A teenager looking to answer the age-old question of what makes a ginger a ginger has invented a DNA testing machine in his bedroom.
Fred Turner, 17, whipped up the device from things he found lying around the house, including an old video recorder, the Daily Mail reports (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2304413/Teenager-astounds-scientists-building-DNA-testing-machine-bedroom--did-discover-brother-ginger.html?ITO=socialnet-facebook-dailymail).
His motivation? His brother Gus' striking red hair.
"I wanted to look at the genetic code that makes me human and specifically one of the genes I wanted to look at was the ginger gene," he told ITV (http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/story/2013-03-26/teenager-builds-dna-test-kit/).
"My mom and my brother both have ginger hair. And I wanted to look at the gene that makes them ginger. "The only way to do it was to buld the machine because there was no way I could buy it."
Indeed, Turner's creation, known as a Polymerase Chain Reaction machine (http://www.dnalc.org/resources/animations/pcr.html), cost him about US$250 to build, compared to the thousands it would cost to make a commercial device.
Naturally, his invention raised a few eyebrows in the scientific community, scoring the young scientist one of the UK's most prestigious accolades — the Young Engineer of the Year Award (http://www.halifaxcourier.co.uk/news/local/fred-has-dna-to-win-national-science-award-1-5536343).
"This outstanding project by Fred shows how bright that future is in the UK and I can't wait to see what he does with his highly promising career," celebrity judge Ben Miller said (http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/update/2013-03-26/judges-praise-freds-dna-testing-machine/) of the honour. "I hope young people everywhere feel inspired to follow in his footsteps.
Via: HuffingtonPost