(ARTEL: New Orleans, Louisiana) -- The ARTEL Extreme Pipetting Expedition has announced data showing that pipettes performed accurately and precisely in Washington state’s humid Olympic National Park, but underdelivered significantly in a drier facility mimicking typical laboratory conditions. For Mission No. 4, ARTEL studied the effect of humidity on pipetted volumes because regulatory standards recommend that pipette calibration take place in facilities with 60-percent relative humidity; while working laboratories commonly operate at less than 40-percent relative humidity. The data indicate that pipettes calibrated off-site are prone to underdeliver once returned to their usual environments.

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