The Passage of Time
They say time is money, and there’s a lot of truth to that statement. The faster you can do things accurately, the more time you’ve got to do more things. In a way, consolidating time works very directly as a resource. When there are new means of time consolidation available, it only makes sense to employ them—especially in a laboratory setting.
Identifying Problem Areas and Reducing Impact
Proper time consolidation requires identifying areas that might be streamlined. For example, if you’re working in a lab where antiquated technology solutions increase the time required to conduct a study, you might look into upgraded innovations.
Certainly, some consolidation methods aren’t possible due to procedural or protocol-related hangups of a corporate variety. But there are definitely situations where a little bit of technology can completely revitalize a situation, and there’s almost always some way to get around a bureaucratic limit.
Saving Time In Test Groups
If you have a thousand rats being tested in control and test groups, they must be properly tagged for identification purposes. There are certainly a variety of methods which can be brought to bear on this process, but it’s still going to take a few minutes; especially if you’re using an antiquated method of identification which requires prolonged physical engagement between researchers and rodents.
Once this task is complete, the gathered information must be entered into a computer. The job may take more than one individual, and opens things up for a host of legitimate human errors that will ultimately have to be factored into the experiment, slightly tainting results.
All this is unnecessary today, however. There is a new means of tagging available which cuts down the hassle substantially, saves time, saves money, and increases a given lab’s ability to expand their experimental faculties as they become gradually more competitive.
Barcode Tagging
This is a crude way of labeling the new practice, but “barcode tagging” is essentially the new innovation in identification of lab animals which is sweeping the world. According to Rapidlab.com, lab animal identification reduces human error through a “…hardened 2-D barcode [that] allows for immediate scanning, providing fast identification with 100% accuracy.”
So basically, the barcode is applied to the rodents in a swift, easy way, and the rodents can be scanned with a laser like any grocery item at the supermarket. The information is then immediately uploaded into the computer, meaning transmission errors from human accident are entirely curtailed. No more hard-to-read handwriting, or sixes confused with zeroes.
This ultimately increases the accuracy of experiments, as the data becomes more trustworthy. Human error always exists, and curtailing it is key. Simultaneously, this method decreases the time necessary to conduct experiments.
Where before, a thousand rodents may have taken a minimum of three thousand minutes to catalogue, that can now be cut down to three thousand seconds. Additionally, a barcode is more resilient than a tag clipped through an ear.
The Advantage of Upgrading
Between increased time and accuracy, any lab stands to benefit substantially from introducing such methods of categorization. When technology innovations can be brought to bear in the laboratory, the benefits firstly silhouette the lab employing them, and secondly the community for whom the research is being done.
Modernity is seeing advances coming at an almost exponential rate. As discoveries compound on one another, they’ll continue to come quickly; so refraining from the application of cutting-edge innovation really isn’t a viable option. It makes sense to remain abreast of tech changes in the industry of modern science—if you want to stay competitive, that is.
Author Bio
Kevin Bennett
Title: SEO Marketeer
Kevin is an SEO marketeer with OutreachMama and Youth Noise who designs value-rich content aimed at increasing clientele for expanding businesses. Networking, building partnerships, and providing quality products with shareable value make this possible. He’s an author (Amphibian and The Thief and the Sacrifice to his credit) whose professional writing follows business trends in technology, marketing, SEO application, and much more.