
Term Definition

Latin absorptio - engulf. I means to incorporate something into something.


Denotes a sudden, rapid, short-term effect (e.g. a fast occurring toxic effect).


Short for Acceptable daily intake, is a measure of the amount of a specific substance (originally applied for a food additive, later also for a residue of a veterinary drug or pesticide) in food or drinking water that can be ingested (orally) on a daily basis over a lifetime without an appreciable health risk.

Adverse effect

The term ´adverse´ means  harmful or undesirable effects that change metabolism, appearance, growth, development or life span of an organism which results in impairment of functional capacity or impairment of capacity to compensate for additional stress or increase in susceptibility to the harmful effects or other environmental influences  (based on the WHO definition 1994).


General term for mixtures of gases (e.g. air) that contain suspended solid or liquid particles (so-called particulate matter), which are approximately 1 nm to 10 μm in diameter. Sea salt aerosols, for example, are formed as sea water droplets that are dispersed into the atmosphere by wind evaporate to leave sea salt particles.


Short for atomic force microscopy. The AFM tip scans the sample line for line. Due to repulsion between needle and sample, a movement of the tip is detected. A three dimensional image can be simulated.




Solidly bound or molten particles, whose resulting surface may be much smaller than the sum of the calculated surfaces of the individual components. Aggregates are held together by strong forces such as covalent bonds or forces caused by sintering or complex physical hooking. Aggregates, just as agglomerates, are referred to as secondary particles.


From Latin alveolus, "little cavity". Thin-walled, tiny air sacs, located at the ends of the smallest airways in the lungs (the bronchioles) where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place.


Greek amorphos = shapeless. In physics and chemistry, this refers to a substance whose atoms do not form an ordered structure. antonyme to crystalline.


Describes a foreign substance that when introduced into the body stimulates the production of an antibody. Many bacteria contain antigens. Toxins, viruses, blood cells or cells from foreign transplants can act as antigens as well.


Any substance that prevents or reduces free-oxygen-radicals, which attack other molecules and modify their chemical structure. Antioxidants are commonly used as preservatives in food or cosmetics. Well-known antioxidants include vitamins A, C, and E.


Physiological or programmed cell death. In apoptosis only individual cells are affected generally and these react to internal signals (e.g. adjacent cells) or external stress situations. At the beginning of this process the cell nucleus, cytoplasm and mitochondria are shrinking; the cell membrane remains undamaged, so that no inflammatory reaction occurs. The biochemical indicator of apoptosis is the fragmentation of DNA. Along with proliferation the apoptosis is the common instrument to stabilise the cell count.




Description of a method (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) for the analysis technique of sizing surfaces by means of gas adsorption.

