Genetic Jewelry

Intro/Procedure:
DNA, short for deoxyribonucleic acid, is in all living things. It carries genetic information responsible for features such as skin, eye color, height, blood type, exc. Every one of our cells carries these instructions. The DNA is found in the nucleus of all cells except red blood cells.The shape of DNA is a double helix with bases on the inside and phosphates on the outside. The bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine) are paired together. Adenine always pairs with thymine and guanine always pairs with cytosine. Everyone's DNA is 99.9% the same and it's that .1% that makes the difference and unique qualities of individuals. A section of the DNA, genes, carry the information to make proteins.  DNA can be used for testing for traits, cloning, crime scene investigations, and more. Our lab is an attempt to precipitate or extract our own DNA and then put it into a necklace. To extract the DNA we first must get some of our cells. After loosening cheek cells and putting them in saline solution which keeps the cells "happy", we use a lysis buffer to break open the membrane (phospholipids). We then use protease (an enzyme that breaks down proteins) to kill possible threats to the DNA (DNAse and Histone). After hot water is used to speed up this process cold ethonal precipitates the DNA.

Results/Observations:
We were successfully able to extract DNA from our cells and put it into a necklace. When doing the lab little could be seen inside the tube until the ethonal was added. Once the ethonal was added and we swished the tube around the DNA strands became visible.

Discussion:
There is not much to analyze other than the DNA was precipitated due to protease successfully killing anything that may have harmed the protein and then the ethonal worked and the DNA became present. Although the lab worked, things such as using wrong amounts of protease or ethonal could have ruined the results. Overall this was a fun, successful,and not too difficult lab.

     Food For Thought

Introduction/Procedure

Bacteria the most abundant life form on earth, was discovered in 1676 by Anton van Leeuwenhoek. Bacteria are prokaryotes, or single celled organisms. It is often referenced with disease and other negative effects. A few devastating break outs of disease due to bacteria such as the Bubonic plague have put a bad picture in our head. Thus many antibiotics have been created to help prevent any future tragedies. The truth is very little bacteria can harm you. The human body is full of bacteria that actually help you to survive. Bacteria are even present in many of the foods we eat. One of these foods is yogurt. In our lab our purpose is to make yogurt and use Koch’s postulates. Yogurt is essentially milk with added bacteria. The bacterium added to the milk takes in the milk sugars (lactose) and creates lactic acid. This lactic acid drops the pH causing the milk to curdle. We are going to attempt to use Koch’s postulates to prove or disprove which microbes cause the “yogurtness disease”. I hypothesize that this will prove correct and microbes will be the cause. 
                               
                            Results/Observations
Tube 1: Positive control, milk, smells like sour milk, texture is liquid. 
Tube 2: Negative control, yogurt, smooth texture, smells like yogurt. 
Tube 3: Milk and e. coli, milk, smells terrible, liquid texture.
Tube 4: Milk and ampicillin, smells like milk, liquid texture.


                           Discussion
    Tube one had no chance of turning into yogurt because it was just sour milk. The negative control turned into yogurt. Milk and e. coli didn't become yogurt because e. coli isn't the right type of bacteria to make the milk curdle. Milk and ampicillin stayed milk because antibiotics don't help either. Some possible sources of error could have been a contamination where other unwanted bacteria gets in the tubes.