• Question: how are you able to grow crystals, is it like growing a plant but as a crystal?

    Asked by anon-278994 to Amelia on 1 Feb 2021. This question was also asked by anon-279722.
    • Photo: Amelia Gilio

      Amelia Gilio answered on 1 Feb 2021:

      Thank you for a very good question arelisd!
      My crystals are not alive like plants, crystals do not need feeding or watering, but they do grow over time. My crystals are made of protein – you may have heard of hemoglobin in blood, or know that foods can be protein rich – my protein is like this.
      My protein is dissolved in a watery solution and I place drops of this solution on a plastic tray and wait for crystals to form. Each protein unit stacks next to each other to form a repeating structure called a crystal and over time more of these protein units will join the crystal to make it bigger.

      If you would like to try growing your own crystals at home, you can google how to grow salt crystals on a string and get an adult or teacher to help you! (here is a website link to try: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Salt-Crystals ) The crystals will be made of salt instead of protein but the idea is the same and it’s a super fun experiment to try!!

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