We are trying to develop an online data analysis game for citizens. The goal is to give citizens the opportunity to learn more about DNA sequencing and microbiome data. To make it more fun we want to tell the game in a story. We have a few story ideas but we are not sure which is the most capturing. These short stories should get people interested in the game. It would be awesome if you could give us feedback on the stories below.
During a space exploration, Sam, a curious young alien robot from a faraway galaxy, discovered a little blue planet in the Milky Way. As he approached it, he saw that it was water on top of a rocky planet with an atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen. But wait, what are these little creatures everywhere? In the water, on the rocks and even flying in the atmosphere! In different shapes and sizes and they are even creating replicates of themselves! Is this called life? Sam had heard of life before but he thought it was a myth. Sam wants to self-replicating the kind of life of the earth on his planet. So he found out that the building plan seem to be the DNA. It has the same building blocks in all organisms but somehow has different ways of implementing life. Sam would like to learn more about this differences.
Can you help Sam to decipher the DNA?
Meet Anna! She is an architect who plays volleyball, likes to go hiking, loves reading and drinking beer. One day she came across an article discussing the beer microbiome. This got her wondering what is a beer microbiome? There are collections of small living creatures. Therefore she starts researching. She finds out that these small creatures are called bacteria and they are everywhere. In our gut, in the soil, even on vending machines. Some of these bacteria are actually very good for us. And some others can make us very ill. Bacteria come in different shapes and sizes but they have the same components. One crucial component is the DNA, the blueprint of life. The DNA encodes the shape and size and many other things unique for a bacterial species. Because of the encoding information the DNA can be used to identify what kind of bacteria the DNA is from. Therefore within a sample form soil, our gut or beer one can specify what kind of species are inside the sample. Anna would like to learn more about this kind of analysis. Can you help Anna to find out more?
Meet Jeff, he is a Winemaker in the third generation. He and his family live on a beautiful vineyard. His favorite wine is an old family recipe. Since they have many bottles left he never had to produce the wine. Unfortunately, one day there was a fire on the farmhouse and the old family recipe got burned. But there are still some bottles of the wine left. Jeff thought about the ingredients of the wine. He remembered a lot! But especially, the yeast strains used for fermentation he could not remember! He found out that one can sequence the DNA in wine and find out what yeast strains are inside the wine. Now Jeff wants to learn about microbiome data analysis. Can you help him?
Sam throws a party with all of his friends at his house and everybody has a blast! But after the party, he notices that very expensive jewelry he inherited from his grandmother is missing!! Sam is sure that none of his friends would steal from him, therefore an intruder must have entered the house and stolen it during the party! Sam collects all the hair he finds on the floor and sequences the DNA in the hair roots. Sam recognizes the DNA of all his friends. The one he does not know must be the intruder. Can you help Sam find the intruder’s DNA?
Sam has brown hair and so does Sam’s partner. They both live a happy life and have a good relationship. But Sam’s partner has complained in the past often, that Sam is not invested enough in their relationship. After some time he stopped complaining and Sam started finding blond hair in their bed. Sam suspects their partner to have an affair with a blond person and wants to know who this person is. To find out who is the third person in Sam’s relationship, Sam wants to collect the DNA of every blond person the couple knows. Sam secretly collected the DNA samples from all possible relationship intruders. But now Sam needs to find out how to sequence and analyze these DNA samples. Can you help Sam in learning how to perform a DNA data analysis?
Toni was always very close to her grandma. Both of them spend hours in the living room of her grandma, inventing the greatest stories. The stories were accompanied by the sound the old grandfathers watch in the corner of the living room. Being together with her grandma gave Toni always great comfort and love. The day her grandma died was one of the most sad days in her life. She took the old grandfather’s watch into her living room, which feeled a bit like her grandma was still present and being part of her life telling her stories though the sound of the watch. One day the clock stopped working. Toni could not find anyone to repair the watch. To cheer her up her friend gifted her a vacation. When Toni came back from the vacation the watch was working again. She was very surprised and could not believe that this happened without being repaired. She did ask all of her friends if they repaired it. None of them said yes, but she was sure that one of them did repair it. Investigating the watch she found hair, which could not be hers. Based on this hair she would like to get the DNA within the hair root and a collection of hair collected from her friends. Toni would like to perform a data alysis. Could you help her?
please help us and and give your feedback