Here we explain how you can extract DNA from a kiwi fruit. This visual and hands on activity can be used as an exciting demonstration, or as a group activity for your students.You can even try using other fruits and vegetable. Ask students to bring in their favourite or take a sample from your school vegetable garden if you have one! Other fruits and vegetables you can try include strawberries, onions, bananas, and even broccoli.
DNA is extremely useful in Forensic Science as it is unique to each person. If DNA is left behind at a crime scene in the form of hair, blood, skin cells or other deposits, investigators may be able to match this to the criminal. Although everyone has their own, unique DNA, DNA can also be used to trace families. So even if police don’t make a complete match to a DNA sample, they may find a close match which would be the criminal’s family member! This has been how investigators have solved many crimes in the past.
DNA technology has been advancing rapidly since its inception. Today, we can even see the difference in the DNA of identical twins. The first human genome (entire DNA sequence) took 13 years to sequence, but today we can do it in a day or two!
