Berries, worms stir scientific curiosity

Experiments at Sally Ride Festival inspire young girls

Worms drank Dr. Pepper on Saturday and lived to tell about it.

That was just one of the surprising discoveries at the second annual Sally Ride Science Festival at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Named for the first American woman in space, the roving event aims to inspire young girls to pursue careers in science, math and engineering. of

It worked for Endya McKinley. The third-grader from Endeavor Elementary School in Harvest walked out of Wilson Hall with a vial of goopy, pink DNA that she extracted from a strawberry.

And this proclamation: "I like science," she said, adding that she wants to be a chemical engineer, chef or teacher when she grows up.

That's music of the ears of Dr. Emily Pauli, a research scientist at Huntsville's Hudson Alpha Institute for Biotechnology who taught the strawberry DNA workshop.

"It's really neat at a festival like this," Pauli said, "when kids have that 'a-ha' moment."

Pulling DNA from a strawberry is easier than you'd think. Squish the berry in a plastic bag. Mix in some water, dish soap and salt to puncture the nuclear membrane surrounding the berry cells. Dump the pulp in a coffee filter suspended over a plastic cup. When the juice from the cup is poured into cold rubbing alcohol, jelly-like DNA strands float to the top.

"Awesome," Endya said as she fished out the DNA with a wooden coffee stirrer.

Across the hall, other young girls experimented with small but sturdy C. elegans worms.

Under the direction of UAH biology professor Dr. Lynn Boyd, the girls tried bathing the microscopic worms in Dr. Pepper, corn oil, rubbing alcohol, peroxide and dish soap. They also froze them in liquid nitrogen and cooked them in a 113-degree steam bath.

The girls guessed the worms would survive only the corn oil. But the resilient critters also came through the freezing fine. And they dug the Dr. Pepper, wiggling as if they couldn't be happier.

"That makes me feel better," Boyd said. "I drink a lot of Dr. Pepper."

Boyd said worm research helps scientists to better understand how life works. It's a thankless job that's finally getting some respect: Worm researchers won the Nobel Prize in 2002 and again in 2006, she said.