DIYbio:Notebook/Open Gel Box 2.0 Project Description/Abstract The sexiest gel box Your LEDs are showing! (all 64 of them) Gel electrophoresis is one of the most basic and commonly used tools for molecular biology. Visualizing gel bands is also essential, either with a blue transilluminator or a UV transilluminator. Next up: Open Thermal Cycler! Active Members Norman Wang, Tito Jankowski On-Haitus Members: Jim Hardy, Mackenzie Cowell, Mike Katsevman Details 6/13/15: Wow, 6 years later! 4/10/09: Our first design is really pulling its weight in our tests. 3/15/09: The first design is complete. Professional filter, acrylic #1, acrylic #2 (l,r), 3/1/09 Features we like from other boxes Materials and costs Transilluminator design requirements Power supply design requirements Consumables research and notes - agarose, running buffer, markers Request For Comments (RFC) RFC1 (draft), read BBF RFC0 for editing guidelines
THIS IS NOT AN ALIEN -- Mind Blow #64 THE MACGYVER PROJECT: GENOMIC DNA EXTRACTION AND GEL ELECTROPHORESIS EXPERIMENTS USING EVERYDAY MATERIALS Abstract:DNA extraction and separation by agarose gel electrophoresis is a simple and exciting process that anyone can perform. However, the high cost of specialized equipment and chemicals often hinder such an experiment from being carried by members of the high school community. Here, we describe a cost effective way of extracting and electrophoresing DNA under a prescribed MacGyver limitation – that is using only materials available from a grocery store or shopping mall. In order to carry out this project, we decided to first divide the procedure into three specific sections, each to be addressed individually. Doing this, you find that the following challenges are present. They are: (i) extraction of DNA, (ii) gel electrophoresis of DNA and (iii) visualization of DNA. Extraction of DNA in a Research Setting: In a conventional research setting, the first step in extracting DNA involves breaking open the cell’s membrane by using physical or chemical means. GENERAL PROTOCOL 1.
Gephi, an open source graph visualization and manipulation software Hardware: Algae microscope and cell-picker Developer: Urs Gaudenz AKA GaudiLab & HackteriaLab team Date: Rolling Development Description: A CD-ROM reading head for XY micro-positioning of a small glas capillary. Design Files Formal specs unavailable. Related Hardware: roboscope xyz stage video Previous Coverage: – uncertain More Information: Check the insanity of the hackteria wiki page on Algae Culturing for more info. Image of the capillary. Memory - Mapping Memory 3D Interactive Trees are more than just beautiful fixtures of any city neighborhood. They make hot summer days more bearable by providing shade and naturally cooling air temperatures in the immediate surroundings. However, researchers have found a distinct and historical connection between tree canopy disparity in wealthy, mostly white neighborhoods and low-income, often minority communities. It goes back to a discriminatory housing practice called redlining.
The Radioactive Boy Scout Note: This article is being reprinted here as an example of what NOT to do with radioactive materials. Please do NOT attempt to recreate any part of these experiments for the following reasons: You will most likely poison yourself and/or others Nobody really needs an unsafe homemade reactor (especially one made of duct tape and foil) If enough people try these dangerous experiments, the government will try to outlaw any sort of legitimate private experiments with radioactivity or possession of any radioactive minerals or materials. What happened when a teenager tried a dangerous experiment in his back yard Tale of the Radioactive Boy Scout. Golf Manor, a subdivision in Commerce Township, Mich., some 25 miles outside of Detroit, is the kind of place where nothing unusual is supposed to happen, where the only thing lurking around the corner is an ice-cream truck. Ask Dottie Pease. Huddled with a group of neighbors, Pease was nervous. The cleanup was provoked by the boy next door, David Hahn.
The Radioactive Boy Scout There is hardly a boy or a girl alive who is not keenly interested in finding out about things. And that’s exactly what chemistry is: Finding out about things—finding out what things are made of and what changes they undergo. What things? Any thing! Every thing! —The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments Golf Manor is the kind of place where nothing unusual is supposed to happen, the kind of place where people live precisely because it is more than 25 miles outside of Detroit and all the complications attendant on that city. But June 26, 1995, was not a typical day. A middle-aged couple, Michael Polasek and Patty Hahn, lived there. What the men in the funny suits found was that the potting shed was dangerously irradiated and that the area’s 40,000 residents could be at risk. I met with David in the hope of making sense not only of his experiments but of him.
US government seizes 3D-printed gun files, but still shared elsewhere It didn't take long for the US government to get the designs for a 3D-printed gun taken down from its creator's site. "Defcad files are being removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls," reads a notice on the Defense Distributed site. "Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information." The 380-calibre Liberator is the first fully-3D-printed firearm developed by Defense Distributed, the infamous, attention-grabbing group led by 25-year-old Cody Wilson. Reporters from Forbes were invited to a special demonstration of the Liberator last week by Wilson -- after initially exploding under stress, Wilson successfully tweaked the design further, enough to trust it to fire safely by hand. A single metal nail, which acts as the firing pin, is one of two components that aren't 3D-printed -- the other is a 170g piece of metal.