2004: march 07
Electrophoresis
The first in a series of paste paper books. I'm completely enamoured by this book. Each of the signatures are decorated with "paste paper." The book is then bound in the Coptic style using three sewing stations (three pieces of thread are used--the middle of each piece of thread is hooked into the first signature). The end of each piece of thread uses its own needle meaning that this book was sewn with six needles.
The title for the book, Electrophoresis, is a technique used by labs to compare strands of DNA. In very simple terms (and probably not entirely correct): DNA is put onto a gel medium and an electric current is run through the gel. The lightest pieces of DNA move the furthest across the plate while the heaviest pieces stay close to where they were dropped. Bands that are at the same location indicate a genetic match, while bands at different locations are not a match. Two identical lanes (i.e. two identical strips from top to bottom) are from a single individual, two similar lanes that have many bands matching, but not all, suggest a genetic relationship between two individuals, and few or no bands matching suggests there is no relationship between the two individuals.
For pictures showing The Real Thing, check out Gel electrophoresis. Feel free to ignore their lab instructions and just look at the pictures. The lab is looking at the impacts of time and gel media on results. They're not actually doing a comparison of different DNA samples.
