• Question: what is your favourite scientist skill that you have ever done

    Asked by i love minions to Freddie, Jena, Kirsten, Kon, Zarah on 16 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Jennifer Bates

      Jennifer Bates answered on 16 Nov 2016:

      Learning to extract microscopic plant parts from soil! I had to learn how to use the right chemicals, learn how to use to centrifuge, and then how to make microscope slides – it’s a really tough thing to do!

    • Photo: Konstantinos Drousiotis

      Konstantinos Drousiotis answered on 17 Nov 2016:

      Hi,

      The best method that I’ve learnt in the labs is definitely the use of Isothermal Titration calorimetry. This is a machine that precisely measures how well/how tight a bacterial system grabs the plant sugar! You put the protein from this bacterial system into a sensitive vial and then add drop by drop the sugar. When the protein finds and grabs (ie. binds) the sugar there is heat released in the mixture which is measured by the gold layer in the vial. This way we know how well the protein binds the sugar and if its a suitable system to increase bacteria’s sensitivity to plants sugars!

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