• Question: What is the best experiment you have ever done

    Asked by 326drgj36 to Thomas, Sanjib, Donna, Avril, Abid on 12 Jun 2017. This question was also asked by 453drgj38.
    • Photo: Thomas Booth

      Thomas Booth answered on 12 Jun 2017:

      At the start of my PhD I was studying a chemical reaction. We didn’t know how to make it work. One day I had the idea that this might be dependent on light (a photoreaction). So I took my compound in a glass vial and simply left it on the windowsill to see what would happen. The reaction occurred exactly as planned!

      In science, we often need to do really complicated experiments. Sometimes however, something as simple as leaving a sample on a window sill can provide a breakthrough! Worth remembering.:)

    • Photo: Donna Johnson

      Donna Johnson answered on 12 Jun 2017:

      I quite liked mutating a green fluorescent protein gene and then putting it into bacteria to make them make the protein (and then fluoresce). We started with green fluorescent protein and then using a process called site directed mutagenesis (changing one or a couple of DNA bases in a gene) to change the protein so it’s yellow or blue instead. Green fluorescent protein is used a lot in molecular biology for all sorts of things and after lots of experiments like the one we did there are lots of different coloured proteins to use now. The good thing about GFP is that there is a specific part of it related to the colour so it can only mean changing a small number of DNA bases to change the colour. The changed DNA bases change the amino acids in the protein which then change the shape of the protein which changes the colour.

      Green Fluorescent Protein : Illuminating Molecular Level Processes

    • Photo: Avril Tucker

      Avril Tucker answered on 12 Jun 2017:

      Tried a cheese & strawberry jam sandwich! It’s delicious!!!
      Experiments are about seeing if something works… cheese & jam is a winning combination!

    • Photo: Sanjib Bhakta

      Sanjib Bhakta answered on 13 Jun 2017:

      Making of giggly, fluffy and many other varieties of slimes with my daughter…so much fun! best feeling ever!
      In our lab we do similar sort of stuff where we mix drugs and bugs together in different combinations!

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