The Importance of Pipette Droppers
The pipette is what most of us know as a dropper which could be used in many ways to dispense the product. We use it to transfer small quantities of liquid. Almost everyone has used one at some point in their life and many of us use them multiple times during a typical year. Here is a history of droppers and why they are critical to science.
Louis Pasteur was a famous scientist who discovered and developed the concepts of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization. Pasteur is one of the only humans in history who can make the case that his life’s work literally saved humanity, or came as close to it as is humanly possible. Without his work, diseases and deadly bacteria and parasites would have continued to pose major health risks to all of us.
The Pipette is named after him and it is alleged that he used a form of the pipette in his scientific experimentation and research. One benefit of the pipette, for Pasteur and us today is that the liquid being transferred remains uncontaminated as long as the pipette is clean. That makes a big difference if you are trying to conduct a science experiment or need to maintain the integrity of a liquid for any number of other things.
Today, pipettes come in both glass and plastic. Each is sterilized and plugged with a polypropylene bulb at the open end of the pipette, which blocks contamination from the rest of the tube. Pipettes are generally considered to be disposable, but in some cases, they will be reused. They are commonly called an eyedropper and frequently come with dropper bottles.
Many of the bulbs come in different molds to make the pipettes child-resistant, to protect the contents away from children. Other molds have a tamper-evident ring, which is a detachable rim on the bottom of the bulb. When the ring and the bulb are disconnected this means the packaging has been opened (or tampered) before customer use.
Domestic: We use pipettes and the dropper’s bottle to hold and transfer many different types of liquid. Household applications include holding and transferring medicine, for use with eye drops, to store incense and essential oils, CBD, and many more
Science: Researchers use pipettes and droppers to store chemicals and to transfer liquids, including some experimentation samples. The sterilized nature of the pipette and dropper bottle makes them ideal for experimentation because they will not contaminate whatever they hold or transfer.
Medicine: There are many medical applications for the pipette, including storing and transferring lab samples, medicine, solvents, and other chemicals.
The Pasteur pipette was made famous by its namesake. Droppers and their bottles are just as important to science and medicine today as it was over 100 years ago. Check out the available sizes here at FH Packaging.