Your Challenge: You will isolate the DNA from a sample of spinach.
1. Blend the spinach, salt, and water together in a blender until the mixture looks soupy.
2. Pour this mixture through a strainer and into a measuring cup.
3. Add the dishwashing soap, and wait 10 minutes.
4. Add the meat tenderizer to the mixture.
5. Add the rubbing alcohol (add the exact volume that is already in your measuring cup).
6. Wait 3 minutes. Are any changes occurring?
7. Look into the cup for a white-cobweb type substance. That is the DNA.
How does this work? First the cells are broken up in the blender. Next the detergent is added to emulsify (or break up) fat. The meat tenderizer is added to break down the proteins in the spinach. DNA is soluble in water but not alcohol. This last step allows the DNA to precipitate out so we can collect it.
If the total DNA in one person were laid in a straight line, it would stretch to the sun and back over 30 times (it's 93 million miles from here to the sun).
Humans are 99.9% genetically identical – only 0.1% of our genetic make-up differs.
Our genes are remarkably similar to those of other life forms. For example, we share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees, 90% with mice, and 85% with zebra fish!
Less than 2% of the total DNA carries instructions to make proteins. The rest is called 'junk' DNA, because it is a hodge-podge of sequences that does not seem to code for anything.