This was an informative and social field trip that gave us a lot of input into the Digital DNA project. We especially appreciated the first-hand experience of how sensitive a process and its technologies can be. Even the smallest inconsistency or error can confound the result. The process of sequencing also consists of many steps and a lot of preparations, which, luckily for us, Priscila had prepared for us. We took part in the last step of the process where we piped liquid with different people’s DNA into gel to then see who matched the DNA sample found at the fictious crime scene.
We ended the trip by having pizza with the teachers and students, where we also presented the Digital DNA project and all our subprojects. In doing so, we introduced them to a social science angle to their biological practices and knowledges, a perspective that teachers and students considered new and important. Some of the topics we talked about were police’s handling of DNA evidence, the social implications of new DNA processing methods, DNA storage, commercial direct-to-consumer genomics and molecular computing.