R&D Editors

The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a key safety document for the MARVEL microreactor at Idaho National Laboratory. The move clears the project to move ahead with its first controlled nuclear chain reaction. MARVEL is still fission nuclear in the classic sense: it uses uranium fuel [(uranium-zirconium hydride enriched with 19.75% (HALEU)], a controlled…

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments used Pittcon 2026 to showcase the TOC-1000e S, an on-line total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer built for ultrapure water (UPW) monitoring in semiconductor fabrication. In this market segment, even sub-microgram contamination can cascade directly into wafer defects and yield loss, according to Haihan Chen, Shimadzu’s product manager for elemental spectroscopy, who presented…

LabWare is at Pittcon 2026 teased the next phase of its SaaS strategy, a year after launching LabWare ASSURE in April 2025 as its food safety and quality LIMS offering. The company’s message in San Antonio: enterprise-grade LIMS doesn’t have to mean 18-month implementations. ASSURE is a fully hosted, pre-configured SaaS LIMS targeting food safety,…

Systec GmbH & Co. KG introduced the next generation of its compact and mid-sized laboratory autoclaves at Pittcon 2026, with the new DX-Series (horizontal benchtop) and VX-Series (vertical floor-standing) replacing the company’s previous lines. Both series are built on the architecture of Systec’s larger HX-Series and feature a fully redeveloped touchscreen control system, new process…

Waters TA Instruments unveiled the ARES-G3 Rheometer at Pittcon 2026 in San Antonio, the next generation of its flagship rheometer platform. The ARES-G3 captures up to 25,000 data points per second, 10x the rate of the predecessor ARES-G2, and reportedly cuts standard testing times by up to 80% through fully integrated Fast Frequency Chirps, which…

Thermo Fisher Scientific has introduced the Thermo Scientific DXR3 SmartRaman+ Raman Spectrometer, positioning it as an at-line quality control (QC) tool for pharmaceutical and industrial manufacturing environments. Thermo Fisher Scientific says the system is built to support non-destructive Raman measurements directly through commonly used product containers and finished packaging, aiming to reduce the need for…

Thermo Fisher Scientific has introduced two chromogenic culture media products designed to help clinical laboratories more quickly detect and differentiate clinically significant Candida species, including the multidrug-resistant pathogen Candida auris. The newly launched Thermo Scientific Brilliance Candida 2 Agar and Thermo Scientific Spectra Candida Agar allow laboratories to visually distinguish among several Candida species through…

Laboratories chasing defensible PFAS data for U.S. drinking water compliance are dealing with a wave of challenges that makes the seemingly simple goal elusive. In addition to growing PFAS testing demand, other challenges include blank contamination, sloppy field handling, method deviations and reporting errors. The EPA’s PFAS drinking water rule is live, requiring approved methods…

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments has introduced the Nexera ion chromatograph (IC), a compact, fully automated system designed to streamline routine and regulated water quality testing. Engineered for consistency and ease of use, the system aims to reduce manual effort while delivering reliable analytical performance for operators of all experience levels. The Nexera IC has a compact…

Cenevo, the Battery Ventures–backed lab software company formed last July from the merger of Titian Software and Labguru, announced two AI agents at SLAS 2026 aimed at reducing manual overhead in lab operations. The first, an AI Protocol Conversion agent, transforms paper-based or static document protocols into structured, reusable formats within Labguru’s ELN/LIMS platform. It…

The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) has named Pulp Fixin its official Sustainability Sponsor for SLAS Europe 2026 Conference and Exhibition, and a key promoter of sustainability at SLAS2026 in Boston. This global partnership focused on advancing sustainable materials and practices across life science laboratories. As a cornerstone of this collaboration, Chad Jenkins,…

Atinary this week announced the launch of its new AI-powered laboratory in Boston, MA. The new lab will enable faster, more reliable discovery across chemistry, materials and pharmaceutical R&D. By moving beyond software into the physical execution of science, the facility is designed to catalyze faster, more reliable breakthroughs in chemistry, materials science and pharmaceuticals.…

