All living things are made of cells and share the same basic cellular machinery. This simple fact is what underlies the "Biotechnology Revolution," which has given scientists the ability to create new transgenic crops that are resistant to insect pests, plant viruses, or herbicides. They have also been able to amplify tiny amounts of DNA in order to identify disease-causing bacteria or viruses, and even the identity of a criminal suspect. Explore these subjects even further with some of the following topics found in the Project Ideas below:
Information about an organism based on DNA analysis
Chemical reactions and pathways that are important in living organisms
Modern genetic engineering techniques (such as isolating and/or manipulating DNA)
Sometimes science can be really messy or use pretty disgusting ingredients. That is what it takes to understand how the world works, even if the experiment isn't pretty. Do you like chemical reactions that stink and ooze foamy bubbles? Do you think it sounds fun to make a super gross liver smoothie? Then this is the experiment for you!
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How do scientists "copy" DNA? They use a process called the Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR. The key to making this process work is having a primer that will stick to the piece of DNA you want to copy, called a template. In this experiment you will test how the number of matches and mismatches in a primer will affect its ability to stick, or anneal, to the DNA template during PCR.
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Ever used a pair of molecular scissors? Restriction enzymes are molecular scissors that cut DNA into pieces. Find out which enzymes will cut, and where by making a restriction map. Then you can figure out what will happen if you change the sequence of the DNA. Will the same enzymes still cut the new DNA sequence?
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Do you like solving mysteries? In this experiment, you can find out how a DNA fingerprint can help you figure out whodunit. The answer might just be in the "sequence" of events!
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What are antibodies? How are they formed? How can they be used to identify different types of cells? This project is a practical introduction to the immune system.
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What do pizza, milk shakes, and ice cream sundaes have in common, besides being delicious and loaded with calories? You might be surprised to learn that these foods, because they contain dairy products, cannot be eaten by the majority of people around the world. Dairy products contain the sugar molecule lactose, and the majority of people on the planet slowly begin to lose the ability to digest lactose after the age of 2. In this human biology and health science fair project, you will investigate the activity of lactase, the enzyme responsible for the ability to digest lactose.
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In this project, you'll learn how to isolate DNA from onion cells, separating it from other cellular components in a manner that still preserves its structure and sequence. In the end, you'll have enough DNA to see with the unaided eye, and you'll be able to spool it to demonstrate its strand-like structure.
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Police detectives use various scientific tools to analyze evidence at a crime scene. One of the classic tools is the Kastle-Meyer test for the presence of blood. This test is inexpensive, easy to perform, and provides quick results. The test provides evidence if red spots found at a crime scene are actually blood. But the investigator needs to be careful, since other substances can also give a positive result. In this crime scene chemistry science project, you will learn how to perform the Kastle-Meyer test for blood, and you will test various substances to see which others also give a positive test result.
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Enzymes speed up chemical reactions by factors of at least a million. Now that's acceleration! This project investigates some of the factors that affect how fast enzymatic reactions occur.
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