• Question: what experiments do you do regularly and how do you know they are productive?

    Asked by aprilirons to Anouk, Chris, Judith, Leisha, Seyyed on 20 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Chris Kettle

      Chris Kettle answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Lots of experiments everyday. They are productive by the types of results we get. We also include positive controls (to make sure we a re getting the right result) and negative controls (to make sure our reagents and materials aren’t faulty)

    • Photo: Judith Sleeman

      Judith Sleeman answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      That’s quite a difficult question because I do all sorts of different types of experiments so it’s hard to generalise. This is my best shot:

      We set up the following basic ‘types’ of sample in an experiment:
      1) a positive control: a sample where we know what result we will get, and that we will have something to detect.
      2) a negative control: a sample where we know what result we will get and there will be nothing to detect.
      3) our test samples, where we don’t know what will happen.

      That’s how we can work out if an experiment has technically been productive: has it ‘worked’? If the positive control gives a positive result and the negative a negative, we can be reasonably confident that the answers we get for the test samples are also right. Usually repeat everything at least three times, though….

      To be sure that something has been productive in the more general sense is a lot harder. Will my experiments help to find treatments for Spinal Muscular Atrophy? Time will tell. I hope I’ll be able to make some kind of contribution, but it’s so hard to predict.

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