How To Extract DNA From Anything Living

ORIGINAL: U Utah

First, you need to find something that contains DNA. Since DNA is the blueprint for life, everything living contains DNA. 

For this experiment, we like to use green split peas. But there are lots of other DNA sources too, such as: 

• Spinach 
• Chicken liver 
• Strawberries 
• Broccoli 

Certain sources of DNA should not be used, such as: 

• Your family pet, Fido the dog 
• Your little sister's big toe 

Bugs you caught in the yard

Put in a blender: 

• 1/2 cup of split peas (100ml) 
• 1/8 teaspoon table salt (less than 1ml) 
• 1 cup cold water (200ml) 

Blend on high for 15 seconds. 

The blender separates the pea cells from each other, so you now have a really thin pea-cell soup.

Pour your thin pea-cell soup through a strainer into another container (like a measuring cup). 

Add 2 tablespoons liquid detergent (about 30ml) and swirl to mix. 

Let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes.

Pour the mixture into test tubes or other small glass containers, each about 1/3 full. 

Add a pinch of enzymes to each test tube and stir gently. Be careful! If you stir too hard, you'll break up the DNA, making it harder to see. 

Use meat tenderizer for enzymes. If you can't find tenderizer, try using pineapple juice or contact lens cleaning solution. 

Tilt your test tube and slowly pour rubbing alcohol (70-95% isopropyl or ethyl alcohol) into the tube down the side so that it forms a layer on top of the pea mixture. Pour until you have about the same amount of alcohol in the tube as pea mixture. 

Alcohol is less dense than water, so it floats on top. Look for clumps of white stringy stuff where the water and alcohol layers meet. 

DNA is a long, stringy molecule. The salt that you added in step one helps it stick together. So what you see are clumps of tangled DNA molecules!

DNA normally stays dissolved in water, but when salty DNA comes in contact with alcohol it becomes undissolved. This is called precipitation. The physical force of the DNA clumping together as it precipitates pulls more strands along with it as it rises into the alcohol.

You can use a wooden stick or a straw to collect the DNA. If you want to save your DNA, you can transfer it to a small container filled with alcohol.

Now that you've successfully extracted DNA from one source, you're ready to experiment further. Try these ideas or some of your own:

• Experiment with other DNA sources. Which source gives you the most DNA? How can you compare them? 
• Experiment with different soaps and detergents. Do powdered soaps work as well as liquid detergents? How about shampoo or body scrub? 
• Experiment with leaving out or changing steps. We've told you that you need each step, but is this true? Find out for yourself. Try leaving out a step or changing how much of each ingredient you use. 
• Do only living organisms contain DNA? Try extracting DNA from things that you think might not have DNA. 

Want to conduct more DNA extraction experiments? Try out different soaps and detergents. Do powdered soaps work as well as liquid detergents? 

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Supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) [No. 1 R25 RR16291-01] from the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. The contents provided here are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NCRR or NIH.

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EXTRACCIÓN DE ADN DE GERMEN DE TRIGO

¿Te gustaría ver MONTONES de ADN?

Este método produce enormes cantidades de ADN que puede ser fácilmente colectado.

Aquí esta lo que tienes que hacer para cada extracción de ADN:

Materiales necesarios:

