For years, miniaturization has been a hot topic at Pittcon, the laboratory community's largest annual conference. Researchers have sought to miniaturize as many laboratory instruments as possible, essentially creating a "lab in your pocket." Admittedly, some of these ideas work better than others, but they are all still fascinating. Raman spectroscopy is one of those technologies that lends itself to being both mini and portable.
In a workshop sponsored by Bruer Optics on Tuesday, March 3 at 1:00 p.m., learn how Raman microscopy has become truly user-friendly. If you are going to Pittcon, you may want to reserve your workshop spot now.
Elsewhere, Pittcon has brought back their popular "Lab Gauntlet" series that sees conferees test their lab skills on a series of short, fun, 1-min challenging lab-based activities. Prizes are awarded daily for the best scores—and did we mention the activies are fun?
Bruker is sponsoring a Healthy Breakfast Drink Challenges in which participants will guess and measure the nutritional content of four popular breakfast drinks: black tea, cocoa, coffee or an energy mix. With Verder Scientific, participants have to attach the end seals on an Inconel Tube within 60 seconds! Likewise, at CEM's station, participants have to extract a food sample in one minute based on a colorimetric analysis. And in case you stop by the Gauntlet at lunch or dinner time, LECO is giving participants the chance to use chromatographs to identify which provided jelly beans are safe to eat!
Lastly, if you will be at Pittcon, please do not hesitate to stop by the Laboratory Equipment, powered by Labcompare booth— #1723. We'd love to say hi!