The gel noodles were imaged in the Petri dish in which they were formed on a moveable stage. This allowed for easy measurement with minimal disruption to the gels. A 1 mm scale bar at the same magnification was used to set a scale in ImageJ (version 1.52n). For each sample the noodle was imaged down the entire length resulting in 30 to 40 images. The diameter at 5 equidistant points along the noodle in each image collected was measured. This resulted in a large number of data points (70 -250) for each sample meaning an average diameter and standard deviation could be calculated. With this a percentage reduction was calculated (so as to compare noodles of different started diameter). Furthermore, box plots were prepared to show the size distributions.