DNA Madness: Extracting Your Own DNA in Your Kitchen!

[freebird1988miss]

nice. she found the kitchen !!! 

[112aarons]

This will be the second time my child will do for a science project. Its cool

[feebix]

Excellent video :) Thanks...

[TheSmartsafa]

can we use something else other than d alchohol ?????

[hasif199]

hasif cute sgt2 ;p

[hasif199]

MESTECH boleyh!!!! yeah!!!

[hasif199]

wow..nice song!!

[mrtabasom]

This tutorial is way better than the other ones.

[09fod]

its a girl?!!?!?!?

[pikachuhwang]

can you pick up the DNA

[samsung1234ize]

that was cool you helped me with my science project!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[marcuelcajon]

Skeptics guide to the Universe, is such a good podcast. ALso check out Radio Lab. Nice video.

[MrRonPaul2012]

DNA & Stem cells, Nukes, solar power, etc,etc were discovered, used & documented on clay tablets thousands of years ago.

[thepin82]

so can just slosh the salt water in your mouth then add a drop of soap then add rubbing alchohal its not exact and the detergent works to remove the membrane because soap kills fat and the membrane is made of fat

[hugeSLIPKNOTfan1]

if you put alcohol in ur mouth you will get sick

[qr1234567890]

cool. but dna is a negatively charged molecule

[writeincode]

i'm gonna do this and put my dna in an egg through a tiny hole then keep it warm and make a tiny me.

[clockwork140]

lmfao!

[ProudSikhJatt]

can you really do tht lol i want to do tht if possible?

[ScullyzOr]

Yes you can, and it works. Did it for a school experiment.

[ProudSikhJatt]

u mean make a human dna of ourselves? thts wht i meant from home?

[psychopapaya]

@writeincode LOL, good one!

[strangerlover11]

she cute girl looks like a handsome boy

hahahaha

[BMG88]

great experiment.. and very interesting..

however you explained it WAY TO thoroughly...

[se7en1976]

Can I inject my own DNA into my dog to make it grow a little baby version of myself under its skin?

[private973]

wow! you look like a boy you man lady we watched this in class

[99rhetbaboons]

I'm researching this, too. What I'm finding is that every single last protocol one can find on the internet is a little, to a lot, different. So, one has to try many of them to see which works best, and which are bunk.

[interstitialofficial]

Since the owner never visits; I'll go ahead and ask a question because I'm crazy. What amount of spit water was drawn up into the medicine syringe and added to the 1mL NaCl soloution bottle?

[xXserkXx]

when u say clean ur mouth you mean brush your need or what?

[jarvik2000]

Great video, very well done, You are great at teaching. But I think Miescher did it with blood cells, and later he worked with semen from salmons. Could one do the experiment with blood following this same process?!?

[skoumas]

amazingly cool. the video and the style and the expierement it self! good job. 5+

[interstitialofficial]

do you need to wear gloves?

So, it doesn't matter how much mouth solution is put into the bottle? Or the oral medication syringe was used merely because of the small bottle neck?

The DNA reject each other. So what? The (+ charged Na) salt combines the DNA together?

[prayfertrey]

The positively charged Na cancels the negative charge of the dna molecule so that the dna no longer repel each other, but instead clump together to form a larger, more visible mass.

What I don't yet know is if the dna entirely dissolves and then clumps together in some haphazard fashion when precipitated, making it nucleic acid, but not the same original molecule, arranged as it was in the nucleus... or what.

[amethyst8teen]

Will denatured alcohol hurt the DNA?

[snnneto5]

Just to clarify: DNA is negatively charged and not positive.

Good Job

[tmobileg]

Really nice demo of human DNA extraction. Now, what do we do with it once it's done?

[h0stI13]

you could use it for gel electrophoresis and find your DNA fingerprint... but I don't think you'll get good results with the DNA you extract using this method because it might be contaminated with junk from the air and from other places

[tmobileg]

I think you're right about it being contaminated with soap... It might be clean DNA.

[Superjadi]

are you italian, french or american?

