By Vandana Sharma
Just like the,
ever-growing chain of life,
growth of DNA,
the humble PCR drives.
A tiny speck of DNA,
amplifies numerous times,
revealing unheard rhymes,
and can even detect old cold crimes.
Water, dNTPs, primers,
DNA polymerase and template,
huddle together in a PCR tube,
cook up a reaction soup,
moving obediently in the reaction loop.
Denaturation, annealing, extension,
are the various steps,
at different temperature depths,
allowing the DNA to grow,
into countless threads.
Let us visualise the PCR product,
on an agarose gel,
laced with ethidium bromide,
under the UV light.
It glows upon a dark background,
oh! a band so bright!
~ Vandana Sharma
Vandana Sharma earned her PhD from AIIMS, New Delhi. Poetry writing is her hobby. Her poems (general and science) have been published in various national/international poetry and peer reviewed medical journals. Some of them are Harvests of New Millennium, Sky Island Journal, Rewrite Sunlight Anthology, Ashvamegh Magazine, VerbalArt, Borderless Journal, Consilience (peer reviewed science poetry journal), International Journal of Epidemiology.