Wiktionary
n. Any piece of equipment used to homogenize mixtures, such as a kitchen blender, mortar and pestle, ultrasonic bath, etc.
Wikipedia
A homogenizer is a piece of laboratory or industrial equipment used for the homogenization of various types of material, such as tissue, plant, food, soil, and many others. Many different models have been developed using various physical technologies for disruption. The 'mortar and pestle', already used for thousands of years, is a standard tool even in modern laboratories. More modern solutions are based on blender type of instruments (also known in the kitchen), bead mills, ultrasonic treatment (also sonication), rotor-stator mechanical, high pressure, and many other physical forces.
Whereas older technologies just focused on the disruption of the material, newer technologies also address quality or environmental aspects, such as cross-contamination, aerosols, risk of infection, or noise.
Homogenization is a very common sample preparation step prior to the analysis of nucleic acids, proteins, cells, metabolism, pathogens, and many other targets.
Usage examples of "homogenizer".
A friend of mine spends his time trying to build mathematical models of how nerve cells interact once visited me in the lab as I was dissecting ºu piece of brain and beginning its analysis by mincing it in a homogenizer the standard lab version of a food processor.