[mrantis]

the alcohol can be warm but works better if cold

[prayfertrey]

First, I love you. Ok, secondly, could you just scrape some cells of your arm? Did they have to be living cells? I ask because you can find instructions for dna extraction on youtube but for plants, and I found a website in my search for more info that warned in solemn tones NEVER to do it with mammal cells... Many thanks.

[HAHA897]

girl or guy?.....

[andr0oS]

The problem being that the cells she extracted were only partially hers given the numerous bacteria inside our mouths.

[CuMeiLin]

bacterias were terminated by the rubbing alcohol

[andr0oS]

Yes, but does it leave their lifeless husks behind? If it does then their DNA would remain in the mixture.

[CuMeiLin]

yep! =) bacterias do have DNA. but let's not forget the following:

- not all bacterias have DNA

- Their DNA are usually in loops or coiled in shape so we could easily identify if that's her DNA or the bacterias.

- they have also double stranded chromosome but within their size.. the DNA that would resurface would be really tiny =)

* yep.. you've got a point that her DNA in this vid is mixed with the bacteria's DNA =)

[mrantis]

yeah the alchol kills the bacteria like CuMeiLin said

[crispier92]

also kills your cells, its nothing to do with killing or not, simply extracting the DNA

[TehVic]

Science + Pretty Girls = Awesometacular.

[6wooahyaaay9]

2:33 lmaom asmdklasnfmklmdfksldmsnblkdxjo­frmdklnfsdjkglnerjdsfkbjnsakdn­g jrotc

[SgtSnipe]

That's a sweet t-shirt! Anyone know where she got it?

[mooeypoo]

I got it at Union Square, on one of those artist markets :)

[AmpRebel1]

cool video

[Sergionewyork]

amstrons

[BeAnBeAn22]

cool video and intro logo.

you sound really smart lol and the use of big words with ur accent make it sound cool.

no offense at all tho. but r u a guy or a girl,.

[nixart]

BeAnBeAn22, girls have breasts. So she appears to be a girl!

[blurlistener]

poor video quality

[r3dsox24]

thank you for the video it really helped me with my science fair project

[lesliecaldera]

HAHAH she said bleeker 2:33, wonder where shes from. Good experiment!

[DeTeCTiveMorgan]

Great video =D

I think I gonna try to do this at my science homework

[csustudent209]

Are you female, male, or a mixture of the two?

[Paulancar]

maybe you are both. You have troubles in your brain.

[leighaclarke9]

me neither lol

[DeTeCTiveMorgan]

a woman =D

[Danmill23]

That's awesome Moo.

[hilelibye]

wow that is amazing vedio,but what is the name of alchol that you are used in this experiment????

THANX :)

[xxyaanboy]

Ure good as urself

[Euan9999]

i find smart people sexy lol

[deepinsidedorothy]

good tits, pretty big

[mauvejelly]

Great video. Thank you.

[jnoort]

Interesting video... Thanks!

[msginca]

Very Cool Video!

[ailboles]

Very cool video. Not to be nitpicky, but I think you said that DNA has a net positive charge... Which it doesn't. But still, good explanation on how the materials you used allow for the DNA to be extracted. It's a little more simplistic than the procedure I use in my lab (I do phenol extractions using A. thaliana), but it's a good demonstration of saucepan biology.

Kudos!

[smarterthanthat]

Thanks for your comment, ailboles :)

I'm not usually dealing with biology, my major field is physics - so I had to do some extra research for this one. From what I've gathered, the 'job' of the salt is to "recombine" the DNA molecules so we can see them, through the 'negative-ions' in the salt solution. Is that not true?

I'd love to know what the salt does instead or a more accurate way of putting it. Can you elaborate? I need to do more research, it seems, and change the blog entry too :)

[ailboles]

You have the right idea, but you just swapped the charges. DNA has a net negative charge from the phosphates in the backbone. The salt solution does interact with the DNA as much as to use the positive ions (both positive and negative ions are in solution) to neutralize some of the negative charge of the phosphates. Without the salt, the DNA strands experience stronger negative-negative charge repulsion, and thus would be less likely to get close enough to form a precipitate. Did that help?

