Since the 1960’s scientists have been wondering what the smallest group of chemicals is that can be stuck together to form something that is alive.
Recently researchers have started using the chemical building blocks of life like a microscopic set of Lego blocks, snapping them together in various ways to discover the answer to this puzzle.
In the process they hope to learn a little more about what life actually is.
CHEMICAL LIFE
Your body is simply a great big bag of chemicals. This bag is made up of trillions of smaller bags called cells.
Each of these cells contains a plan outlining how your body is put together, and instructions for how each bit works. Different cells use different parts of this plan to grow, work and reproduce.
This plan is called your genome. It is constructed from a series of chemicals that form a larger chemical called deoxyribonucleic acid – or, DNA for short.S
Every living organism contains a genome – although its exact chemical makeup changes from organism to organism. That is, there are different plans for different types of life.
Scientists are hoping to discover the smallest number of instructions this genome needs to create that elusive spark that breathes life into an ordinary set of chemicals.
You probably wouldn’t be able to afford the equipment to try these experiments out at home but you’ll definitely be able to afford the stuff you need to pull the DNA out of some spinach.
EXTRACT SPINACH DNA
WHAT YOU NEED:
• spinach
• blender
• salty water (¼ teaspoon salt per cup of water)
• strainer
• glass
• detergent
• spoon
• meat tenderiser (powdered)
• small narrow jar
• ice-cold rubbing alcohol (leave in freezer overnight)
WHAT YOU DO:
1. Put a whole stack of spinach into the blender with some salty water. Let the blender do its thing for a little while.
2. Strain the slush you’ve created into a glass, making sure that no lumpy bits get through.
3. Estimate how much spinach liquid you have. Add about a quarter of this volume in detergent.
4. Add a big spoonful of meat tenderiser to the glass and then very carefully stir it around for about five minutes.
5. Pour some of the mixture into the small jar. Next, pour an equal amount of rubbing alcohol down the side of the jar (it helps to slightly tilt the jar). If you’ve been careful, then you should have formed two layers – with the alcohol on top, and the spinach juice on the bottom.
After a little while some DNA will start to separate out from the spinach juice. It’s a white stringy substance that looks a little bit like runny snot.
WHAT’S GOING ON
In this experiment you ripped open a whole stack of spinach cells to reveal their DNA.
The runny ‘snot’ you formed is lots of DNA from lots of spinach cells. It contains all the information you need to make stacks more spinach. Although why anyone would want to make more spinach is beyond me!
DID YOU KNOW?
There are around 6 billion people living on this planet - and that’s about how many pieces of information human DNA contains!
Your DNA is twisted and folded into tiny parcels that can fit inside each of your cells, which are only about 0.005mm in diameter – tiny, in other words!
If you could unravel all the DNA from one human cell and lie it out in a line it would be 2 metres long!
