Science class is so cool. Where else can you build circuits, make copper, and create green fire? It even lets you become a mad man and tamper with DNA, MWAHAHAHAHA.

That last one may have been a little dramatic but not untrue. This is because of the DNA tampering lab experiment we did in our science class.

Lately, we have been learning about cells. How are cells related to DNA? Well, the cell has an organelle called the Nucleus. Inside the Nucleus is DNA. The DNA are the blueprints of the cell which tell it how to grow and divide. To show us what DNA looked like to the naked eye our teacher had us do a science lab in which we extracted the DNA from strawberries.

To do this we mixed mushed Strawberries with dish soap, water, and salt. After this mixture was created, we added freezing cold rubbing alcohol. This left a booger-like substance at the top. This booger was DNA.

I thought that this was definitely a cool experiment.

I learned that DNA is not always hard to extract if you have the right tools and taught me what it looks like- in a strawberry!

Afterwards we learnt about what DNA looks like at a microscopic level.

this was very different from the booger we saw before. I’m talking about the ladder most people associate with DNA.

DNA is made up of Tymine, Adenine, Guanine, and Cytosine with an alternate of phosphate and sugar residue.

to show our learning we created a model of a strand of DNA.

The different colours have different meanings:

Red: Tymine

Yellow: Adenine

Green: Guanine

Blue: Cytosine

Brown: Phosphate

Purple: Sugar Residue

 

notice how the Tymine is only connected to the Adenine just like how the Guanine is connected to the Cytosine. This is because they are like puzzle pieces. The  Tymine can only fit with Adenine and Guanine can only fit with Cytosine.

I hope that this post was an informative fun one. Until next time, I bid you adieu.