incubator

1. An apparatus in which environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity, can be controlled, often used for growing bacterial cultures, hatching eggs artificially, or providing suitable conditions for a chemical or biological reaction.
2. Medicine. An apparatus for maintaining an infant, especially a premature infant, in an environment of controlled temperature, humidity, and oxygen concentration.
3. A place or situation that permits or encourages the formation and development, as of new ideas: a college that was an incubator of new approaches to sociology.

An organization that fosters the growth of new ideas or companies. An incubator generally acquires small companies and provides them with financing, management expertise, office services and possibly office space. Incubators may adopt a think tank approach and look for synergies between the ideas, products and technologies they are developing in order to grow faster. Many Internet incubators arose in the latter 1990s with the intention of creating more dot-com success stories.

Download Computer Desktop Encyclopedia to your iPhone/iTouch

A laboratory container with controlled temperature for the cultivation of bacteria.

A specialized crib used in caring for infants, in which the temperature and oxygen content of the air can be controlled. Often, babies who are born prematurely will be placed in an incubator until they have become strong enough to be housed in a regular crib.

An apparatus for maintaining optimal conditions (temperature, humidity, etc.) for growth and development, especially one used for cultures, and for hatching eggs.

A Bacteriological incubator

In microbiology, an incubator is a device for controlling the temperature, humidity, and other conditions in which a microbiological culture is being grown. The simplest incubators are insulated boxes with an adjustable heater, typically going up to 60 to 65 °C (140 to 150 °F), though some can go slightly higher (generally to no more than 100 °C). More elaborate incubators can also include the ability to lower the temperature (via refrigeration), or the ability to control humidity or CO₂ levels.

Most incubators include a timer; some can also be programmed to cycle through different temperatures, humidity levels, etc. Incubators can vary in size from tabletop to units the size of small rooms.

Incubators also contain certain features such as the shake speed, measured by revolutions per minute. As for temperature, most commonly used is approximately 36 to 37 degrees Celsius. Most bacteria, especially the frequently used E. Coli, grow well under such conditions. For other experimental organisms, such as the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a growth temperature of 30 °C is optimal.

v • d • e Laboratory equipment Glassware Beaker · Büchner funnel · Burette · Cold finger · Condenser · Conical measure · Cuvette · Eudiometer · Gas syringe · Graduated cylinder · Pipette · Petri dish · Pycnometer · Separatory funnel · Soxhlet extractor · Watch glass Flasks Büchner · Erlenmeyer · Fleaker · Florence · Retort · Round-bottom · Schlenk · Volumetric Tubes Boiling · NMR · Test · Thiele · Thistle Other Agar plate · Aspirator · Autoclave · Bunsen burner · Calorimeter · Chemostat · Class II cabinet · Colony counter · Colorimeter · Laboratory centrifuge · Crucible · Fume hood · Glove box · Homogenizer · Hot air oven · Incubator · Laminar flow cabinet · Magnetic stirrer · Microscope · Microtiter plate · Picotiter plate · Plate reader · Spectrophotometer · Static mixer · Stir bar · Stirring rod · Scoopula · Thermometer · Vortex mixer · Wash bottle See also: Instruments used in medical laboratories

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - kuvøse, rugemaskine, udklækningsmaskine, varmeskab

Nederlands (Dutch)
couveuse, kweekkamer, broedmachine, incubator

Français (French)
n. - couveuse, incubateur

Deutsch (German)
n. - Brutkasten, Inkubator, Brutapparat

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - εκκολαπτήριο, εκκολαπτική μηχανή, κλωσομηχανή

Italiano (Italian)
incubatrice

Português (Portuguese)
n. - incubadora (f)

Русский (Russian)
инкубатор

Español (Spanish)
n. - incubadora

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - äggkläckningsmaskin, kuvös, apparat för odling av bakterier

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
孵卵器, 早产儿保育器, 细菌培养器

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 孵卵器, 早產兒保育器, 細菌培養器

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 부화기, 세균 배양기, 조산아 보육기

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ふ卵器, 保育器, 未熟児保育器

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) طير حاضن, جهاز حضانه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮מדגרה‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.