• Germen de trigo crudo - 1 gramo o una cucharadita. El germen de trigo puede ser comprado en tiendas de productos naturales o en grandes supermercados. El germen de trigo tostado no funciona.
• Detergente líquido - 1 miligramo o un toquecito de 1/4 de cucharadita. Las siguientes marcas de detergente líquido han sido probadas y hemos encontrado que funcionan para este protocolo de extracción de ADN: Lemon Fresh Joy, Woolite, Ivory, Shaper, Arm & Hammer, Herbal Essence shower gel by Clairol, Tide, Dish Drops, Kool Wash, Cheer, Sunlight Dish Soap, Dawn, Delicate, All, and Ultra Dawn. Los siguientes productos líquidos no funcionan bien: Life Tree, Shout, Shaklee, Sunlight Dishwasher, and LOC. Los detergentes en polvo tampoco producen buenos resultados con este protocolo.
• Alcohol - 14 ml o una cucharada. El alcohol isopropílico al 70% es el más barato ya que se puede comprar en el supermercado o en la farmacia. Sin embargo, contienen un mayor porcentaje de agua, por lo que es un poco más difícil precipitar el ADN con el. El alcohol etílico al 95% (que es 95% alcohol) trabaja bien. Este hace el ADN más fácil de colectar.
• Agua de la llave a 50-60° Celsius - 20 ml o una cucharada. No uses agua con temperatura mayor de 50-60° C. El agua se enfriara durante el procedimiento, pero esto no importa. Comprueba la temperatura del agua de la llave, puede que esté suficientemente caliente tal y como sale de la llave.
• Tubos de ensayo de 50 ml 
• Tubos de ensayo con tapa, vasos químicos o frascos de especies.
• Cilindro graduado, 
• Cucharas de medir u otro instrumento de medición.
• Palito aplicador de madera, 
• Varilla o gancho de vidrio para mezclar o un gancho hecho con un clip sujeta papeles para mezclar y colectar la mezcla.
• Gotero, 
• Pipeta de Pauster y una bomba de caucho o piezas de papel toalla los cuales posiblemente sean necesarios para remover espuma.
• Contenedores sellables (opcional), tal como un tubo, un vial o un frasco para almacenar ADN.
• Alcohol al 50% (opcional) - para almacenar ADN. 
• Puedes usar de igualmente alcohol isopropílico o alcohol etílico para almacenar el ADN que extraigas. Para hacer 100 ml de alcohol al 50% con alcohol isopropílico, mezcla 71 ml de alcohol isopropílico al 70% con 29 ml de agua destilada. Si usas alcohol etílico mezcla 53 ml de alcohol etílico al 95% (etanol) con 47 ml de agua destilada.
• Papel toalla 
• O papel filtro para dejar secando ADN.

Instrucciones

• Coloca 1 gramo o una cucharadita de germen de trigo crudo en uno de los tubos de ensayo de 50 ml, vaso químico o frasco.
• Añade 20 ml o una cucharada de agua de la llave (entre 50-60 grados Celsius) y mezcla constantemente por 3 minutos.
• Añade 1 ml o un toquecito de 1/4 de cucharadita de detergente líquido y mezcla suavemente cada minuto por 5 minutos. Intenta no hacer espuma.
• Usa el gotero, pipeta o pedacitos de papel toalla para remover cualquier rastro de espuma sobre la solución.
• Ladea el tubo de ensayo, vaso químico o frasco. LENTAMENTE vierte 14 ml o una cucharada de alcohol por la pared del tubo de manera que forme una capa sobre la solución de agua, germen de trigo y detergente. No mezcles ambas soluciones. El ADN se precipita en la interfase de agua y alcohol (la interfase es la zona entre el agua y el alcohol). Por esto, es crucial verter el alcohol muy despacio de manera que forme una capa sobre la solución acuosa. Si el alcohol se mezcla con el agua, este se diluye demasiado y el ADN no se precipitará.
• Deja el tubo de ensayo, vaso químico o frasco reposar por algunos minutos. ADN firme, pegajoso y de color blanco aparecerá poco a poco donde el agua y el alcohol se tocan. Usualmente podrás ver ADN precipitándose de la solución en la interfase de agua y alcohol tan pronto como viertas el alcohol. Si dejas la preparación reposar por 15 minutos más o menos, el ADN flotará sobre el alcohol.
• Normalmente podrás obtener una mayor precipitación de ADN de la solución usando una de las herramientas colectoras de ADN (tal como la varilla de vidrio o el gancho hecho con un clip para sujetar papel) si cuidadosamente levantas la capa de agua hacia el alcohol. Esto permite que una mayor cantidad de ADN entre en contacto con el alcohol y se precipite. Puede que encuentres útil el vertir la solución de agua y detergente dentro de un tubo de ensayo limpio, dejando en el otro tubo el germen de trigo, antes de adicionar el alcohol.
• Usa una varilla de vidrio, un gancho hecho con un clip para sujetar papel o un palito de madera para colectar el ADN.
• Si quieres conservar el ADN, almacénalo en alcohol al 50 o 70%, en un frasco que se pueda sellar o déjalo secar al aire en papel toalla o papel filtro.