[ailboles]

I'm sorry to be nitpicky again, but I was reading your blog entry and I noticed something that (again, this is nitpicky) is inaccurate based on scientific terminology. You mention in the blog DNA melting in water. "Melting" when used in reference to DNA actually means to separate the two strands of DNA. I think you meant to say DNA is soluble in water but not in ethanol. Other than what I previously mentioned, the entry looks great. Steven would be proud.

[smarterthanthat]

hey ailboles,

I fixed the blog entry (and gave you credit! thanks for the correction!).. contact me if you want to be written differently.

In any case, yes, i know, i said "melting" when in fact i am not even sure it's a scientific term at all.. :( it's supposed to be either 'dissolving' or 'breaking apart' or something similar.. molecules don't quite melt :)

I will have to add a "Corrections to the Video" section in the blog :P will do it this weekend.

Thanks :)

[OrganicWebhead]

@smarterthanthat Hi there=) If i'm not mistaken the salt will increase the polarity of the water, its normaly polar, but with the salt it will be even more, forcing the DNA to move to the alcool layer =)

And thanks for the really nice video, it's a wonderfull thing to be curious =) (except in horror movies =P )

[PauldChemist]

@smarterthanthat Hi there=) If i'm not mistaken the salt will increase the polarity of the water, its normaly polar, but with the salt it will be even more, forcing the DNA to move to the alcool layer =)

And thanks for the really nice video, it's a wonderfull thing to be curious =) (except in horror movies =P )

[jergsden]

Fascinating yet gross, ain't science grand? :)

[smarterthanthat]

That's gross?? Miescher found this stuff out of puss from used bandages.

Now *THAT* is gross.

But grand, indeed :)

[BorgHub]

you should have your own TV show

[ledflyd]

agreed

[farvision]

To get larger amounts of DNA one can start with spinach or other foods. Then one can reach in with chop sticks and pull the glob out from the interface - shiny stringy and transparent!

Not quite as cool as what you did, but one gets more DNA. Merely shearing it makes it less viscous because the DNA fragments.

So shooting it through a needle would be a viable simple experiment. There might also be some nice birefringence, but I'm guessing on that.

[smarterthanthat]

yup, I also added a bunch of alternative experiments to my resources list :) Bananas, peas, spinach, onion... there's a bunch, and they're all cool :)

[farvision]

Nice video! I wonder how much of that DNA is

from bacteria ...

[smarterthanthat]

that's a good point, actually. I am not sure how this could be checked... regardless, since I washed my mouth about 10 seconds before i swirled the water in my mouth, I lowered the number of bacteria for it, but I can't possibly be sure :)

Regardless, even if it's part-bacteria DNA, it still is cool to look at :)

[farvision]

Well if you'd been more gentle bacterial DNA could be separated from human DNA by electroophoresis - but a better way would be to cut it with a restriction enzyme and clone it.

Then sequence a few clones and blast that against

the databases - you'd find out pretty quickly what it is and relative proportions. Of course all that would take a full molecular biology lab!

[smarterthanthat]

Yes, but the entire point was to do it in the kitchen :P

But that's a good point regardless, I thought about contamination but my "worry" was more about the fact that no matter how well I washed everything, the kitchen probably contains a lot of contaminants, any number of which could get inside any of my solutions...

[farvision]

Oh I absolutely agree that doing it in the kitchen is an important thing to do.

Another approach would be to use a more pure source such as blood or semen (you need a source of course!! ;-).  I wonder if skin or hair could

be broken down enough?

[smarterthanthat]

Actually, isn't skin and hair "dead" cells? Not sure this specific process would work..

Of course, yes, it would work with semen and blood, but I'm not sure it would work at home... or.. uhm.. has a place in a kitchen ;)

((should I make a shirt of this, too? :P ))

[AVoiceFromGermany]

What an amazing experiment! I stand in awe...