Calgary Auto and Truck Show 2005

Well, its been a while since I went, but I was finally had time to get an image gallery that worked. Because I am too lazy to write my own, I went in search of a pre made, preferably PHP, image gallery. I found a whole bunch, but none of them worked, or at least I couldn’t make them work. I was almost about to code my own, it wouldn’t have been basic, as I don’t have time to make it cool, but then I found a wonderful little piece of software called JAlbum. Its create! It does all the work. If you want more information of JAlbum click here.

Now, the point of this post is to inform you of said gallery of said Car Show. I wasn’t able to take many pictures, as we forgot to charge the battery before we went, and so it died. There are a lot of shots of the BMW M5, that is because its my favourite car. Anyways, the link to the album is here. Enjoy! I will probably modify the template and such at a later date.

Also, I finished my new Maple Design site. I haven’t uploaded it yet to the root directory, so just going to mapledesign.ca won’t do anything. To see it please go here. Thanks!

EDIT:I have updated my Maple Design site. The new one now can be found at mapledesign.ca. The old URL that I gave above will still work. Also, I finished a new site. Its a site about the dining room suite we’re selling. If you want to take a look, go here

Cool DNA Extraction

Call it what you will, but I was watching The Screen Savers and saw one of the coolest things yet, DNA extraction! Now I haven’t tried this yet myself, but they did it on the show and it worked and it was originally published by Dr. Louisa Stark and the University of Utah. It looked really cool and fun. It doesn’t have much practicality, but it still is fun, and if you have a microscope like me, it could be fun! By the way, I went to the Calgary International Auto and Truck Show on Thursday night, and will be publishing a post on that in the near future with pictures. Anyways, here the directions, as seen on The Screen Savers.

DNA Extraction Made Easy
written by Dr. Louisa Stark on Thursday, March 10, 2005

You Can Extract DNA From Anything Living!

Desoxyribonucleic acid! You mean I can see it? How?

Just follow these 3 easy steps:

Detergent

eNzymes (meat tenderizer)

Alcohol

It’s that simple? Tell me more!

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
* Onions
* Broccoli

Here’s the fun part. Put these items in a blender:

* Your DNA source (about 100ml or 1/2 cup of split peas)
* A large pinch of table salt (less than 1ml or 1/8 teaspoon)
* Twice as much cold water as the DNA source (about 200ml or 1 cup)

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. Because this step is pretty messy, certain sources of DNA should not be used, such as your family dog or close relation.

And now, those three easy steps:

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

How much pea soup do you have? Add about 1/6 of that amount of liquid detergent (about 30ml or 2 tablespoons) 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.

Try any detergent you may have on hand.

2. 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.

3. Tilt your test tube and slowly pour rubbing alcohol (70-95 percent 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.

DNA will rise into the alcohol layer from the pea layer. You can use a wooden stick or other hook to draw the DNA into the alcohol.

What is that stringy stuff?

Alcohol is less dense than water, so it floats on top. Since two separate layers are formed, all of the grease and the protein that we broke up in the first two steps and the DNA have to decide: “Hmmm…which layer should I go to?”

This is sort of like looking around the room for the most comfortable seat. In this case, the protein and grease parts find the bottom, watery layer the most comfortable place, while the DNA prefers the top, alcohol layer. DNA is a long, stringy molecule that likes to clump together.

Congratulations! You have just completed a DNA extraction!

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.

Many thanks to Dr. Louisa Stark and the University of Utah Genetic Science Learning Center, where this article was originally published.

For more information and a FAQ, please click here

Server Switch

Well, we’ve switched servers. We are no longer being hosted by BlogSpot and I am now on my own server, well not quite, but sorta. Anyways, we are now being hosted by Maple Design which most of you know, is my company. Along with new servers is a new URL. I’ve owned mapledesign.ca for the past couple years, and have used, but not to this extent. Before it was just forwarding to another url. Now it is actually a site, if you catch my drift. If not thats your problem. Anyways, the new URL for my blog is http://www.mapledesign.ca/blog. Also, in my last post, I gave a link to my History of BMW page. This link is WRONG. I am no longer using that url and the BMW page, can be found right here. Also with the switch, my personal site has also moved. It can be found here.
Thanks and remember to change those bookmarks, if you have em.

Oh and by the way, no new post will be visible on http://maplefortune.blogspot.com/ so don’t go there!