In these scientific series of geocaches we want to introduce modern
science to you. Each part consists of a task which is common daily
work in that particular field of science. These tasks are not the
easiest ones for newcomers but as we were always learned “if it is
hard to do you will better understand the principle”.
The give location is not the cache location, the cache is located
at:
Biotechnology:
Question A Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a technique to
make copies of a specific piece of DNA. Search yourself for
background information. If my starting solution has 1000 copies of
the target DNA then how many orders of magnitude of DNA is there in
the container after 32 cycles (assuming 100% yield and no
depletion)?
Answer A =
As you can see it is really easy to copy a specific piece of
DNA.
Question B
DNA consists of 4 bases two purines and two pyrimidines. The
structure was discovered by Watson and Crick. Their research had
opened the gate to biotechnology. What is the total amount of
carbon atoms in a Guanine basepair?
Answer B =
Question C
The following gene is found in the DNA, using the ‘Rosetta stone
of life’ codon table you will have to find the number of leucine
aminoacids in the gene hidden in the following piece of DNA? Find
the gene first!
TGT ATA GCC CTG ATG CTG TTT CTC TTA ATT AAA CGT CGC CTG CAT TAA TAG
TGA CAC TCC TTG TTA ATT
Answer C =
Question D
Restriction enzymes. DNA can be cut on specific places using a
restriction enzyme. These group of proteins are very useful
nowadays in biotechnology. Find the restriction recognition site
length for the isoschizomer of NgoMIV restriction enzyme?
Answer D =
Question E
Plasmids are widely used to produce organism foreign proteins in
for example the E. coli bacteria. What is the size of puc19 cloning
vector in basepairs?
Answer E =
Question F
After all the very hard lab work it is most important to share your
findings with the world this is done by publications in a
scientific journal like Nature or Science. On which page in a
highly ranked journal did I. Wilmut et al. workers published their
work on ‘Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian
cells’?
The starting page of the article!
This was the first publication about cloning a sheep.
Answer F =
The cache itself is a laboratory 50 ml tube with screwcap, so log
and write down the constant you find in the cap for the bonus cache
yet to come. Careful with broken glass
Very carful for the Neodenium magnets they do really stick to
anything metal.
I have measured some offset to the location if you can get better
coordinates please tell me.