In situ

In situ ("in place" in Latin), a term used in:

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• biology, where it means to examine the phenomenon exactly in place where it occurs (without removing it in some special medium etc.). Usually means something intermediate between in vivo and in vitro. For example, examining a cell within a whole organ intact and under perfusion may mean in situ investigation. This is not obviously in vivo experimenting because an animal is sacrificed, but it is not the same as working with the cell alone (which may be a perfect case of an in vitro experiment).
• environmental engineering where a clean up or remediation of a polluted site is performed using and simulating the natural processes in the soil, contrary to ex situ where contaminated soil is excavated and cleaned elsewhere, off site.
• literature, to describe a condition. Under Rosetta Stone, the famous stone was originally erected in a courtyard, for public viewing. Most pictures of the famous bilingual Egyptian and Greek stone are not "in-situ" pictures of it erected, as it would have been originally. The stone was uncovered as part of building material, within a wall. Its "in-situ" condition today, is that the Rosetta Stone is erected, vertically, on public display: ...The Rosetta Stone is erected in-situ, for public viewing, at the British Museum, in England.
 
In situ: See also ►