`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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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.
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.