• Question: What was your biggest experiment?

    Asked by DIGGIN'-A-HOLE to Anthony, Cathal, Hannah, Jade, Sallie on 6 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Sallie Baxendale

      Sallie Baxendale answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      My ‘biggest experiment’ was looked at whether we could predict what would happen to peoples memories after they had brain surgery. We tests 100’s of people before and after their operations and worked out which ones got better and which ones didn’t and why. We now use this information to help make sure that people’s memories aren’t affected too much when hey have a brain operation.

    • Photo: Jade Owen

      Jade Owen answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      Hmm…. Good question!

      One of my ‘longest’ experiments took about 4 days… I had to extract metals from plants using water and alcohol, then filter and dry/evaporate the solution collected. Once I had the resign leftover, I would digest it with acid for several hours. Finally, I would examine what elements were in my samples and how much of each were present – I would look for 28 elements including arsenic, calcium and aluminium.

      However one of my busiest experiments was a reflux reaction. This is where you boil your sample over and over again. As it evaporates, it cools down thanks to some water you run through the glassware, so it condenses (forms back into a liquid) and runs back to your solution to be boiled again.

      I was trying to see I could make compounds where I had copper bind to a molecule (called a metal complex).
      To do this – over 8 hours I took a small bit of the solution that was refluxing then tested it using UV (to see how light is absorbed by the complex) and also tested it by mass spectrometry (the mass – kind of like the weight – of the compound) to see if I had made any of the complexes and how long it took to make them. But I had to take a portion every 30 minutes, so by the time I had finished testing one I’d be straight onto pulling a new portion to test!

      Hope that answers your question!

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