Extracted Oil And Gas Wastewater Causing Earthquakes?

ORIGINAL: The Energy Colective

Joseph Romm

March 29, 2013

A 2011 magnitude 5.7 quake in OK, linked to wastewater injection, buckled US Highway 62. (Credit: John Leeman)

After pulling massive amounts of fossil fuels out of the Earth’s crust so we can burn it up into our atmosphere, we have a good sense of where the stuff goes. Our oceans. A global greenhouse. Our lungs. But what happens to the ground formerly occupied by those fossil fuels?

It’s becoming increasingly clear that oil and gas extraction processes are actually weakening the structural integrity of the Earth’s crust just enough to cause more frequent earthquakes, in places not used to them.

Oklahoma, for instance, is not known for earthquakes. Yet the central U.S. has seen an elevenfold jump in recent years, including the Sooner State’s largest earthquake on record. This 5.7-magnitude quake occurred on November 6, 2011 near Prague, Oklahoma. And research published yesterday in Geology from the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University, and the U.S. Geological Survey has made a direct connection to the disposal of wastewater from conventional oil production:

A new study in the journal Geology is the latest to tie a string of unusual earthquakes, in this case, in central Oklahoma, to the injection of wastewater deep underground. Researchers now say that the magnitude 5.7 earthquake near Prague, Okla., on Nov. 6, 2011, may also be the largest ever linked to wastewater injection. Felt as far away as Milwaukee, more than 800 miles away, the quake — the biggest ever recorded in Oklahoma — destroyed 14 homes, buckled a federal highway and left two people injured. Small earthquakes continue to be recorded in the area.

The recent boom in U.S. energy production has produced massive amounts of wastewater. The water is used both in hydrofracking, which cracks open rocks to release natural gas, and in coaxing petroleum out of conventional oil wells. In both cases, the brine and chemical-laced water has to be disposed of, often by injecting it back underground elsewhere, where it has the potential to trigger earthquakes. The water linked to the Prague quakes was a byproduct of oil extraction at one set of oil wells, and was pumped into another set of depleted oil wells targeted for waste storage.

As Climate Progress has written before, this practice of disposing chemical-laced water generated during the extraction of oil and gas has far-reaching effects. Drillers have been doing this for more than a decade, and the researchers note that the Oklahoma quake did not actually require very much wastewater. In fact, because we have been doing this for so long, the built-up pressure in the Earth’s crust changes the criteria of how quakes happen. The study’s abstract notes:

Significantly, this case indicates that decades-long lags between the commencement of fluid injection and the onset of induced earthquakes are possible, and modifies our common criteria for fluid-induced events.

So we could be paying for more than a decade of wastewater injection and fracking for quite some time with earthquakes. There’s not much more room 9,000 feet down. Wellhead records indicate that pressure in these areas underground increased by a factor of ten from 2001 to 2006.

Fracking usually receives more attention for seismic activity than wastewater injection. Ohio banned fracking “to stop the ground from shaking.” But it’s the whole process of drilling (oil and gas), fracking, and then disposal that contributes to the problem.

A tanker truck prepares to leave OH Water plant that removes metals and chemicals from fracking wastewater. (Photo: Scott Galvin)

Can we stop doing this? Recycling the wastewater is cheaper, and more and more gas companies have started contracting out to do just that. But as Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials note, it’s hard to track where this water goes because it is not regulated. This is rather important because the water is laced with toxic metals, dangerous chemicals, and radium. Recycling companies say the waste ends up in landfills.

So the two options are to either inject it back down in the ground where it lubricates fault lines enough to cause earthquakes in Oklahoma and Ohio, or hope that radium doesn’t leak out of landfills.

Renewable fuels sound better and better the more we learn about enhanced drilling for unconventional oil and gas.

Authored by:

Joseph Romm

Joe Romm is a Fellow at American Progress and is the editor of Climate Progress, which New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called "the indispensable blog" and Time magazine named one of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010." In 2009, Rolling Stone put Romm #88 on its list of 100 "people who are reinventing America." Time named him a "Hero of the Environment″ and “The Web’s most influential ...