'It means I can sleep at night': how sensors are helping to solve scientists' problems

"In fact, Stawicki was on a mission to save the lives of around 1,000 zebrafish ( Danio rerio) in her laboratory. Similarities between lines of hair cells on the fish's flanks and those in the mammalian inner ear enable her to use them as a model to study hearing problems in humans caused by some antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs. A sensor had picked up that the lab's heating system had been knocked out by a power fault."

"Lab managers investing in technology are more likely to be upgrading their current system than installing one for the first time. "Twenty years ago, monitoring labs remotely was seen as a luxury, whereas now many are on their second- or third-generation systems, so people have a better understanding of what information they can gather and what they can do with it," says Han Weerdesteyn, chief commercial officer at XiltriX in Rosmalen, the Netherlands, which sells such systems."

Neuroscientist Tamara Stawicki responded to a late-night sensor alert and saved about 1,000 zebrafish after a laboratory heating-system failure. Zebrafish lateral-line hair cells model mammalian inner-ear cells for studying drug-induced hearing damage. Sensors for environmental monitoring in labs have become commonplace and many facilities are now on second or third-generation systems. Lab managers more often upgrade existing systems than install them anew. Buyers must decide between one-off hardware/software purchases and subscription services, and evaluate integration with existing technologies. Ongoing considerations include maintenance, technical support, data security and storage requirements. Remote monitoring saves time and protects valuable research assets.

Read at Nature