On Saturday 22nd September, in collaboration with the Department of Biochemistry, our Programme ran two activities for the Cherry Hinton Festival in Cambridge; a DNA extraction from strawberries and a crafts activity to produce double-stranded DNA bracelets. Through these, our aim was to introduce Festival goers to the fundamentals of DNA biology, from the base pairing rules of A-T and C-G to the roles of mutations, tumour suppressor proteins and oncogenes in cancer.
"This is dead cool!" said a highly enthusiastic future scientist on watching DNA precipitate following addition of alcohol to the extraction solution, whilst a parent commented that it's "great that CRUK expose children to science at a young age", adding that they were "amazed" at how much DNA we have inside each of our cells (around 2 meters).
The Festival Day was an extremely enjoyable occasion and a fantastic success, despite the wind and rain, with around 4,000 people from all age groups attending and over 900 guests taking part in our activities. We would like to thank the organisers for inviting us to exhibit, our volunteers for their hard work, and also everyone who visited our stalls to learn about DNA and take part in some fun(damental) science!
