25 January 2008

PCR song


(MV from Bio-Rad)

The PCR Song

There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.
Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.

Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.
Denaturing, annealing, and extending.
Well it’s amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.

PCR, when you need to detect mutations.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.



From May, I came to know this interesting MV, a commercial mimicking the 1985 best-selling 'We are the world'. I then spent some time searching over the Internet for more information about the production and found it so entertaining that I couldn't help but embed it on my blog.

The MV was released by the Bio-Rad Corporation to promote their new PCR machine – 1000-series of thermal cyclers.



Just like May, I am also a deserter from the biology camp, with a degree in botany but now settling down in the field of music. PCR reminds me of the undergraduate days, particular the fourth year when I, together with my wife, then girlfriend, worked with DNAs in Prof San-San Tsay's microbiology lab.

According to a textbook I read when I was a 2nd-year botany undergrad, PCR, the acronym for polymerase chain reaction, is
a method for amplifying DNA in vitro, involving the use of oligonucleotide primers complementary to nucleotide sequences in a target gene and the copying of the target sequences by the action of DNA polymerase.
To be brief and simple (if you are not familiar with the biological dialect at all), PCR is a molecular biology technique invented by the Nobel laureate Dr. Kary Mullis, through which multiple copies of a specific DNA piece can be reproduced in high amounts.

Although now PCR seems alien to me, I'm so glad that what those scientist sing in the video is still intelligible to me.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

聽我爸說你去美國學音樂
回來也在做音樂
就搜尋一下您的大名
從木賊蜘蛛網找到線索到這兒
不過您的網誌上沒有信箱或留言板
只好找您最新的一篇文章來留言了
因為您網誌全英文化
有空我在慢慢拜讀了

Anonymous said...

補充說明
我們是國小同學
我弟跟你妹也是國小同學

Wei said...

Hi Henry, I figured out your identity immediately after reading your first comment yesterday and then has left a message on your blog as well.

All my life, you are the only 'Henry' I've known. Although a former Spanish colleague is also called Henry, he is actually 'Henrique' and he's surname can never be 'Chiu'.

Anonymous said...

看到啦
因為比較少用Xuite留言板
所以剛剛才發現,
我就如日誌所言是個菜鳥國小代理老師,
因為老師僧多粥少,
所以是做一邊代理一邊考公職的打算,
本來念國小學程時終於交到女友啦,
不過最近因為年齡問題恐遭對方家長反對,
差不多要分了,
漫畫我沒再畫,
不過之前有做了一點點大風音樂劇場的平面設計,
個人網站很久沒更新過http://trek1701.myweb.hinet.net/,
上面有過去的作品以及收集的玩具,
現在玩具更多.