A pipette is a laboratory tool used to measure and transfer small, precise volumes of liquid from one container to another.

What a pipette actually does

In simple terms:

  • It sucks up a set amount of liquid (you “aspirate” it) using a partial vacuum created by a plunger or bulb.
  • It then dispenses that exact volume into another tube, flask, plate, or well, which is key for reproducible experiments.

Pipettes are especially important when you need accuracy and consistency , like in chemistry, biology, diagnostics, and pharmaceutical labs.

Main types and what they handle

Different pipettes are optimized for different scales and uses:

Type| Typical use case
---|---
Glass (volumetric) pipette| Moves a fixed, very precise volume (e.g., 10 mL) in titrations or standard solutions. 38
Micropipette (adjustable)| Handles microliter (ÂľL) volumes, common in molecular biology and PCR setups. 510
Multichannel pipette| Fills whole rows of microplates at once, used in high‑throughput screening. 48
Pasteur / disposable plastic pipette| Approximate transfers (e.g., moving drops or small volumes where exact precision isn’t critical). 210

Where you’ll see pipettes in action

Across labs and industries, a pipette does things like:

  • Preparing serial dilutions and calibration curves.
  • Loading reagents, buffers, or samples into cuvettes, microplates, or test tubes.
  • Handling DNA, PCR mixes, or cell‑culture media in modern life‑science workflows.

So if you picture a scientist in a coat very carefully “squeezing a button on a pen‑like tool to move clear liquid,” that’s basically what a pipette does: measure and move liquid in controlled, tiny amounts, so experiments actually work the way they’re supposed to.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.