Book:The Laboratories of Our Lives: Labs, Labs Everywhere!

Citation information for this chapter

Chapter: 1. Laboratories: A historical perspective

Title: The Laboratories of Our Lives: Labs, Labs Everywhere!

Edition: Second edition

Author for citation: Shawn E. Douglas

License for content: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Publication date: July 2022

When asked to think about a laboratory and what it does, many people think of the clinical lab where their blood is drawn, or even the "mad scientist's" laboratory, with sundry bubbling vessels. But there is much more to the laboratory than blood and cauldrons. In fact, a laboratory appears in common and unexpected places in society, affecting practically everything in our lives. This guide takes a look at the laboratories that up-front—and more often, behind-the-scenes—intersect our lives on a daily basis. This guide includes laboratory history, an evaluative and contextual framework for understanding laboratories' roles in our lives, analysis of 20 different industry lab types, and closing discussion and remarks.

This second edition, among other things, updates a number of statistics, adds additional historical context since it was written, and reorganizes the structure to be more consistent with current LIMSwiki guides. The framework itself, found in Chapter 2, was also tweaked slightly to be more consistent and make the wording about the various divisions clearer. Additional background was added to some of the industries where relevant, including in the informatics sections. All references and resources in the guide were also refreshed for this update, including the addition of a link to an industry-specific category page of LIMS options for each industry.

The table of contents for The Laboratories of Our Lives: Labs, Labs Everywhere! is as follows:

About this book

Introduction

1. Laboratories: A historical perspective

1.1 What is a laboratory?

1.2 Origins of the laboratory

1.3 Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century laboratories

1.4 Modern laboratories and their importance

2. A framework for the laboratories of our lives

2.1 A proposed framework for organizing laboratories

3. Labs by industry: Part 1

3.1 Agriculture and forestry

3.2 Automotive, aerospace, and marine

3.3 Calibration and standards

3.4 Chemical

3.5 Clinical, public and private

4. Labs by industry: Part 2

4.1 Clinical and academic research

4.2 Cosmetic

4.3 Energy

4.4 Environmental

4.5 Food and beverage

5. Labs by industry: Part 3

5.1 Geology and mining

5.2 Law enforcement and forensics

5.3 Life sciences and biotechnology

5.4 Logistics

5.5 Manufacturing and R&D

6. Labs by industry: Part 4

6.1 Nanotechnology

6.2 Petrochemical and hydrocarbon

6.3 Pharmaceutical

6.4 Power and utility

6.5 Veterinary

7. Discussion and closing remarks

7.1 Discussion

7.2 Closing remarks