Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, Im an eight grade student.

I was wondering what kind of samples I could use when I conduct my experiment of gel electrophoresis. I know food coloring is a big one and I am also doing crushed up leaves mixed with nail polish remover... but I was wondering if I could get one more idea.

Thank you very much for your time in reading this message.

Hi,

You could try a couple of blueberries, blackberries or strawberries crushed with alcohol(rubbing alcohol, denatured ethanol, or methyl alcohol).

Have fun!

Barrett Tomlinson

One of the most common uses of gel electrophoresis is characterization of DNA fragments (typically by size). You'd probably get a better answer on this particular aspect of it from the biology forums, but a pretty good description can be found on Wikipedia (not a good research source, but a good place to do preliminary surveys and *find* primary sources you can quote in your project): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agarose_ge ... rophoresis

All sorts of interesting experiments could be run using this technique... I barely remember doing this when I was a kid, though, so as I said you'd be better off asking the biology forum if you're going in this direction.