Biochemistry

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Biochemistry

I've always found the biochemical areas of chemistry fascinating. More specifically, the genetic areas. I have aquired an e-book on genetics that I have started to read. I don't really have a very strong biochemical knowledge(although I do have some e-books, haven't gotten very far in them yet) it doesn't seem like the book I have requires much more than basic chemistry. This makes me a little suspecious, but I'm still curious about what it contains.

Things I have done so far

Nothing really. I have ordered some ~4mL centerfuge tubes as a sample. I have a broken electrophoresis power supply. It appears the primary is shot, so I don't know if its going to be of much use. I do have some platinum wire, however, so I think I may be able to construct an electrophoresis cell. The main problem is the agarose. I'm not really sure if there are any good ways to come by that. I am hoping that I'll be able to recycle it, but maybe not. I'm hoping that if I aquire some(and some base markers), that I will be able to recycle them by centerfuging them and such. I know agarose is quite water soluble, but I'm not sure if you can reuse it. I happen to have some loading dye, but don't have any buffers. I know that sodium acetate is sometimes uses. This is very easy to come by, so I am hoping that it might be able to work for some things. Unfortunatly, I get the impression that you need to use very pure reagents, so I'm not sure on how feasible any of this really is. Worth a try anyway!

So, the biochemistry need list is at this:

-Centerfuge and tubes-might be able to maker centerfuge, hopefully getting some tubes soon

-Electrophoresis cell-got some platinum wire at a garage sale for $.50 among some other chemistry stuff, so I might be able to make one using some plexiglass. I could make the key just as easily. However, I'd still need...

-Agarose-Would have to try to buy some. Perhaps I could synthesise it from some seaweed? Not sure if this is really plausible, especially since I don't go to the beach often. I have seen pictures of the types of seaweed that they use, and I have seen some of those at the beach. Probably much better off seeing if I can get some on E-bay

-Electrophoresis power supply-Well, I do have some high power power supplies, so I might already have something I can use. I have a 50V regulated DC power supply that can go to perhaps around 100mA. I'm not sure this is high enough voltage or current. At the least, it would be a long run. The other power supply that I have lacks current, but is good as far as volts go. I'm referring to my 10.5kV NST. Only at 30mA. However, being the scavanger that I am, I have an idea. I think that a microwave oven transformer would do just fine. As I understand, they put out both high voltage and current. Would use a HV diode or four to rectify it and use the microwaves filter capacitor to smooth it out. The variac could be used to vary the output voltage.

Well, thats the main items on my list right now. Hope some developments can come soon....like my centerfuge tubes I hope. Maybe I can get a sample of aragose too, or bug the biotech teachers at school.

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