As life science laboratories face escalating pressure to accelerate drug discovery while maintaining rigorous data integrity, the “manual bottleneck”—the human intervention required between high-tech instruments—remains a primary hurdle. To address this, Molecular Devices, a Danaher Corporation company, has announced a strategic collaboration with London-based Automata to create a truly interconnected research ecosystem. Molecular Devices’ imaging…

After teasing it late last year, QIAGEN displayed the QIAsprint Connect at SLAS 2026 in Boston, marking the company’s entry into high-throughput benchtop sample-prep automation for research labs. The system processes up to 192 samples per run with minimal manual intervention and fits a compact benchtop footprint. The platform supports both QIAGEN-tested and fully customizable…

London-based Automata, a SLAS exhibitor, has closed a $45 million Series C round led by Dimension, with participation from Danaher Ventures and a strategic investment partnership with Danaher Corporation. The funding will accelerate deployment of the company’s LINQ lab automation platform, which combines modular robotics with orchestration software designed to make wet labs programmable and…

Marktech Optoelectronics has expanded its silicon photodiode portfolio with new large-area detectors targeting optical instrumentation, spectroscopy and analytical measurement applications. The Latham, NY-based company’s new single-element and quadrant silicon photodiode devices are designed to improve signal capture, alignment tolerance, and signal-to-noise ratio in demanding optical systems. Available in multiple package styles and active area sizes,…

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI) and Georgia Southern University have entered a strategic research and education partnership through SSI’s Shimadzu Partnership for Academics, Research and Quality of Life (SPARQ) program. Representatives from both organizations announced the collaboration following the signing of an official agreement this week. The partnership is intended to expand Georgia Southern’s research capacity,…

Daejeon, South Korea–based Qunova Computing has announced that its HI-VQE algorithm is now available on AWS Marketplace as part of the Braket ecosystem of quantum computers. It reports that the algorithm will give researchers and industrial users a new way to deploy the company’s hybrid quantum-classical chemistry workflow. Qunova expects distributing HI-VQE through AWS Marketplace…

The pharmaceutical testing equipment firm ERWEKA is highlighting its Digital Dissolution Offline System for the DT 950 and DT 9510 series. The firm positions it as an add-on offline sampling setup that automates dissolution testing workflows on existing DT platforms. The system automates timed sampling and stores samples in vials or tubes for separate analysis,…

CBRE says it has arranged a 32,000-sq.-ft. life science lease that brings Hansoh Bio to 1500 Research Boulevard, part of the redeveloped Research Square campus in Rockville, Maryland. The tenant will take the entire second and third floors, combining built-out laboratory and office space with additional lab-ready shell area. CBRE framed the transaction as one…

HORIBA has unveiled the PoliSpectra 27, a compact spectrometer platform optimized for hyperspectral imaging, with a focus on line-scanning (push-broom) systems used in industrial inspection and monitoring. The company positions the product as “industrial-ready” and designed to support higher-volume manufacturing. The PoliSpectra 27 collects full spectral data across the height of the input slit, a…

Just weeks after the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires became the costliest in U.S. history, with insured losses exceeding $37 billion and total economic damage estimates ranging from $95 billion to $164 billion, new research from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) offers insights into one of the most dangerous and least understood wildfire phenomena: multi-ignition…

The Transferpette pro micropipette is available in single-channel as well as eight- and 12-channel configurations across a range of volumes. BRANDTECH Scientific has launched the Transferpette pro micropipette, adding new volume ranges and ergonomic features to its liquid handling portfolio. The Transferpette pro introduces a rotating finger rest that accommodates both left- and right-handed users,…

Revvity, a science technology company, announced the introduction of a new Model-as-a-Service (MaaS) called Signals Xynthetica on Tuesday, adding to a growing trend that is democratizing predictive modeling. Instead of building models, which is expensive and requires specialized skills, companies are now subscribing to pre-trained, high-fidelity models. This allows labs that couldn’t afford to build…

Renesas Electronics has begun sampling its R-Car X5H Gen 5 automotive system-on-chip and is now offering evaluation boards along with the R-Car Open Access (RoX) Whitebox Software Development Kit as it advances its software-defined vehicle platform toward broader adoption. The company positions the R-Car X5H as a central compute device designed to run multiple vehicle…