"acquire a sample" is a grammatically correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it to describe the process of obtaining a sample, such as a specimen, for research purposes. For example, "The scientists needed to acquire a sample of the river water in order to analyze the contamination levels."
If selected, CAESAR will acquire a sample of surface material from the nucleus of comet 67P and return it to Earth for laboratory analysis.
When they identify a fascinating target, it is at that point that the drill will be commanded to acquire a sample for detailed scrutiny in the onboard laboratories.
In particular, we acquire a sample from the Facebook social graph (i.e., the network of relationships among the users), and then we apply two different state-of-the-art algorithms to unveil its underlying community structure (see the Appendix for technical details).
When AGNA could not acquire a sample of a certain explosive to test canines, DS changed the contract standards so that the canines would not be have to be tested to detect this particular explosive, which is available in Afghanistan.
We were able to acquire a sample of the P. toxica type specimen from the Bishop museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, but due to its age and original fixation method were unable to extract any DNA.
Three to nine contractions were required in order to acquire a sample of at least 20 distinct N-MUPs and S-MUPs for analysis.
The F.B.I. acquired a sample from Fort Detrick of the original strain, known as the Ames ancestor.
Some of these: giant inflatable plastic footballs, and seals, parking meters for the john, Personality Dollar Bills with pictures of Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, and others on them Henny acquired a sample of penknives, a pocket tool kit, and a Dudley-Do-Right radio.
Their findings are also confirmed in this study, in which we acquired a sample of the social graph directly from the Facebook platform.
Though many experts believe that the country acquired a sample of anthrax and other epidemiological bacteria from Japan in 1968, it's impossible to verify that it has actually developed a stockpile of the toxic agent.
