specimen

specimen

1. Med a sample of tissue, blood, urine, etc., taken for diagnostic examination or evaluation

2. the whole or a part of an organism, plant, rock, etc., collected and preserved as an example of its class, species, etc.

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

specimen

[′spes·ə·mən]

(science and technology)

An item representative of others in the same class or group.

A sample selected for testing, examination, or display.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Specimen

 

a sample, usually metal, that may be studied macro-scopically (in macrosections) or microscopically (in microsections). Preparation of a specimen entails grinding the flat surface of a sample and, if microsections are to be examined, polishing the surface. The surface is then etched with chemical reagents or heated in a gaseous atmosphere or in a vacuum. Selective etching and evaporation occur as a result of the differences in the physi-cochemical properties both of the grains of different phases as well as of the different grain-boundary regions. This leads to the formation of a macrorelief, which is visible to the unaided eye, or a microrelief, which must be examined with a microscope.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.