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Glite Dictionary
✂️ A small tool 🧬 A nano device ✂️ To pick up
tweezer

tweezer

1 9.9
A tiny device made from DNA that opens and closes to hold single molecules
  • noun
  • /ˈtwiːzər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : pinza molecular
  • Rony Granek, from Ben-Gurion University, suggested that such relaxation would be observed for beads attached to a vesicle and held by optical tweezers.
  • optical tweezers

Examples

  • So these physics tweezers have just been a lifesaver.

  • Atoms in tweezers are a variation of the idea of ion traps.

  • So this makes atoms and tweezers quite a competitive approach now.

  • The regular Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process is a good model for the behavior of a diffusing particle trapped in optical tweezers: the tweezers create an approximately harmonic well.

    Academic text (2002)

  • He used magnetic tweezers, which can pull on DNA molecules labeled with minuscule magnetic beads, to stretch DNA in a microscope flow chamber.

    Blog text (21)

  • Researchers used tweezers to carefully extract the tiny DNA strands from the gel.

  • The scientist manipulated the cells with tweezers during the experiment to observe their reactions.

  • Using tweezers, she adjusted the position of the delicate nanostructures on the slide.

How Small

tweezer
  • Specialized
1 9.9
tweezers
2.6

Surface Forms

tweezer singular
tweezers plural

Morphology

tweezer = tweeze (transparent) = tweeze + er

The nanoscale device is named by analogy with the familiar tool (tweeze + -er), preserving the gripping function, so the relation is transparent.

Etymology

Tweezer in nanotechnology borrows the same picture as the hand tool: it has two parts that open and close like tiny pliers. So a molecular or DNA tweezer 'grips' single molecules the same way a normal tweezer picks up small objects.