…and this is a 
You know you're a biology nerd when…
Category: Humor • Molecular Biology
Posted on: January 11, 2008 4:03 PM, by PZ Myers
…you think the PCR song is kind of catchy.
The PCR Song
There was a time when to amplify DNA,
You had to grow tons and tons of tiny cells.Then along came a guy named Dr. Kary Mullis,
Said you can amplify in vitro just as well.Just mix your template with a buffer and some primers,
Nucleotides and polymerases, too.Denaturing, annealing, and extending.
Well it's amazing what heating and cooling and heating will do.PCR, when you need to detect mutations.
PCR, when you need to recombine.
PCR, when you need to find out who the daddy is.
PCR, when you need to solve a crime.(repeat chorus)
Comments
Posted by: Moses | January 11, 2008 4:31 PM
Where's the part about Kerry Mullis becoming a HIV denier?
Posted by: Ichthyic | January 11, 2008 4:40 PM
I learned how to do the "manual" version as an undergrad (took half a lab and many days at best).
soon after I received my grad degree (about 5 years later), i got a chance to try a machine where you could just insert a sample, press a fucking button, and 4 hours later, you were done. the machine plugged into the wall and was about the size of a microwave oven.
amazing.
Posted by: Dave Eaton | January 11, 2008 4:42 PM
It gave me chills. Or maybe the flu.
Chemists need one. Sonogashira Shuffle, maybe, or the Diels-Alder Stomp.
I only watched it the one time, and it is still kind of echoing in my head...damn you, bio-rad. Damn you all to...wait, I don't believe in any of that stuff. Cool tune, y'all.
Posted by: Natasha Yar-Routh | January 11, 2008 4:47 PM
OK I'm a biology nerd as I like the song.
Now I want to hear the Sex Pistols cover version.
Posted by: t | January 11, 2008 4:48 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0110atheistjan10,0,5018956.story
Posted by: Leukocyte | January 11, 2008 4:51 PM
I'm doing a PCR right now... and I think I'm going to blast this song out into the lab. It certainly adds a little magic to the process of "insert a sample, press a fucking button, and 4 hours later, you were done."
Posted by: Ian B Gibson | January 11, 2008 4:59 PM
PCR.
Three little letters that represent for me the whole gamut of emotions from joy to bewilderment to complete & utter unmitigated despair!
A true love/hate relationship.
Posted by: Ichthyic | January 11, 2008 4:59 PM
It certainly adds a little magic to the process of "insert a sample, press a fucking button, and 4 hours later, you were done."
don't get me wrong, I wasn't being sarcastic; it was damn near magic to me, having been involved in doing it "the old way".
but then, I don't recall having to sit around while the new PCR machine was processing.
I was helping out with a project looking at genetic diversity within populations of salmonids, so I also had the sense of how important the results were, which made it a bit less tedious, somehow.
just think about how many times you'd have to repeat that song if you were doing the "old way"
;)
Posted by: MAJeff | January 11, 2008 5:03 PM
Damn, all I got to play with in college were HPLCs.
Posted by: llewelly | January 11, 2008 5:06 PM
Didn't Kary Mullis support the 'AIDS-dissendent' kooks for a time? I recall an introduction to a certain Duesberg book. Seperately, I recall him insisting global warming and the ozone hole were not caused by humans, as recently as the late 1990s.
Posted by: Dave Eaton | January 11, 2008 5:18 PM
Why do people keep mentioning Mullis' goofiness about HIV? It didn't make him uninvent PCR, which is what the song reference is about. This is a disturbing religious tendency- shunning and purging all references to heretics- that I'd just as soon not see us pick up.
Maybe the song could contain a single note played on a triangle as his name is mentioned- sort of a musical asterisk- with reference to his views on HIV not being endorsed by Bio-Rad being included in the sheet music.
Posted by: Ross Barnett | January 11, 2008 5:18 PM
I must be a biology nerd since I got sent this link 2 days ago!
Posted by: Carlie | January 11, 2008 5:37 PM
I can never get the Bio-Rad classroom kits to work. Stupid PCR. :(
Posted by: Kseniya | January 11, 2008 5:46 PM
WOW. "Awesome" doesn't begin to describe this.
Who's the gravelly-voiced dude supposed to evoke? Springsteen? Will I have to watch "We Are The World" on utoob to figure it out? OH NOES!
Posted by: donquijotesrocket | January 11, 2008 5:55 PM
As I posted at the site where I first saw this.Even though it isn't his area of expertise I can't help but feel that Tom Lehrer would have done it better.
