truth serum | Colloquialism for a drug, such as amobarbital sodium or thiopental sodium, intravenously injected for the purpose of eliciting information from the subject under its influence; a misnomer because the subject's revelations may or may not be factually true, and its legal status and use is questionable. (05 Mar 2000) |
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foetal calf serum | <cell culture> The serum originating from embryonic calves and an expensive component of standard culture media for many types of animal tissue cells. It is used as an important part of growth media for promoting the growth of tissue cultures. It provides a source of growth hormones and other growth factors. (11 Nov 1997) |
foreign serum | A serum derived from an animal and injected into an animal of another species or into humans. (05 Mar 2000) |
liquid human serum | The pool of fluids separated from blood withdrawn from human subjects and allowed to clot in the absence of any anticoagulant; not more than 10 separate donations are pooled; the contributions from donors of A, O, and either B or AB groups are represented in approximately the ratio 9:9:2. (05 Mar 2000) |