Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

i'm doing the project Forensic science: building your own tool for identifying Dna, and i cant figure out a question to ask about it. do u have any suggestions?

[Moderator edited to add link to Project Idea: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p028.shtml ]

Inquisitive,
The project that was suggested by the moderator would be a great experiment to detect DNA. The issue with detecting DNA is that it is so small that it is very hard to visualize. Another experiment that might be a little simpler would be to isolate the DNA from cells of different organisms, like fruit or vegetables. The problem with experiments like this is that there is no way to really compare the DNA from organism to another, you can only tell that it is present. If you have the resources I would highly recommend the sciencebuddies project.

Matt Badtke

Hi inquisitive,

If you have the resources, you could do a project on various polymorphisms among humans. In forensics labs, DNA from a crime are taken and amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of various sequences on the DNA. Each person in the world has varying mutations on these sequence of DNA (and they aren't harmful because they don't code for any proteins). One such sequence is the Alu gene.

Hope that helps!

-Sam