Damyanti Choudhary

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24th may 2011

1st Day

Well, I knew I had to deal with a lot of biology here. I had biology till the 10th grade and i was hoping it would help but I remembered very little of what I had been taught. We started work today. Being the first day I came with the very little information that my 10th grade school biology provided me. Through the day I realized there was an abundance of information which we had missed in high school and we needed to know. Most of what I remembered was either jumbled up with something else or was too vague and insubstantial, and there was also quiet a lot of stuff that came out of no where. Reading everything once again made me realize that there needs to be a lot of hard-work to be put in and I am prepared for it. We learnt and discussed about cells, DNA, genes and proteins, synthetic biology etc. After a long day in college we got our first assignment today which again requires a lot of research work.

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25th may 2011

2nd Day

In today's class we did our DNA extraction by using test-tube, salt water, detergent and alcohol. First we rinsed our mouth with salt water for two minutes and poured it out into the test-tube and then added detergent which led to the formation of white substance at the bottom of the test-tube. Once the detergent settled down we added alcohol which further led to the formation of white thread like structure called DNA at the top of the water level in the test-tube.

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What I did with my DNA


Prayer stones have played a role in spirituality from the moment humanity externalized its sacred visions. I offered my DNA to the stone and in doing this i elevated my prayer and reconnected my-self with mother earth for a short time. She loves us and loves it when we connect ourselves with her in prayer.

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26th may 2011

3rd Day

Today, we were told to look into biomedical laboratories and what equipment we require to build one. From the list of equipment’s we all figured out, our groups got to make the Desiccator and Laminar Air Flow by using alternative materials. We did a detail study of both our equipment’s by looking into the functions and understanding the working principles. After lunch Aaron taught us how to make a microscope out of a web cam. It was amazing seeing magnified pixels of the laptop screen but the drawback was that it was not stable. So, now we have to create a microscope that is more stable.



27th may 2011

4th Day

Today, was the first day I came to class before time. For a change it was nice waiting for everyone else to arrive. In the beginning of the class we were asked to answer some questions:

What is life according to me? According to me life is a process which has continual changes such as growth, reproduction, change in functional activities and that turns to dust and ash when they die.

Do you think you have the right to modify a living thing? The interdependence of organisms in its ecosystem is the result of over hundreds or thousands of years of stability. Well, I think improving the living organism by making small modifications could be done without altering its interaction with other living-organisms in an ecosystem.

What is design according to you? According to me design is everywhere, it’s the skill, knowledge and the availability of materials utilized to solve a problem by identifying and analysing it and shaping the setting to our needs.



28th may 2011

5th Day

For today we need to grow bacteria and to do that you need to provide the bacteria with two most important things, food and a solidifying agent. Agar is the most commonly used solidifying agent but we had to find a alternate medium for agar. After doing a little bit of research i used chicken broth-(soup carton or the little cubes that you can dissolve to make broth) for providing nutrition to the bacteria and instead of agar i used gelatin from a grocery store (used to make pudding,just stick to the recipe on the box, but use chicken broth instead of water and no sugar)

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30th may 2011

6th Day

Today, we watched Gattaca. Its an extremely powerful and breathtaking movie based on a strong central idea -- discrimination in the era of genetic engineering -- and one man's will to defy society to pursue his dreams. “I got the better end of the deal. I only lent you my body - you lent me your dream.” -Jerome


I found the Bio-bricks i needed from partsregistry.org to make my previous idea possible.


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