Posted by: Leukocyte | January 11, 2008 7:10 PM
@ Ichthyic:
I wasn't knocking your comment. I do PCR's everyday, and they certainly don't seem very magical, though I do find myself holding my breath every time the UV light flickers on in the Gel Doc... oh please, please let there be bands!
It certainly is nice to be able to set up the reaction and then work on something else for about 2.5 hours (or take a long lunch). I couldn't imagine doing PCR in the pre-Taq days.
Posted by: PCS | January 11, 2008 7:18 PM
4 hours? Bands? Better drag yourself into the 21st century gentlepeople.
Posted by: Ichthyic | January 11, 2008 7:33 PM
4 hours? Bands? Better drag yourself into the 21st century gentlepeople.
come to think of it, that was indeed back around 1996/7.
if 5 years was all that was needed to get microwave sized PCR processors that do it in 4 hours, I'm sure that's ancient tech 10 years later.
so what does it look like these days? smaller than a toaster and takes 5 mins?
well, i guess there has to be some size limit due to the needed chemicals at least.
ah yes, i see they indeed have shrunk quite a bit:
http://www.labrepco.com/thermal_cyclers.htm?gclid=CPi-4Km475ACFRXMiQod9iM83Q
Posted by: KC | January 11, 2008 7:52 PM
Whenever any of us were feeling gripey about how horrible our equipment was running, my last PI would tell us how he used to MHC type mice by doing rejection screens in mice.
I know PCR isn't perfect (he says, having banged his head all day trying to cut down his number of labeled primers to something under 32), but holy crap it's much better than not having it at all.
Posted by: Mollie | January 11, 2008 8:45 PM
We listened to this song multiple times in the lab today. It was a good antidote to a drizzly Friday in Boston.
Posted by: Shigella | January 11, 2008 9:19 PM
Awesome. The dude planting an affectionate kiss on the PCR machine before throwing his head back and belting out with all his soul was a nice touch.
PCR: Rocks my face.
HPLC: Can burn in hell. Forever. I so mean it. Dumbass machines break/leak all the freaking time and all the thousands of parts are $500 a pop. Not that I'm bitter toward HPLC. Not at all. No bad experiences here. Move along now.
Posted by: Joel Williams | January 11, 2008 9:53 PM
For some reason I was singing it to Paul McCartney's "Live and let die."
Posted by: PeterBr | January 11, 2008 11:56 PM
thank you so very, very much
Posted by: Bob O'H | January 12, 2008 1:23 AM
Back when I was a young PhD student, one of the other groups in the lab had a PCR machine (this was so long ago biologists would show off by being interviewed on TV in front of three of them). It was a strange beast, partly because the PCR didn't work during the summer. Eventually, it became so tempramental that "Perkin-Elmer" became a swear word.
Bob
Posted by: Denis Loubet | January 12, 2008 1:58 AM
I'm not even a scientist, and that brought a tear to my eye. It was beautiful. Who says scientists have no soul?
Some surprisingly nice voices too.
Posted by: Jan Chan | January 12, 2008 2:58 AM
Is this an official qualification for being a biology nerd? I already played it over and over again more than a dozen times, and sent it to my friends.
Posted by: Inoculated Mind | January 12, 2008 3:54 AM
Can you FEEL IT?
P. C. Arrrrrrr......! Dum dum dum dumm de dahh dahhhhh. Definitely going to save this one.
Posted by: PlatinumJester | January 12, 2008 9:49 AM
Biology geeks (and indeed geeks of all sorts) may also appreciate Jonathan Coulton.
Posted by: WTJ | January 12, 2008 10:52 AM
i love the songs, doesn't matter it's an ads, i still love the song.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | January 12, 2008 3:07 PM
Yeah. Few things can be as empty as a gel with PCR results can be.
After all, it isn't called High-Price Liquid Chromatography for nothing.
Posted by: Lisa Julian | January 12, 2008 7:35 PM
hahaha, that was awesome. Very enjoyable. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Lauriel | January 12, 2008 8:18 PM
Thanks for posting this! I laughed do hard I cried, and thanks to Bio-Rad for having a sense of humor.
I gave a lecture to high school kids a few weeks ago about PCR and I wish I had known about this song.
Posted by: Geral | January 14, 2008 12:07 AM
Sent it to my Genetics professor, she loved it. haha.
Posted by: Veroniqué | January 15, 2008 1:31 AM
I don't care that it is an ad either. Absolutely gorgeous and with a beautiful sense of humour.
A delightfully crafted song (and lyrics, hahaha). "Catchy" is correct. Thank you for posting this. Made my day!!
V