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This Could Be the Most Interesting (or Nerdy) Marriage Proposal You Will Ever See

Dec. 24, 2012 1:05pm Liz Klimas

From the restaurant proposal to the kiss-cam proposal to the climb to the highest summit in the state proposal, asking for a lady’s hand in marriage often requires some serious event and speech planning. But the work that went into this scientist’s marriage proposal just might take the cake when it comes to the work put into popping the question (or it’s at least the nerdiest).

Instead of writing “Will you marry me?” on a dessert plate or among the clouds in the sky, the proposer — identified as gdiguy2 on Reddit — wrote those four little words using DNA fragments.

Before we explain how, here’s the picture:

Scientist Uses DNA Fragments to Ask Woman to Marry Him

“Will you marry me?” spelled out of DNA fragments. (Photo: Imgur)

Here’s a refresher of how he did this for those of you whose biology classes seem like ancient history. gdiguy2 used a technique known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to replicate certain sequences of DNA and cut them in specific places, creating different size fragments.

From there, he put the samples of amplified DNA fragments into the wells, or lanes, of a “gel” on a electrophoresis plate and turned on the charge. The gel for gel electrophoresis is typically made of agarose, a product produced from algae. The plate on a microscopic level can be best described as like a mesh where starting near the top near where the DNA fragments were inserted into the wells, the pores of the mesh is wide, catching large DNA fragments but letting smaller fragments to pass through. Further away from where the DNA was loaded, the mesh becomes more fine catching the smaller fragments.

This gel electrophoresis apparatus is what helps separate the DNA fragments of different sizes. (Photo: Wikimedia)

This is another example of what a gel looks like with DNA fragments of different sizes in each lane. (Photo: Wikimedia)

Now imagine all this in light of writing words. It takes some thought to know just how far the DNA fragments will go to be able to form shapes and words. Although, for some scientists who do this everyday, it might not seem too difficult.

Here’s some of gdiguy2′s scientific language explaining the project on Reddit:

They’re 5 sized PCR fragments (roughly 150, 300, 500, 700, 1kb), I went back through my notes to find 5 primer pairs that I knew worked pretty well (so don’t feel bad, they’re selected out of primers that had been pre-validated =p). The other lanes are just mixes of the 5 sizes (either 2:3:4 or 4:6 volume mixes going in decreasing size, since larger fragments tend to be brighter). The gel actually didn’t take that long (though it was terrifying loading it), but I made a mockup in Illustrator beforehand (along with a ladder to test what sizes to use), and then sketched it out beforehand so I knew what to add to each lane.

700 was the hardest to find for some reason, so I didn’t really care about whether it was perfect or had primer dimers (and yeah I’ve had a friend complain to me about that also)

Here is a picture of the final result:

Scientist Uses DNA Fragments to Ask Woman to Marry Him

As for the proposal itself, gdiguy2 wrote that making the “Will you marry me?” DNA fragment gel wasn’t the most difficult part.

“The most difficult part of the entire thing was actually coming up with a good enough excuse to get her to image a gel in my lab,” he wrote on Reddit. “And meeting a girl nice enough to actually agree to do that while believing it was my real work!”

He also stated that although the gel was a fun idea, he really got down on one knee — with flowers — outside the lab. Why?

“I decided a long time ago I didn’t want to actually propose in any place with as many cockroaches as our lab buildings,” he wrote.

gdiguy2 is finishing his “worm PhD” while his new fiancee is working in mouse genetics.

(H/T: io9)

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Comments (22)

billo
Posted on December 26, 2012 at 10:56am
Did anyone check the article for grammatical errors? This is a story about a NERD after all is said and done!

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wingnut1955
Posted on December 25, 2012 at 2:58pm
I didn’t know you were to do something different. As we were walking down the street I asked her if she wanted to get married. She asked if I was serious. I said yes, so she said, yes. That was more than 45 years ago. You just go with what works.

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Pat Alexander
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 11:59pm
I gave my wife, then girlfriend a pair of socks for Christmas.

I hid the ring in the toe and made her try them on when she opened them.

“There is something in this sock.” Fun to watch. Lots of shrieking & then some tears..

Still together 23 years later. Every day I tell her “I would marry you again today.”

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- Gorp
  Posted on December 25, 2012 at 2:32pm
  AHHH. Newly Weds. We just celebrated 47 December 18th. Getting older but still fun.
  I met her at a party and thought, “Oh Boy! Something else to ‘Nail’ “. And so 47 years later….
  Life is good! A Happy Wife Makes A Happy Home. I ALWAYS get the last word in every argument, “YES DEAR”
  
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Jennifer_D
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 9:08pm
The coolest marriage proposal ever! :)

P.S.

Why is she wearing her engagement ring on the wrong finger?

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- N37BU6
  Posted on December 25, 2012 at 12:41am
  Looks like the right finger to me.
  
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- 1956
  Posted on December 25, 2012 at 7:03am
  That is her ring finger and pinkie of her LEFT hand. (I did a double-take at first, but if you look closely, it is the left hand.)
  
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- beps
  Posted on December 25, 2012 at 9:13pm
  That is her left ring finger, which would be the right & correct hand! :-/ what?!
  
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- SATX 19
  Posted on December 26, 2012 at 2:17am
  She has MAN HANDS BABY!!!
  
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AmericanStrega
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 7:23pm
After living together for 17 years, my then “boyfriend” said, “It’s probably time to get married.” I said, “Okay.” And now here we are.
p.s. My ring’s cooler then hers. Na,na,na,na,na,na! :)

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hi
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 6:14pm
Amazing! My’s husband’s was not romantic or creative at all but genuine which counts most! You do t need to be creative, just ask!!

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LeadNotFollow
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 2:40pm
Cool!

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crackerone
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 2:05pm
A for effort. Enicom used toenail clippings.

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- SaturdaysWarrior76
  Posted on December 24, 2012 at 7:02pm
  thanks for the chuckle! hahahaa! :) Good one!
  
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piper60
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 2:03pm
Lotta work. What would he have done, I wonder, if she had said No?

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- BlazeGlory
  Posted on December 24, 2012 at 3:23pm
  My worry would be just exactly how she might say no. Maybe by bashing him on the head with a hammer engraved with the letters N O. That would surely leave an impression.
  
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BlazeGlory
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 1:50pm
Could it be that, possibly, someone has far too much time on their hands?

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- Xyskalla
  Posted on December 25, 2012 at 3:08am
  Maybe. But it’s certainly better than all those horrid proposals in front of a large audience, every eye on the couple eagerly awaiting her response. The pressure for her to say “yes” to avoid embarrassing him in front of the crowd is grossly unfair to the woman. I think half the people who propose that way are probably creeps who aren’t sure that she’ll say yes, so they think they can add some pressure because “she wouldn’t dare turn me down in front of all those people or else she’ll look like the bad guy.” I cheer whenever I see a woman reject someone who proposes that way, there are a lot of them on YouTube–just do a search for “rejected marriage proposal” and get ready to laugh.
  
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beps
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 1:41pm
Congratulations! Beautiful ring; the scientist has very good taste! :-)

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nesmond
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 1:39pm
Sounds like that might catch on.

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Patriot Z
Posted on December 24, 2012 at 1:34pm
i gotta give props! thats a hell of alot more creative than what i did

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- RJJinGadsden
  Posted on December 24, 2012 at 2:07pm
  Same here!
  
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