Invited commentary: Assessing the evidence--filling the glass

The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs and ignore information that is inconsistent with our expectations. For example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by the professor while ignoring the countless pleasant interactions he is involved in on a daily basis. Have you ever fallen prey to the confirmation bias, either as the source or target of such bias?

Accurate calibration of glassware, such as volumetric flasks, pipettes, and burettes, is essential to ensure accurate measurements in the analytical laboratory. Calibration helps maintain consistency across measurements and prevents errors arising from inaccurate volumes.
Volumetric flasks: Volumetric flasks are designed to prepare aqueous solutions of precise volumes accurately with a calibration line on the neck. To calibrate a volumetric flask, it is important to fill it with distilled...

Various dissolution theories provide insight into the factors that influence the dissolution rate. Danckwerts' Model suggests that turbulence, rather than a stagnant layer, characterizes the dissolution medium at the solid-liquid interface. In this model, the agitated solvent contains macroscopic packets that move to the interface via eddy currents, facilitating the absorption and delivery of the drug to the bulk solution. The regular replenishment of solvent packets maintains the concentration...

The EDTA titration types for metal ion analysis include direct titration, back-titration, and replacement titration.
Direct titration involves buffering the metal ion solution to the desired pH and directly titrating with standard EDTA until the endpoint. The optimum pH ensures a large conditional formation constant of metal−EDTA and visibility of the free indicator color in the solution. In addition, auxiliary complexing reagents are used to prevent the precipitation of metal hydroxides and...

In situ experiments, such as the Doluisio method and Single-Pass Perfusion technique, provide critical insights into drug uptake by simulating in vivo conditions for drug absorption.
The Doluisio method involves perfusing a prepared segment of a rat's small intestine with a solution of radiolabeled drug and a non-absorbable marker. This helps to differentiate between absorbed and non-absorbed drug concentrations. The intestinal segment is connected at both ends using tubing and syringes,...

Significance testing is a set of statistical methods used to test whether a claim about a parameter is valid. In analytical chemistry, significance testing is used primarily to determine whether the difference between two values comes from determinate or random errors. The effect of a particular change in the measurement protocol, analyst, or sample itself can cause a deviation from the expected result. In the case of a suspected deviation/outlier, we need to be able to confirm mathematically...