An ATP Hydrolase Activity Essential For Bacterial Conjugation, J. Biol. In Escherichia-coli Construction Of Expression Plasmid And Properties Of The Recombinant Enzyme, Arch. By Autoantibody FAB Fragment Application of the Flow Linear Dichroism Technique, Proc. This was a time when we never quite knew how much we were going to need or how many times experiments would need to be repeated. The majority of the early procedures simply needed more material since assays or techniques did not have the sensitivity of those currently available.
Times seem to have changed.
Everything we do in the lab, and indeed many of the products that are commercially available, seem to be related to speed, sensitivity, and allowing us to skate by with just the right amount of material. Much of this focus is appropriate since many of the procedures now performed in the laboratory are screening procedures. Even the wave of new instruments provides us with the ability to work with increasing speed, minimal experimental materials, and greater sensitivity such that working in large scale simply isn't needed. Still, however, a number of procedures are routinely, and out of necessity, done in scale. One of the procedures that immediately comes to mind for most molecular biologists is plasmid preparation.