We designed the scale poster on our stand ourselves so is not commercially available. If you would like a high resolution file to print out yourself do get in touch by following this link.
Mini motors
Nanoscale biological motors
Where we got our DNA models from...
Lots of people wanted to know where we got our DNA models from so here’s the link!
Future experimental scientist at the Mini Motors stand - curious minds and a hands on approach!
This post is by Annabel Slater, one of our digital volunteers, who spoke to Katherine Dunn about the Nano-scale transport exhibit.
Here’s a video of Katherine explaining the DNA motor on the Mini Motors stand.
The view from inside the stand.
The demonstration of what it feels like to swim when you’re as small as a bacteria is proving popular with young & old alike!
Team kinesin swings into action!
Explaining how our man-made mini motor works.
New team members are doing a great job!
A little cartoon of kinesin wandering down a microtubule track.
Our model on the BBC website!
They borrowed it for the intro to the genetic maps stand.
Resources for Teachers
Here are some activities and materials for teachers to adapt and use in their classes. They cover scientific ideas which are demonstrated by the Mini Motors stand at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2012. We hope to inspire students by showing them Physics and Biology in action, and the link between the two.
There are two packages of resources. One is primarily intended for use at GCSE level and one for A-level, but content from either package could be adapted for use at either level or for use with students following different programmes of study.
Gliding Assay Video
Kinesin are stuck to a microscope slide. Fluorescently labelled microtubules and ATP are added. The kinesin walk along the microtubules, but because they are stuck to the surface we see the microtubules moving instead.
This video plays at 10x real time.
When we had stopped playing with models of DNA Jon took them home and made a stop frame animation of the DNA mini motor that he builds in the lab with real DNA.
Imagine that the orange strands of DNA are tethered at one end to keep them in place. These are the stators of the motor. The blue cargo is loaded on to the left stator.
In a real experiment an ezyme cuts the top off the stator. As this is only weakly held on by a few base pairs if quickly falls off and floats away. This means the top of the blue cargo is free to bind to the next stator.
The cargo “steps” to the new stator by strand displacement. As this stator is full length all the bases can bind which is more energetically favourable than staying on the old stator.
The whole process of enzyme cutting, short piece of DNA falling off and stepping by strand displacement is repeated to move the cargo to the stator on the right.
The furthest a real DNA motor has gone 16 steps but the motor is very unlikely to fall off so it would make more steps if we could build longer tracks with a greater number of stators.
(Source: self-assembly)
Recreating the Watson & Crick eureka moment with models of DNA!
