Glass Test Tubes: A Science Staple

Glass test tubes are fairly close to being common in a laboratory environment. Typically about finger length, these mad scientist staples are found by the hundreds in settings including chemistry labs to hospitals to a kid's chemistry set. Anyplace where it's important to always keep biological samples separate, you're likely to find them.

Glass test tubes are also referred to as beakers, sample and culture tubes, however some people maintain that there is a difference in the shape of the mouth. They typically have a circular lip on them which makes them easier to pour, and this might not be present in culture tubes, however the terms are typically interchangeable.

They are generally between 10 to 20 mm and between 50 to 200mm, and might have either a level or rounded base. The rounded base is more common, because it discourages users from simply setting the test tubes down, which could result in breakage and accidents. As the name might suggest, most glass beakers are constructed of, well, glass, but plastic test tubes aren't uncommon. Something that you may need to determine if you're going to purchase them is whether the glass is standard glass or borosilicate glass.

Borosilicate glass permits you to use the beakers directly over an open flame. If you happen to do this with standard glass test tubes that aren't designed to withstand heat, you've got a better than average potential for cracking or perhaps exploding if you get them beyond a certain relatively low temperature threshold.

Glass test tubes are most frequently used by chemists, however they are prevalent throughout the majority of science industries. Chemists commonly rely on them for a wide variety of applications, including but by no means limited to: holding, blending and heating liquid or solid chemical substances, generally in small amounts.

Most often, they are utilized in qualitative or essaying experiments. Their design is ideal for minimizing mass loss when pouring, and their narrow shapes assist scientists to manage the quantities that they are pouring from them. This shape also slows down the release of unwanted gas into the environment, since only a small amount of the surface area of whatever you put in test tubes will be exposed to the environment.

It's also simple enough to use them to help capture gases during experiments, particularly electrolysis experiments. In most cases this is accomplished by filling the beaker with h2o and then pouring it into a larger container also filled with water.

Outside of chemistry, glass test tubes are certainly typical in biological and microbiological laboratories, where they are used to culture and store microorganisms. Plastic test tubes, which can be just discarded after use, are also typical in these types of laboratories. They are often purchased in bulk, and it's fairly typical to purchase them in groups that also include rubber stoppers and racks to hold them in. Because of the extensive use, they are not hard to find.

By: Brad Rreef

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