Have you ever held DNA in your own hands?

Today, I did exactly that—using nothing but a few strawberries and basic kitchen supplies. It felt like doing magic with science, right at my kitchen table. But more than that, this experiment opened a window into the microscopic world inside every living thing. In this post, I’ll walk you through how I extracted strawberry DNA!

Materials I Used

• 2 large strawberries
  
  
• 1 ziplock bag
  
  
• 2 tablespoons of water
  
  
• A pinch of salt
  
  
• A few drops of dish soap
  
  
• A coffee filter
  
  
• A clear glass or small jar
  
  
• Cold rubbing alcohol

Here’s exactly what I did:

1. 

I removed the green tops and placed the strawberries in a ziplock bag. Then I added 2 tablespoons of water, a pinch of salt, and about a teaspoon of dish soap.

2. 

I sealed the bag and mashed the strawberries thoroughly for a couple of minutes. The goal was to break open the cells and release their contents.

• Why salt and soap?
  
  
  • The salt helps clump DNA strands together.
    
    
  • The dish soap breaks down cell and nuclear membranes, releasing the DNA.
    
    

3. 

I placed a coffee filter over a cup and poured the mashed mixture in. After a few minutes, the liquid seeped through—leaving pulp behind. This step filtered out solids so I could isolate the cellular liquid containing the DNA.

4. 

I gently poured cold rubbing alcohol down the side of the glass so it floated on top of the strawberry liquid. (Equal parts alcohol and strawberry mixture worked best.) After 30 seconds, I saw white, stringy clumps forming at the boundary between the layers. That was the DNA!

5. 

Using a toothpick or fork, I gently lifted the white strands from the liquid. It looked like mucus or thin jelly—definitely not what I expected DNA to look like!

 The Science Behind the Slime

So what’s really happening here?

Inside the strawberry’s cells, DNA is coiled tightly inside the nucleus. The soap disrupts the phospholipid bilayer of the cell and nuclear membranes—essentially bursting them open. Salt helps neutralize the charge on the DNA molecules, allowing them to stick together. Finally, alcohol is less polar than water, so DNA precipitates—or clumps—out of solution when it comes into contact with the alcohol layer.

Fun fact: You can extract DNA from almost anything living—onions, kiwis, spinach—but strawberries just give you more of it!

Why This Matters in Biology

This experiment is a simple but powerful way to connect with molecular biology in the real world. It demonstrates:

• The physical presence of DNA—you can see it.
  
  
• The basic cell structure: cell membrane, nucleus, and cytoplasm.
  
  
• Principles of chemistry and solubility that scientists use in actual genetic research.
  
  

This is also how real scientists start when extracting DNA for cloning, sequencing, or genetic testing—just with fancier tools.

 Final Thoughts

Doing this experiment reminded me that science isn’t always high-tech—it can start with strawberries and soap. Seeing DNA outside of a textbook made the concept real and tangible. It’s a hands-on way to appreciate how something so small can control everything about a living thing.

Next time you snack on a strawberry, remember: you’re also biting into a bundle of microscopic instructions!

More from The Biology Buzz coming soon—next up: Can you grow bacteria from your phone screen? (Spoiler: ew.)