Hundreds of children smash bananas in DNA World Record attempt

The gymnasium at R.L. Beattie Public School in Sudbury, Ont., was a sea of yellow t-shirts and mashed bananas yesterday afternoon.

More than 340 students gathered to make Guinness World Record history, unofficially claiming the title for most people conducting a DNA isolation experiment at the same time.

The experiment works by smashing a banana and mixing it with salt, water, detergent, and rubbing alcohol so the strings of the DNA become solid and visible.

The event was organized by Laurentian University biology professor Thomas Merritt, as part of a national science outreach event called Science Odyssey.

"We do this DNA thing every now and then ...with smaller groups of kids, but I've never done it with more than 20 or 30 kids," Merritt said. "We had 10 times that many kids, and it was fantastic."

Previous world record was 302 people

The event required careful planning to comply with Guinness World Record guidelines.

Forty volunteers helped students conduct the experiment to isolate banana DNA, while othersmonitored the crowd to ensure the number of students was accurately counted.

Susan Vokey is one of three expert witnesses who officially signed off on the final count of 341. She volunteered her family to help out with the event.

"Anything that has to do with kitchen chemistry like this or teaching kids, introducing kids to science it's one of the things that I love to do," Vokey said.

The students should learn if they defeated the previous record of 302people in four to eight weeks.

If the school is officially awarded the world record, Merritt has the perfect way to celebrate.

"We'll all sit around and we'll share some bananas."

Listen to what the experiment sounded like here.