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Biology as a second language, part II. How many ways can we use a word in one sentence?

Posted by Sandra Porter of Digital World Biology on February 3, 2007
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`When I make a word do a lot of work like that,’ said Humpty Dumpty, `I always pay it extra.’
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

In biology, we often ask our words do a lot of work.

In what other field would we write direction like this

“Transfer 10 lambda of lambda phage DNA into a cuvette and determine the lambda max.”

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Comments

  1. #1 Khalil A.
    February 5, 2007

    Ahem… Don’t want to seem like an idiot, but could you translate it?

    Ok, I guess I can forget about appearing like an idiot now, lol.

  2. #2 Sandra Porter
    February 5, 2007

    I can translate it anyway.

    The first lambda is a unit for measuring volume and it means a microliter (1 x 10-6) liter.

    The second lambda is a virus that infects bacteria.

    The third lambda represents wavelength.