Body & HealthHow it works
How a lab turns a few DNA fragments into billions.
A PCR cycle heats to 94–98 °C to separate the DNA strands, cools to 50–65 °C so short primers can dock, and goes to about 72 °C where the heat-stable Taq polymerase extends them. Each cycle doubles the amount: 30 cycles give roughly a billion copies on paper.
Useful: Kary Mullis invented the method in 1983 and won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Source: en.wikipedia.org