ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,332,156, issued on June 17, was assigned to NORTHWEST INSTITUTE OF ECO-ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES, CAS (Lanzhou, China).

"Soil sample didestion device" was invented by Caixia Zhang (Lanzhou, China), Yunfa Miao (Lanzhou, China), Ningjing Tan (Lanzhou, China), Yongtao Zhao (Lanzhou, China) and Xuelian Wang (Lanzhou, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A soil sample digestion device, including a base, a driving mechanism, a first disk, a heating mechanism, a digestion vessel, a second disk and two liquid adding mechanisms. The driving mechanism and the first disk are mounted on the base. The heating mechanism and the digestion vessel are mo...