When you think about the difference between lab instruments now and lab instruments fifty years ago, the contrast is amazing. Today's laboratory technology has advanced further than anyone dared to dream in the 1950s. The instrument is getting more sophisticated every year and is rapidly shrinking at the same time. Naturally, this is a great thing for laboratory personnel - in terms of space alone, changes to instruments used in laboratories have completely changed the way workflows are planned. Applications that used to require a very large space or even a number of fully separate facilities can now all be done in one relatively small bench space.
Footprints have always been the watchword for lab instruments, now they are. It strikes the mind to think of what used to be known as 'portable'; the large, large (and heavy) instruments needed by two or three people to carry now have been replaced by modern versions of these instruments that really fit the palms of one's hands. This is a pattern that has been seen in each instrument category because it has technology in general. Transistors produce microchips, which produce microprocessors and laboratory technology have been able to simultaneously become stronger and less bulky with each generation of design.
Now there are lab instruments that use modern, high-powered dual or even quad processors that do the work of hundreds of thousands of transistors while taking a fraction of the generation of older instruments. There are examples of this evolution in the design and miniaturization around us in the laboratory. Think of chromatographic instruments now compared to twenty years ago - this is a prime example of an instrument that once demanded a large amount of space in a laboratory; but now available in sizes that can fit into your pocket while providing better performance. Almost everything has changed - even lab instruments that have not been greatly nissui idonesia reduced in size (such as laboratory scales, for example) have made an extraordinary leap in terms of accuracy and ease of use through the same technological advances that have allowed others to shrink.
The integration of computer systems into laboratories has led to some of these miniaturizations - and of course, computers themselves have been and continue to be smaller and more powerful each year. Modern cellphones have more computing power than the once powerful UNIAC and ENIAC systems. This is something to think about the next time the general disruption of life in the laboratory happens to you - help is on its way, no doubt.
Major breakthroughs in science and medicine often depend on previous generations of technological innovation in laboratory instruments. While researchers are working to create the next giant leap for mankind in the laboratory, there are others working hard to develop and design solutions to improve workflows in the laboratory and create conditions where innovation can grow and develop. This is an exciting time to be in the lab; and when you think about it, it always happens.
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