SETTING UP YOUR LABORATORY

It will seem as if everything happens and needs to happen all at once. You will need to energetically set up your laboratory. Since you may not have recruited students into your lab, or a postdoctoral fellow or a technician you have hired may not have arrived or been trained, you will need to be hands-on. You may have to deal... 

Setting up a laboratory to run crystallization experiments will not require a huge investment of resources for the initial trials. This will allow to carry out the routine crystallization trials on a protein. If you are planning this to become a major portion of your research program, then a more significant investment will become necessary. The basic components required for crystallization are ... 

To perform most of the experiments in the organic chemistry laboratory, you must first assemble the appropriate apparatus. In the sections that follow, you will be introduced to the various techniques. All experiments require certain items of glassware, various heating or cooling devices, and a means to mix the contents of a reaction vessel. The assembly of the various pieces of glassware and equipment according to the diagrams will seem awkward at first, but with practice you will soon be able to set up your own apparatus with ease. 

Referring to Figure A, assemble the laboratory equipment. Have your teacher check that the apparatus is set up correctly before switching on the power. 

You are employed in an analytical laboratory in a group measuring the concentration of residues of pesticides. Your company is developing tests for a new pesticide to determine the amount that is left in food after harvesting. You are asked to set up a quality management system, because your laboratory s management has decided that the quality of your group s analytical work should be assessed by an appropriate independent authority. 

G 85178 Construction Operation of Clandestine Drug Laboratories, Second Edition, by Jack B. Nimble. This revised and expanded edition describes, in step-by-step, illustrated detail, how to set up and run a clandestine drug lab — without getting caught Jack B. Nimble reveals how to select a location, discusses safety precautions — including how and when to shut down — and gives advice for covering your tracks. Sold for informational purposes only. 1994, 5 A x 8 A, 132 pp, illustrated, soft cover. 14.95. 

You can find more information about EURACHEM on the internet via Eurachem -A Focus for Analytical Chemistry in Europe (http //www.eurachem.org). In particular the site Guides and Documents contains a number of different guides, which might help you to set up a quality system in your laboratory. 

If you aren t set up to wash cloth diapers at home, conventional disposable diapers aren t a good option. One widely quoted study (published in Archives of Environmental Health and conducted by Anderson Laboratories back in 1999) found mice exposed to VOC chemicals emitted by conventional disposables had asthmalike reactions. They also contain chlorine and have high-tech chemical gel cores that activate when your baby pees to lock in moisture. The Children s Health Environmental Coalition says this absorbent material—sodium polyacrylate— could cause respiratory and skin irritations in occupational settings (where exposure is higher than with diaper use). We wonder how safe can that much chemical activity that close to a baby s genitals be twenty-four hours a day ... 

Reflux is one of the most common techniques you will encounter in your chemistry laboratory classes. Since many reactions between covalent compounds are slow processes rather than instantaneous reactions, prolonged heating forces the equilibrium to give an acceptable amount of product. In the reflux process, the reactants are dissolved or suspended in a suitable solvent, the solvent is boiled and then condensed so that it returns to the reaction flask. Once set up, a reaction carried out under reflux can be run for minutes, hours or even days to promote the required reaction. The basic components for a reflux apparatus are ... 

Plan your work - a considerable amount of time in the laboratory will be spent constructing models, setting up calculations and evaluating results. It is therefore important to maximize your time on the computer by planning in advance. 

I worked witJi him for several years on his projects until I got the idea of solid phase synthesis. I told him the idea. It was kind of funny we were riding up the elevator and he got off without a word. Next day he came in to see me and said, that may be a good idea, why don t you work on it That made all the difference. He could have said, no, that s not what I want to do, I don t want you to work on it. The Rockefeller Institute, later Rockefeller University, was set up more like the European system. You had a lab head, and people worked under him. So when I was in his lab, I worked on what he was doing. He directed it aU. Then, after a while, he d let you do a litde bit on your own. That was standard, there wasn t anything unusual about it. It s changing a lot now. Young people who come in now are appointed as Assistant Professor and independent Head of Laboratory. 

A set of refractive index liquids can be purchased from R. P. Cargille Laboratories. You could make up your own set of liquids and calibrate them on a reffactometer, but if you do a great amount of microscopy 1 highly recommend buying a set of calibrated liquids. 

Your instructor will have set up the balance, plugged in the power cord, set the integration time switch to the NORMAL position, and depressed the switch on the back of the balance to ON at the beginning of the laboratory. Please leave this switch ON throughout the period because it is better for the electronic components not to switch the balance OFF and ON any more than necessary. Moreover, the position of the integration time switch must not be changed for any reason unless the balance is first... 

Setting Up Since there is considerable variation in the operating procedures of different commercial gas chromatographs, consult your instructor for specific directions to use the instrument in your laboratory. Look up the densities of the compound... 

Setting Up Have at your disposal 0.5 M stock solutions of anisole, diphenyl ether, and acetanilide in 15 M(90%) aqueous acetic acid and a 0.02 Msolution of bromine in 15 M acetic acid. Calibrate the spectrophotometer to zero absorbance at 400 nm using a solution of the arene substrate in acetic acid. Prepare this solution by using a 2-mL pipet to combine 2 mL of 15 M acetic acid and 2 mL of the stock solution of the substrate arene in a clean and dry cuvette. Stir the solution to ensure homogeneity and place the cuvette in the spectrophotometer. Adjust the absorbance reading of the spectrometer to zero. Record the laboratory temperature. 

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