With the aim of enhancing laboratory automation, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (St. Ingbert, Germany) have imbedded a microchip and antenna into the plastic of test tubes.  This allows the tube to carry the sample’s entire history and, with a reader device, transmit the data to a central station and over the internet.  In this way, information about the sample is editable (compared to a barcode) and remains with the tube. MORE