- Serial dilution
A serial dilution is the stepwise
dilution of a substance insolution . Usually the dilution factor at each step is constant, resulting in ageometric progression of the concentration in alogarithm ic fashion. A ten-fold serial dilution could be 1 M, 0.1 M, 0.01 M, 0.001 M... Serial dilutions are used to accurately create highly diluted solutions as well as solutions forexperiment s resulting inconcentration curve s with alogarithmic scale . A tenfold dilution for each step is called a logarithmic dilution or log-dilution and a 3.16-fold (100.5-fold) dilution is called a half-logarithmic dilution or half-log dilution. Serial dilutions are widely used in experimental sciences, including biochemistry, pharmacology, and physics as well as inhomeopathy .In biology and medicine
In
biology andmedicine , besides the more conventional uses described above, serial dilution may also be used to reduce the concentration of microscopic organisms or cells in a sample. As, for instance the number and size of bacterial colonies that grow on anagar plate in a given time is concentration-dependent, and since many other diagnostic techniques involve physically counting the number of micro-organisms or cells on specials printed with grids (for comparing concentrations of two organisms or cell types in the sample) or wells of a given volume (for absolute concentrations), dilution can be useful for getting more manageable results. [K. R. Aneja. "Experiments in Microbiology, Plant Pathology and Biotechnology". New Age Publishers, 2005, p. 69. ISBN 812241494X] Serial dilution is also a cheaper and simpler method for preparing cultures from a single cell thanoptical tweezers andmicromanipulator s. [cite book |last=Booth |first=C. |authorlink= |coauthors=et al |editor= |others= |title=Extremophiles |origdate= |origyear= |origmonth= |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=eMFwInCi_NwC&pg=PA543&dq=serial+dilution+axenic&lr=&sig=PUhi7qQOY3Vi69eZdQcuwatobac#PPA543,M1 |format= |accessdate= |accessyear= |accessmonth= |edition= |series=Methods in microbiology 35 |date= |year=2006 |month= |publisher=Academic Press |location= |language= |isbn=0125215363 |oclc= |doi= |id= |pages=543 |chapter= |chapterurl= |quote= ]In homeopathy
Serial dilution is one of the core foundational practices of
homeopathy , with "succussion", or shaking, occurring between each dilution. In homeopathy, serial dilutions (called potentisation) are often taken so far that by the time the last dilution is completed, no molecules of the original substance are likely to remain. [cite journal|title=Homeopathy: Holmes, Hogwarts, and the Prince of Wales|author=Weissmann, Gerald|journal=The FASEB Journal|date=2006|volume=20|pages=1755–1758|url=http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/full/20/11/1755|accessdate=2008-02-01|doi=10.1096/fj.06-0901ufm] cite journal|author=Ernst, Edzard|title=Is homeopathy a clinically valuable approach?|doi=10.1016/j.tips.2005.09.003|journal=Trends in Pharmacological Sciences|volume=26|issue=11|date=November 2005|pages=547–548]References
* Michael L. Bishop, Edward P. Fody, Larry E. Schoeff. "Clinical Chemistry: Principles, Procedures, Correlations". Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2004, p. 24. ISBN 0781746116.
External links
* [http://abacus.bates.edu/~ganderso/biology/resources/dilutions.html How to Make Simple Solutions and Dilutions] , Bates College
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