Articles Archive for January 2012

In these days of global economic worries, civil unrest and uncertainty in many healthcare sectors, scientists and other people associated with the life sciences industries do not often have to be reminded to remain positive.  They also do not often question why they’ve chosen their profession nor do they look solely for external incentives to keep them going.
Recently, a viral video hit the internet that perfectly illustrates why many of us do what we do.
In the video, 29-year-old Sarah Churman is shown reacting to the sound of her own voice. …

I was delighted to come across a recent article on how a Spraytec was used to demonstrate the performance of a new dry powder inhaled drug delivery system.
Titled; ‘A novel platform for DP inhalation drugs’, the article was published in the November 2011 Issue of Manufacturing Chemist, and is written by the biotechnology company Pulmatrix.  It describes how a novel dry powder delivery platform can overcome the limitations faced by other dry powder technologies in inhalation.
According to this article, “Current technologies for the inhaled delivery of dry powder (DP) have …

Yield stress is a commercially useful rheological phenomenon evident in many every day products. Toothpaste and tomato ketchup are excellent examples of materials that exhibit a yield stress and good demonstrators of what it means in practical terms. Both these substances are stationary and solid-like at rest. However, apply a stress that exceeds a critical value – typically by giving the packaging a squeeze or the bottle a sound tap – and out they flow. There’s a lovely rhyme from the American humourist Ogden Nash (1902-1971) that alludes to the …

Since the first pictures of bison, horses, and deer appeared on paleolithic cave walls nearly 40,000 years ago, paint has played a vital role in the decoration and protection of buildings and monuments around the world.
Polymer additives enhance paints
The inclusion of specially designed polymers can endow a product with novel features. Polymers can be formed via a radical polymerization reaction where free radicals are created on pre-polymer monomers, using separate initiator molecules. A polymer chain builds through the rapid addition of monomers at these free radical sites, termination bringing such …

One of my most cherished memories from my export sales tenure with Malvern was traveling with one of my favorite distributors, Glen Blackstock. Glen used to head up our representatives in South Africa, Micron Scientific. I’ve always thought it funny that a unit of measurement was named after Mike and Ron.  It could have easily been the ‘ronmike’ except that alphabetical order took over!
When business becomes pleasure
I quickly became good friends with ‘ol’ carrot top’ as he was affectionately known (by me) and we would save company hotel and other …

Suspensions and dispersions are encountered in a wide range of applications, from liquid abrasive cleaners, personal care products, ceramic slurries and medicines to paints and inks. In most cases it is necessary to keep the suspension stable for the product lifetime although, in others, destabilizing the suspension may be a requirement. An example of the latter would be for water treatment or de-aeration.
With this widespread, and ever broadening use of dispersions, the options for ‘product engineering’ to optimize stability is a question that Malvern is often asked due to the …

Why do we produce manuals?
I was asked this recently, and it was prompted by our claim that the Zetasizer Nano is easy to use, so surely a manual isn’t required?
We believe the Zetasizer is easy to use because our customers tell us it is. Comments such as these are typical:
“I can give users unaided access in a short period of time knowing that the learning curve is short. They only come to us when they need help. The Zetasizer Nano is so easy to use that, following a brief introduction, …

Choirs and glee clubs seem to be the in thing these days. I think its great people can get together socialize and express themselves through their music and there is room for everyone regardless of talent. Do you like to sing? Well maybe it’s not for everyone. But just consider for a moment where you would be without your voice…
Some people rely on their voice for their livelihood. And not only singers, this includes school teachers, ministers, preachers, lawyers and a whole raft of other professionals.
The Department of Communication Sciences …

On first blush, the answer to the above question would seem to be very little.  However, upon delving into it further, there is something interesting that comes into play.  To decode the question, we’ll start with Scrabble.
The power of the ‘S’
Playing Scrabble, one might come to wonder how the letter distribution was created.  It surely couldn’t be random, but what was the method to the final distribution?  The hypothesis one is most likely to arrive at is the letter distribution must match that of normal language usage.  In researching the …

There’s always a feeling of real excitement around as we enter a new year, whatever the personal and professional challenges we might be expecting it to bring. Drive, optimism and enthusiasm, a talent for innovation and the skills to apply new technology, not to mention a sense of humour, are all helpful in what for many are testing economic times. Certainly the teams at Malvern have these qualities in abundance and everyone here will be focused on delivering the products and services that help our customers achieve and maintain competitive …