Since its establishment in 1985, the NCBE has developed and supplied schools and colleges with innovative equipment and materials that would not otherwise be available at a reasonable price.
THE ODDEST OF THINGS
On these pages you’ll find the oddest of things. For example, there’s the world’s only commercially available microbial fuel cell, that generates electricity from yeast (great for studying respiration).
Speaking of yeast, we’ve got one that turns red when oxygen is bubbled through its growth medium, yet turns white when the air supply is turned off. We’ve got bacteria that ‘talk’ to one another, triggering the production of a dark purple pigment (the posh term for this is ‘quorum sensing’). There are mushrooms that grow on toilet rolls and a crafty gadget that counts bubbles (used to monitor fermentation, in case you’re wondering).
We’ve a wide range of enzymes, so you can peel oranges without touching them, make milk more digestible for cats and understand how the inside of after-dinner mints is liquefied.
Look out for our award-winning electrophoresis equipment - separating DNA with it is a snip (especially if you use our dried restriction enzymes). You can also use the same equipment to investigate food proteins.
We’ve developed a kit for exploring genetic modification and some of the ethical and safety issues that technology gives rise to, and a simulation of human genetic screening to spice up your teaching about Mendelian inheritance. All of our publications are free to download (as Adobe Acrobat PDF files).
Copyright © NCBE, 2012 | www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk
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