Newtown High Students Isolate DNA

The first time biologists found DNA, they were Francis Crick, James Watson, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, working in a Cambridge laboratory in 1951. The discovery won them Nobel Prizes and changed the world. The most recent young biologists to run into DNA? Newtown High School students.

The Newtown High School blog showcased students in Mrs. Manfredonia's biology class this week for their work on DNA, which included actually isolating the building blocks of life in the lab. From the blog:

"As a polymer made up of nucleotides (a sugar, a phosphate and a nitrogenous base), DNA can be spooled around a stirring rod and removed from a solution in which it has been isolated. In this way, students can see the stringy macroscopic manifestation of its polymeric nature, but it does not show the structural details that endow DNA with its ability to transfer genetic information."

Students also made DNA replicas out of paper, which now "festoon the hallways outside our biology classrooms," according to the blog, managed by Principal Charles Dumais.