• Question: what kind of chemicals do you use

    Asked by anon-214090 to Helen, Farah, Dave, Cheryl, Bastian, Alun on 11 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Dave Underhill

      Dave Underhill answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      I don’t use any chemicals although other archaeologists use lots, they are used to help in dating, working out what things are made of, what they were used for, what they might have contained etc etc. We are even able to extract plant DNA from soils nowadays and establish exactly what was being grown where and when!

    • Photo: Cheryl Williams

      Cheryl Williams answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      All sorts of chemicals. We use different liquid stains to make bacteria show up under the microscope. Most bacteria are either purple or pink depending on how their cells are made up. We also use different sorts of acid, specially-made reagents in the testing kits that we use, and lots of disinfectant and bleach to clean everything up when we are done and prevent contamination.

    • Photo: Bastian Saputra

      Bastian Saputra answered on 12 Jun 2019:

      I use chemicals which are required for growing bacterial cells, such as glucose, ammonium phosphate, natrium chloride, kalium phosphate, and many more.

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