Tuesday 13 July 2021 1:50pm
For most of the past weekend, enthusiastic biochemists and geneticists were working flat-out introducing passers-by to the science of the molecules that make up our cells.
As part of the International Science Festival, the University of Otago put on a giant Science Expo, which presented the work of science and health sciences departments and research groups in the grand atrium space in the Business School.
Otago Biochemistry joined forces with Genetics Otago to produced a booth offering a range of activities:
- Extracting DNA from bananas (yes, bananas have DNA!)
- How to use an adjustable micropipette, and have a go at pipetting into an agarose gel
- Vortexing coloured liquid with glitter (always a favourite)
- Looking at mutant fruit flies and lysozyme crystals down microscopes (some brilliant drawings of fruit flies)
Volunteers helping at the booth included third-year undergraduates all the way through to senior principal investigators from across Genetics and Biochemistry.
Feedback was very positive, with the banana DNA extraction a hot favourite with both young and old.
Volunteer scientists and science newbies play with pipettes and biomolecules at the International Science Festival Expo.