lab equipment than in the past? You’re probably not alone according to the latest Forecast & Analysis report from Frost & Sullivan. Worldwide revenue for all laboratory products reached $36.2 billion in 2010, up 5.4% over last year. That number figures to keep climbing over the next few years as biopharmaceutical products become more prevalent and the Asian markets continue expanding. The United States continues to be the biggest spenders for laboratory products at $15.7 billion, followed closely by the European Union at $14.8 billion. However, for the best market potential we may look to India and China, where growth rates are in the double digits (the U.S. and Europe are only growing around 2-3%). Sadly, the report isn’t all good news. Government laboratories are seeing their budgets frozen or cut due to the weakened economy. As governments in the US and abroad continue to tighten their wallets, these laboratories, which include government-funded universities, are
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November 02, 2011This morning we officially launched a new website specifically for Glass Fiber Filters and accessories. Here you will find full lines of glass fiber products from Sterlitech, Advantec MFS, and Munktell, as well as brand comparison tables, FAQs, and product specs to help your decision-making process. We will still continue to offer glass fiber filters on the main Sterlitech site, but since there are so many different items that fall into the glass fiber category we wanted to create a specific area to showcase them that would be easier to navigate for people looking exclusively for these items. Building the new site has also allowed us to include specialty products that you won’t find on the Sterlitech website, like grades of filter paper for breweries, wineries, seed testing, soil analysis, and sugar laboratories. Because Glass Fiber Store is part of the Sterlitech network you can use your existing Sterlitech account credentials to place orders on both sites. We’re also bringing the same
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October 24, 2011The Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that they are planning to develop standards for wastewater discharges produced by natural gas extraction from underground coalbed and shale formations (a process commonly referred to as “Fracking”). This method of extraction involves fracturing rock formations by injecting them with a pressurized fluid consisting mostly of water, a little bit of sand, and some chemical additives as well. The debate over the possible environmental consequences of fracking is a hot button issue right now, and since its popularity has grown to the point where it now accounts for about 15% of all natural gas production in the US, it is understandable that the EPA wants to look into setting some uniform regulations. Any potential EPA standards in this area can be broken down into two areas: shale gas standards and coalbed methane standards. In shale gas extraction, wastewater is prohibited from being discharged into waterways. Instead, it is either recycled
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October 20, 2011
The simple act of machine washing our clothes may be causing serious environmental damage, according to a new study from University College Dublin. A research team led by Dr. Mark Browne has traced a path from washing machine wastewater to abnormally high concentrations of microplastic debris found all over the world. The problem arises because the synthetic fibers that many of today’s clothes are made of, polyester and acrylic, get rinsed by the machine. While we may not notice it, one cycle can strip as much 1,900 fibers off each piece of synthetic clothing! These dangerous fibers eventually make their way to the ocean and wash up on our beaches. Research also shows that the pollutants are eaten by mussels and locusts, which can then work their way up the food chain to humans. As a part of this study Dr. Browne’s team investigated 18 sites on six continents and through forensic analysis was able to match the proportions of polyester and acrylic fiber present in these sites with their
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October 14, 2011
We got some local recognition this week when Puget Sound Business Journal named Sterlitech Corporation as one of the 100 fastest-growing private companies in the state of Washington! This announcement comes after being honored last month by Inc. Magazine as one of their 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the country. You can tell by the boyish smile on Mark’s face that we’re quite giddy about these achievements. Of course none of this is possible without our awesome customers, so thanks to all of you for your support over the years! If you happen to subscribe to the Business Journal, the entire list will be published today in a special issue.
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October 07, 2011
Here's a short demonstration with Kristina explaining how to cut a Sepa CF Membrane Filter using a steel ruled die:
Is there a product or process video demonstration that you'd like to see? Let us know in the comments!
