The shift away from each institution having a full-time glassblower doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of science being done in hand-blown glass. There are sti

The shift away from each institution having a full-time glassblower doesn't mean that there isn't a lot of science being done in hand-blown glass. There are still lots of companies that can produce fancy glassware, and the Chinese glass industry has flourished. For 99% of science, off-the-shelf stuff is totally adequate. However, the capacity for repairing and modifying glassware is going away. It used to be the case that your average chemist could go walk down the hall and talk to a glassblower about designing crazy custom apparatus - not so much anymore. Even when an institution does have a glassblower, they tend to be nearing retirement age, and hiring someone who has the broad talent required is very hard...