Welcome to the

Cybertory<sup>TM</sup>

Virtual Molecular Biology Laboratory

Feel free to browse the lab as a guest. You can also go directly to reaction setup. Register with Simzymes to get a user name and password. This will let you "order" various reagents for use in the lab (don't worry, it's just virtual money). Items you order will appear in a box on the shelf of the reaction setup area when you log in to that module.

Please send questions or comments to rmhorton@attotron.com

Navigating the Building

Find the hotspots in the images to move to the next image or module. To enter the building, click on the front door.

The main molecular biology lab is on the second floor. Click the staircase to go up one floor, then click the doorway to enter the lab. Though the lab is mostly empty so far, if you turn to your left (by clicking the left edge of the image), you'll see the reaction setup and electrophoresis bench. The hot spot on this bench launches the reaction setup and electrophoresis module (see below).

The third floor houses various macroorganisms. Go back to the stairwell and click on the right edge (over the hand rail); the upper part of the handrail takes you to the third floor, while the lower part takes you back to the lobby.

The doors in the third floor hall lead to rooms housing various organisms. Only the Fly Lab is currently occupied.

Fly Lab

Click the "Get New Eggs" button to add eggs to the jars.

Flies will breed and lay eggs if you have both sexes in the same jar. Old flies disappear when their lifetime expires. Note that the flies originally placed in each jar are homozygous for every characteristic, so they look the same generation after generation.

Drag the ether bottle to the lid of a jar and release to etherize the flys. Eggs will still hatch when they are etherized, but they will not fly away until the ether wears off. More ether gives you more sleep time. Excess ether will not directly kill the flies, but it is possible to let them sleep their lives away.

Dump etherized flies and eggs out on the blue sorting pad to count phenotypic characteristics and select the ones you want. Drag flies to the trash to get rid of them, or to the jars to save them. Be aware that if flies wake up outside the jars, they can be hard to catch. Do a cross between the two strains of flies to see the F1 and subsequent generations.

System Requirements

This should run on any fairly up-to-date personal computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux). You will need:

Please send questions or comments to rmhorton@attotron.com