• Question: What sort of experements do you conduct

    Asked by cutlerc to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 17 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by maddyxxx.
    • Photo: Edward Codling

      Edward Codling answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I do various types of experiments but they can probably be divided into 2 types: computer simulations and ‘real’ experiments.

      In computer simulations I try to set up a population of ‘virtual’ animals (a bit like animal Sims if you have played that game). I give them a few rules on how they should behave and then I see what happens after a certain time. I then change the rules a bit and see if that makes any difference to what happens. This is a bit like doing a real experiment as we collect lots of data and have to interpret and understand the results we get. However, because you can do pretty much anything in a computer simulation, I can try lots of different examples. The big problem I then have is trying to relate what I have done on the computer to the real world. This is where I have to make some predictions using the computer and then test them in real experiments.

      The real experiments I do vary but usually involve testing an animal group to see how they behave. For example, at the moment we are looking at swimming plankton (little bugs that live in water) and coral reef fish (baby Nemos!) which we observe in a tank.

      However, using animals to test my predictions is often very difficult – they usually don’t do what they are supposed to at the right time! Because of this we have also tried doing some real experiments with humans – as they are easier to control and give instructions to! In the expeirment we did we gave each person in the group different instructions and then observed what happened as they moved around in a large room. If we can understand human crowd behaviour then this could help with things like planning fire evacuation routes for buildings and controlling football crowds.

    • Photo: Zara Gladman

      Zara Gladman answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I do two kinds of experiments:

      1. Indoor work, where I keep crayfish in tanks and watch how they behave. I’ve done experiments to see how crayfish interact with other animals, like mussels and fish.

      2. Outdoor work, or ‘fieldwork’, where I go outside and study crayfish in their natural habitat, in rivers, lakes and ponds! I’ve done fieldwork to find out how big or small crayfish populations are in different places. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to find crayfish, so I’ve had to learn special ways of detecting them.

      I much prefer fieldwork to indoor work because I love working inside 🙂

    • Photo: Jessica Chu

      Jessica Chu answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      All my experiments are more or less related to cell biology!

      So I have done the MTT assay to see if my cells can still grow or are still alive after I give them my plant extracts at different concentrations.

      I have done the Clonogenic assay – I will give cancer cells some plant extracts and remove the plant extracts. Then I will see if they are able to recover from the treatment by forming cell colonies.

      At the moment I am doing some cell cycle analysis to see what happens to the cancer cell cycle after being exposed to my extract. The followed on with an apoptosis assay by giving the cells some Annexin-FITC (annext is a protein coupled with a fluorescent dye) because the annexin protein can help us distinguish natural cell death (necrosis) or programmed cell death (apoptosis – where something triggers the death).

      I have also used the HPLC machine to help me separate my plant samples followed by some Mass spectroscopy to give me all the molecular weights of the chemicals that are present in the samples.

      I do have to be quite careful when working with biological stuff like cells (I don’t want to have that inside my body!) so protective clothing is always needed. Also working with the HPLC machine – costs quite a lot of money so I have to plan my time carefully to make sure I am not spending more time than I need to as well as being careful not to mistreat it or else it can costs tens of thousands to repair 🙁
      but as long as people are careful and not forceful with the equipment it generally lasts very long and helps us get our results 🙂

    • Photo: Nicolas Biber

      Nicolas Biber answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      I am conducting two experiments for my project. One experiment I run in an intertidal mud flat. I fed cockles that live there plastic particles so I can see how many of these particles they ingest, and if the particles also travel to other parts of the body. The particles I use are fluorescent. This means that they glow when they are exposed to a certain type of light. So I can easily detect them after I dissected the animals.
      The other experiment is looking at how different types of plastic change when they are in the natural environment. I attached them to wooden beams and exposed them on land, in fresh water and in sea water. Now I am sampling them at regular intervals, and I compare the measurements I take on them to the measurements I took on them before I exposed them. Some of the measurements I do are not so exciting (area, thickness, weight) but some are: I am looking at their molecular composition using an instrument that is called a fourier-transform infrared spectrometer. This instrument can tell me what molecules I am looking at based on the light that is absorbed by the material. I am also measuring how far bits of plastic can be stretched and at what strength they break. The most exciting part are the samples I have in the ocean, because animals settle on them … a lot of animals! And it’s really interesting to see which animal prefers which type of plastic, I haven’t finished looking at that though.

Comments