History Tidbit: The adjustable micropipette
Submitted by Walter Miller
In our youth, many of us used glass pipettes to make buffers and other solutions. Following the introduction of the adjustable ‘Pipeteman’, such glass pipettes became museum pieces. As described by Martin Klingenberg (who was first to report P450 spectra), the modern piston-driven adjustable pipette with disposable tips was the invention of Heinrich Schnitger in Marburg Germany in 1958 (EMBO reports 2005;6(9):797-800. DOI 10.1038/sj.embor.7400520). This ‘Marburg pipette’ was developed further by Wilhelm Bergmann at Eppendorf AG (Hamburg, Germany), which first sold the adjustable pipette in 1961, and the microcentrifuge with its iconic 1.5 mL and 0.75 mL polypropylene tubes in 1962. These tools became indispensable hallmarks of modern labs worldwide, revolutionized the way biochemistry was done, and helped to usher in the molecular biology revolution.