Question: What are the essential lab apparatus that every scientist needs

Andrew McDowall answered on 17 Nov 2025: last edited 17 Nov 2025 09:08

I’m not sure there is any single item of apparatus that every scientist needs. There’s a huge range of different types, sizes, locations and purposes to labs, each slightly different. It’s one of the challenges we face when welcoming new colleagues to my department. There’s a bit of a shock when people, trained in university teaching or research labs first enter our development labs. No white coats but overalls. No glassware, no beakers. Plastic jugs up to 5l, stainless steel tanks up to 200l. Scoops instead of spatulas. Paddle mixers instead of magnetic followers. Kilograms instead of milligrams. Some find the change in scale a struggle to deal with, it doesn’t look or feel like the labs they’re used to, but chemistry is still chemistry, just now with an admixture of physics and engineering.
Equally I have friends working in the field. Their laboratories can be carried around in a case in the car, placed on a bench in a shipping container or shed on site, or even in the boot of the car. Their equipment, their needs are very different from mine.
You’ll find a huge variety of endevours and needs out there, and equipment to match.
Although, thinking about it. perhaps the closest I’ve got to an item of equipment every lab I’ve worked in really needed has been ……. a good space heater. My labs never seem feel warm enough in winter for some reason, but that reason might be me.