homeemade thermocycler?

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

"weining song" wrote:

> virtually all PCR machines now have peltier junction (actually they all seem 
> to come from a single company), looks like a small piece of china with 
> wirings, to heat and cool. You just need a very capable person good at both 
> electronics and programming to set things up.
> Unfortunately I'm not one of them. I vaguely remember there was similar 
> discussion on this site way back.

Nice termocyclers can be made from 3 water baths, set at appropriate
temperature, and a crane constructed from "Fischer Technik" (other
technokits may also work). The crane takes racks with samples between
the water baths at set time points, detemined by a micro-controler. 

At least for teaching purposes I find this much more intuitive than a
modern black box, where you can not see what is happening.