The lab in plain words
The lab in plain words: 8 articles from What Are Peptides. Plain-English answers about peptides.
What Does In Vitro Mean? Cells in a Dish vs a Living Body
In vitro means "in glass": an experiment done in a dish or a test tube rather than in a living body. It is where much research starts, and it is the weakest rung for saying anything about people.
What Does Potency Mean? Strength, Purity and Amount Untangled
Potency, efficacy and purity are three separate ideas that people often use as one. Potency is about how little of a substance it takes to notice an effect, and it says nothing about how clean a sample is.
What Is an Assay? The Lab Word for "a Test That Measures"
An assay is a test that measures how much of something is present, or how active it is. It is a different question from purity, and the two are easy to confuse on a certificate.
What Does "Sterile" Actually Mean?
Sterile means nothing alive is present. It is a stronger word than clean or disinfected, it is measured as a probability rather than a certainty, and it describes a sealed container — not one that has been opened.
What Is Endotoxin?
Endotoxin is what certain bacteria leave behind. It is not alive, it survives the heat that kills bacteria, and it is the reason a sterile liquid can still carry something the body reacts to strongly.
What Is HPLC, in Plain English?
HPLC is a very slow race through a narrow tube. Everything in a sample runs it, nothing runs it at the same speed, and a sensor at the finish line writes down who arrived and when. That is the whole machine.
What Is Mass Spectrometry, in Plain English?
Mass spectrometry weighs a molecule by giving it an electric charge and flinging it. Heavy things bend less than light things. Here is how that simple idea confirms what a molecule is, and where it runs out.
What Is pH?
pH is a number that says how acidic or alkaline a watery liquid is. Each step on the scale is ten times the last, and for a peptide sitting in solution, that number quietly decides how fast it changes over time.