• Question: What was your first ever expwerimant?

    Asked by ashleigh1234 to Alice JB, Andy, Barbara, James, Jo on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Barbara Guinn

      Barbara Guinn answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      We were looking at a protein in cancer cells. We knew the protein was important in solid cancers (lung, stomach, breast, colon) but no-one had looked for it in leukaemia so I started to put blood cells from leukaemia patients on glass slides and then look for the protein using chemical reactions to show me where the protein was in the cell and how much was there. It was a nice experiment that took 1 day, only took about 2 weeks to learn how to do it and worked. However the answer was not many leukaemia cells had the protein so mostly negative data!

    • Photo: Andy Norton

      Andy Norton answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      My first ever experiment, or my first experiment with this current research that I am doing?

      My first real experiment as a scientist (after I left school) was with with some research that was looking at making better ice creams! I had to look at different oils (like palm oil, sunflower oil, olive oil etc.) and look at how the structure changed when it was at different temperatures. This helped the company develop better ice creams. I also did a similar things with frozen fish, and looked at how the ice changed the water when it was being defrosted (that became a bit smelly after a while!)

      Is that the sort of thing that you were after, ashleigh1234, or something more specific to my current research?

    • Photo: Alice Jones Bartoli

      Alice Jones Bartoli answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      Hi Ashleigh,
      My first ever experiment was seeing how different textures affected a maggot’s progress along a surface (really). This was GCSE biology, and I think we found that maggots had trouble going uphill – not exactly ground-breaking stuff…

      My first psychology experiment was looking at the ability of children with behavioural problems to understand other people’s thoughts and feelings – we showed that some children have difficulties understanding what it feels like to be scared or sad – this was really important because we realise that we need to try and work with these children in a different way, and try to help them to understand how hurtful their behaviour can be, and why that’s not ok. This is something that I’m working on now.

    • Photo: James Jennings

      James Jennings answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess as to what my first ever school experiment was, so I’ll just go back to my first experiment in the 4th year of my degree (the year I think I became a real scientist!).

      This involved getting a natural product (carvone) out of some caraway seeds. Firstly, I blended the seeds (in an ordinary blender), in order to break them down. Then we soaked them in a particular solvent so that we only dissolved the carvone molecule. I then did some analysis that told us which chemical bonds (carbon-carbon, carbon-hydrogen etc) we have in the extracted sample. This proved we had the molecule we wanted. I then mixed the sample with some more chemicals, until I had made a molecule that had potential use as a drug!

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