Learn
Play the experiment.
Nobody learns a western blot from a diagram. You learn it by losing your protein off the end of the membrane at two in the morning. These let you do that without the two in the morning.
Each one is a piece of a larger game about science and the people who do it. The science in them is real: the directions come from instrument manuals and published papers, and each game says which numbers are measured and which are its own.
- Gel electrophoresisPlay now
The Gel Race
Six racers, five gels. The winner changes with the percentage. One racer runs backwards. Then everyone is boiled in SDS.
- ControlsPlay now
Lad Luck
You are a lab gremlin. Ruin a graduate student's experiment using only things that really happen. Or be the student. Or play each other.
- NMRPlay now
Build the Spectrum
A molecule, and an empty spectrum. Slide each hydrogen's peak to where it belongs, then grow its splitting one neighbour at a time.
- Western blotPlay now
The Overnight Transfer
Three proteins on one membrane, 10, 45 and 250 kDa. The default recipe loses both ends. Then the contrast slider is right there.
- Mass spectrometryPlay now
The Mass Spectrometer
Your protein is 183 Da too heavy. Your “leucine” might be isoleucine. And 250 of your 5,000 features are noise.
- How the machines workPlay now
You Are the Particle
Go through a flow cytometer from the inside, as the cell. Then through a mass spectrometer, as the ion.