Solving a Murder Case with Transitions Metals and Suspect’s DNA A writer named Milo was murdered late one night in an alley by a knife. DNA was found on the knife and was taken from four suspects of the murder (French, at. al. 106). The purpose of this lab is to use a variety of redox reaction on the different DNAs. The different samples will change to different colors to determine the difference in the DNAs and how they compare to the DNA on the knife (French, at. al. 106). To determine the murderer a redox reaction was used. There are two parts of a redox reaction, oxidation and reduction. A redox reaction is chemical reaction that transfers electrons. If a reactants oxidation state is more positive than the product then it is undergoing …show more content…
Using the reaction of KMnO4 and the different bases of DNA (adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine). The change of the oxidation number of manganese causes a change in color of the DNA of each suspect. Each person’s DNA came out to be a different color after reacting with KMnO4: Arnold-Blue cloudy; Cindy-Dark rusty orange; Gary- Clear; Tina-Yellow/orange; Knife-Clear. The purpose of this lab to solve the murder using redox reactions was met. Gary’s DNA and the oxidation number of manganese in the GMP reaction was the same as the knife. Both oxidation numbers of manganese in these reactions were +7. Many errors could of happen during this lab. First, one of the samples got more KMnO4 than another. It could have reacted differently causing a difference in oxidation number. Prevention for this would be to measure the KMnO4 precisely. Secondly, the test tubes were not cleaned out. If there was residue from other chemicals on the test tube there could be an error in the reaction. Cleaning out the test tube before starting lab could prevent this. Finally, residue on gloves could have got into the solution. This could have caused an error in the reaction. Mixing another way could have prevented this