Tom Wilkie explores how laboratory data management applications are integrating more and more with software outside the lab, including enterprise resource planning software, thereby feeding into overall business management

Separating the software from the hardware components can boost the speed and flexibility of instrumentation, discovers Sian Harris

David Robson investigates the explosion in parallel computing, as software enables scientists to harness power more easily

Felix Grant and Ray Girvan on the wealth of applications for image analysis software

Peter Gumbsch, professor at the university of Karlsruhe and head of Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials