Laboratories

Striving for further geographic expansion of its medical laboratory network, Nichols Institute said Wednesday that it has formed a joint venture with three major hospital systems in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. The San Juan Capistrano-based medical laboratory firm will act as the general partner in an alliance with Baylor Health System and Presbyterian Healthcare System, both based in Dallas, and Harris Methodist Health System, based in Ft. Worth.

A new, long-awaited regional crime laboratory could begin processing vital ballistic analysis and DNA evidence for hundreds of unsolved property crimes in Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena as early as May, police said. The Verdugo Regional Crime Laboratory, based in Glendale, will enable quicker processing of crime scene evidence, officials said. "We could use DNA early on to intercede as rapidly as possible," Glendale Police Chief Ron De Pompa said at a news conference last week.

A new laboratory for long-range research and development in advanced microelectronics was dedicated Thursday at Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena. The Center for Space Microelectronics Technology will develop and test sensors and high-speed data processing devices for the U.S. space agency and the Department of Defense, the JPL said.

Felony charges have been filed against the University of California and a UCLA chemistry professor in connection with a laboratory fire that killed a staff research assistant three years ago. On Dec. 29, 2008, Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji, 23, was severely burned over nearly half of her body when air-sensitive chemicals burst into flames during an experiment and ignited her clothing. Sangji, who was not wearing a protective lab coat, died 18 days later. Her death raised questions about lab safety practices at UCLA and about Sangji's training and supervision by professor Patrick Harran, a prominent researcher who joined the faculty in July 2008.

An estimated 170,000 animals died in a medical laboratory fire, a California Department of Forestry official said Sunday. The fire broke out Saturday at Simonsen Laboratories in Gilroy and destroyed a 30,000-square-foot building, said Fire Capt. Nancy Koerperich. The laboratory breeds laboratory animals in sterile environments for sale to medical researchers. "There were 170,000 animals killed--rats, mice, guinea pigs," Koerperich said. She estimated the damage at $3.5 million.

The University of California will beef up its supervision of the two nuclear weapons laboratories it manages for the federal government in hopes of eliminating past problems of pollution, drug use and political lobbying, UC officials announced Friday. Three senior "liaison officers" will be added to the staff of UC President David P. Gardner to bolster the university's management of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Los Alamos National Scientific Laboratory.

Federal agents have arrested three alleged gang members in a raid on a North Hollywood laboratory capable of producing millions of dollars worth of the illegal drug "ice," according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Dong Soo (Danny) Kim, 36; Chul Jin Nam, 35, and Nam Soo Kang, 31, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, DEA agents said. They were arraigned Wednesday in U.S. District Court and ordered held without bail.

Rx Medical Services Inc. said Thursday that it has purchased a Fresno diagnostics laboratory for $2 million, bringing to 19 the number of acquisitions the Newport Beach-based firm has completed in two years. The acquisition of Quail Diagnostic Laboratory, which had 1992 sales of $2 million, is expected to boost Rx Medical's annual revenue to $26 million, the company said. As part of the deal, Quail President Shari Rainwater will join Rx Medical as vice president of its western region.

In a laboratory off a secluded canyon road in Malibu, women in sterile gloves move what looks like bits of green algae from test tube to flask. As the months go by, the green goo develops into tiny plants. After nearly two years in the glass containers, the plants are transplanted into pots of shredded bark and placed in one of three giant greenhouses next to the lab. With two or three more years of intense mothering, the labor pays off.

When jurors acquitted Kyle Joseph Borges of rape in 1989, prosecutors attributed their defeat to their inability to get crucial DNA evidence into the case. Earlier this month, another rape case against Borges came to an end. But this time, prosecutors had the evidence--DNA evidence--tying him to the crime. In this case, unlike the earlier one, Borges saw the handwriting on the wall and entered a guilty plea before the trial began, according to law enforcement authorities.

Despite a $50-million budget cut, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge probably won't face another round of mass layoffs, a legislative affairs official for the agency said. Federal spending reductions have put support for space exploration and other science programs in jeopardy, but JPL's budget will remain relatively stable at $1.5 billion for the coming year. The laboratory will probably be able to avoid "another large change in workforce," said Richard O'Toole, manager of legislative affairs.

The spacetweeps were full of Thai food and beer when they finally rolled back to Gale House, nearing the end of a pretty good day on Earth. There had been bonding. There had been tweeting. There had been space, lots and lots of space. "#spacetweeps and #NASAtweetup headed back to #GaleHouse now," they tweeted. "ETA 10 mins. If you're there we'll be there soon. " Seven women and two men, most in their 20s and 30s, were sharing this three-bedroom vacation rental overlooking a canal on Merritt Island some 15 minutes south of the Kennedy Space Center.

One of the most sophisticated space vehicles ever made inches along the rocky landscape, aluminum wheels grinding like a spoon in a garbage disposal. Here in the Mars Yard at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, what passes for the Red Planet looks like a vacant lot in Hesperia. The vehicle being tested, a replica of the latest Mars rover that will soon be crawling around up there, looks like a giant mechanical insect — six wheeled legs, an articulating arm and a pair of blue camera lenses like eyes peering from a boxy head.

In a gray office building across from the scenic Snake River, analysts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sift through the latest threat information on double-paneled, flat-screen computer monitors. They are not searching for rogue missile launches or terrorist plots, as other analysts do in other secure government rooms elsewhere in the U.S. Their job at the Idaho National Laboratory is to find and stop what experts warn is a growing risk to America: a cyber-attack that could disable water systems, chemical plants or parts of the electrical grid.

It has been described as a cosmic ballet — two spaceships in a delicate, silent dance 230,000 miles from Earth, correcting their course in tandem with air thrusts softer than a human breath, their instruments so fine-tuned they can detect a shift in gravity that pulls them no farther than the width of a strand of hair. As soon as Thursday, NASA expects to launch its Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Shortly after launch, two spacecraft will peel away from NASA's rocket for a meandering journey to the moon.

NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system. NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.

That plush blue lounge chair might look harmless enough on the showroom floor. But what if the electrical lifting mechanism short-circuited and caught fire? Or a power surge threw grandma on the floor? Workers in two obscure Los Angeles city agencies earn paychecks worrying about such things.

Each year, scientists from across the United States and as far as Russia come to a small compound at the base of the Sierra's east slope. They come to study the psychology of ground squirrels, the population dynamics of brine shrimp, the characteristics of melting snow and other natural phenomena.

Physicist John H. Marburger III, who served as President George W. Bush's science advisor at a time when most researchers considered science to be under attack by the government, died July 28 at his home in Port Jefferson, N.Y. He was 70 and had non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He also served as dean of USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, as president of State University of New York at Stony Brook and as head of Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. "Jack Marburger was a superb advocate for science, a visionary leader, and a highly skilled administrator who successfully led three vital institutions," said Dr. Samuel L. Stanley Jr., the current president of Stony Brook.

It's not a regulatory arm of the government, but try to find a gadget in your home that Underwriters Laboratories hasn't touched. Check under the computer mouse or the smoke alarm, beneath the light switch or on the TV cable, and the telltale "UL" stamp will be there. The marking means the device is unlikely to catch fire. And if you accidentally drive away from the gas station with the nozzle still in the tank, UL is the reason you don't haul away the entire pump and set the neighborhood ablaze.