Festival Area:    Expand Your Horizons

Organisation Description

The Science Students’ Society, S-Cubed or S3 is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit-making organisation run by students for students. It comprises of science students and recent science graduates who are interested in academic and personal excellence in addition to their studies at the University of Malta.

S-Cubed offers science students a perfect platform to develop their existing skills, acquire new ones and meet fellow students and scientific professionals. S-Cubed was established for all students within the Faculty of Science at the University of Malta on the 7th of April 2003, at the first Annual General Meeting held by the founding committee.

S-Cubed’s activities consist of a large variety of academic and professional events that are organised to fulfil the vision of S-Cubed, that of providing its members and students an opportunity to enhance their skills and to interact with each other.

Ever thought of mixing strawberries with soap? Rachel, Nicole, Sarah and Julia from S-Cubed make a compelling case for this bizarre pairing. Watch them guide you through an experiment to extract visible DNA from strawberries:

Strawberries contain eight copies of the genetic material per cell! In order for us to see this microscopic DNA, we must first lyse the cell using a detergent like dish soap.  Water and salt are also added, the latter of which causes the genetic material to aggregate together, because otherwise we would be unable to see the DNA with our naked eye.  Due to this lysis, the DNA can exit the outer membrane of the cell.  Addition of ethanol follows, which causes the DNA to precipitate out since it is not soluble in it.  Then, the solid and the liquid layers are separated by filtration.  Finally, some ethanol is added once again and voila! Did you ever think a strawberry would contain so much DNA?