Scared of DNA

Normal service resumed after returning from the Azores - nothing to write home/blog about on the last couple of days bar some excellent food, Caipirinhas and very little sleep! Head down till Xmas now!

Anyway, I had been landed with organising our bit of the annual Science and Technology Showcase event on the Hoe this year which was on Tuesday. To amuse the school children, one of the activities that we did was extraction of DNA from a Banana. The children loved it but some of the older members of the public who attended didn't. Some of them seemed angry and confused as to why we might want to isolate DNA and a few seemed scared!

This summary of some research reported in the Pittsburg Post Gazette (although it was in America) might point to the fact that ignorance is the problem!