what experiments have you done?

Question: what experiments have you done?
- Keywords:
  experiment
Asked by restrizc01 to Amelia, Jim, Liz, Prateek, Richard on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by wharambc01, hainswsj01, jacksohl03.
- Jim Caryl answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  Gosh, in the nearly 15 years I have been doing experiments at university, I wouldn’t know where to start – there have been a lot of experiments. One thing that I would point out though is that for all the many hours I spend in the lab, only about 5-10% of that time is spent doing experiments. The rest of the time is spent either preparing to do the experiment (we have to make all the materials we want to work with) and analysing the result of the experiment.
  
  The experiment that I am working on today is to see if a little chemical that is produced by one of my bacteria is the particular chemical that makes it able to survive a medicine that is supposed to kill it. It’s important to understand the ways that bacteria avoid being killed, so that we can think of ways to stop them doing it. I’m quite looking forward to finding the answer to that one as I’ll be able to write about it if it works.
- Amelia Markey answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  Hi! Well like Jim I have also done a lot of experiments over the years I’ve been at university. But doing experiments with my device are always fun. My device was designed and made by me and people in my group and there’s not another one like it in the whole world! So on a good day when things are working it’s always really exciting to think no-one else has ever done this! 🙂
  
  At the moment my experiments involve putting DNA onto my device, along with other chemicals, and then collecting what comes out at the other end. My device makes really tiny droplets which are nano sized and in these droplets the DNA is copied (hopefully!). I collect the droplets at the other end of my device and then test them to see if they contain more DNA than they did when they went onto my device. If they do then I’m a very happy person! 🙂 My device is copying some of my DNA at the moment but not as well as it should be so I need to try different things to make this work better.
- Richard Badge answered on 14 Jun 2011:
  
  OOOhhh that’s a hard question – I’ve been doing experiments for 20 years and have worked on lots of different things… yeast (straight ones and round ones!), fruit flies, snails, triops, people from all over the world, mice, beetles, dragonflies, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans…
  
  They all involved DNA in one way or another so I guess most of my experiment have involved getting DNA out of organisms, and then doing tests on it – I always say that most of the time we are just moving colourless liquids around from tube to tube…!
  
  Richard
- Lizzard O'Day answered on 15 Jun 2011:
  
  A little of this and a little of that. As an undergrad I started my career as an organic chemist- meaning you literally synthesize small molecules that could (if they work) function as drugs. During my master’s I moved more towards physics and using a technique called “Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy” I learned how to calculate the structures of molecules that make up our bodies. Now as a PhD student, I have started to do more “translational research” where I work towards understand cancer biology and I work directly w/ cancer tissue (taken directly from a cancer patient- from the surgeon into my hands). From chemistry, to physics to biology- I’ve either tried it or I’d be willing to!

Question: what experiments have you done?

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