Perhaps some of you hagve heard of a program called G(ifted)T(alented), which is taken as an elective in highschool, for kids who excel in a certain subject. It involves a project that you and a mentor do over the coarse of a semester, or a full year. I want to do something in the sciences, particularly, something in microbiology, or genetics. Does anyone have any ideas for a project that would meet the following criteria-

-Must have something to display at the end of the project

-Must go above and beyond the current science coarse (next year, for me it will be H Chem 10)

-Must be finished by the end of the school year (about 180+ days...keep in mind also that much of this will happen after school, so I dont want to take 8 hours after school to do this for 180 days )

 

The deadline for the essay/project application is Feb 28, 2005, so any and all suggestions are appeaciated!

well you want to do something advance within a certain area (microbiology, or genetics) so i'll ask you what advance stuff do you know in that area already?

 

i mean, for me, physics and quantum physics, some kinda quantum phonemena

 

for you, biology, microbiology/genetics, some kinda ___________

 

you fill it in!

 

by the way, im in GT for several subjects, but it doesnt involve anything extra, in fact it seems kinda pointless even though its good coz i got to drop resistant materials (wood/plastic stuff) and take up electronics GCSE, and in english there was once a school outing for G+T, other than that its never affected me.

Go for a Tesla coil!!!

Go for a Tesla coil!!!

That dosnt have anything to do with microbiology.

That dosnt have anything to do with microbiology.

 

He didnt say it had to have anything to do with microbiology.

He didnt say it had to have anything to do with microbiology.

but I did say it had to be a bit above the highschool level

well you want to do something advance within a certain area (microbiology' date=' or genetics) so i'll ask you what advance stuff do you know in that area already?

 

i mean, for me, physics and quantum physics, some kinda quantum phonemena

 

for you, biology, microbiology/genetics, some kinda ___________

 

you fill it in!

 

by the way, im in GT for several subjects, but it doesnt involve anything extra, in fact it seems kinda pointless even though its good coz i got to drop resistant materials (wood/plastic stuff) and take up electronics GCSE, and in english there was once a school outing for G+T, other than that its never affected me.[/quote']

I was thinking something along the lines of bacterial something...but Im thats kinda what Im asking

but I did say it had to be a bit above the highschool level

 

Are you saying its too hard or too easy? It can be as hard is you want it to be.

Suggest you look into the "Archaea"

 

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html

 

Isn't Berkeley in your neighborhood?

 

Personally, I believe that this very primitive group of organisms will be on the cutting edge of biology in the future. Some of them us chemosynthesis rather than photosynthesis. When you couple this capability with genetic engineering, the possibility exists that there may be organisms which metabolize toxic substances into nontoxic ones. .... or that we may be able to genetically engineer one of these organisms to metabolize a particularly obnoxious substance.

Why don't you take samples of different microbiologicaly active things, (e.g. water, mildew, blood, saliva ect.) and see how the creatures act together in one petri dish?

Actually, Im incredibly interested in what coquina suggested, bioremediation. I think that there's a big promise for it in the future, and as for now, its readily used. So, thanks everyone for all your suggestions, but I think that bioremediation is a great idea.

Does anyone have any resources on it? Or even a cool idea for a project for an aspiring scientist?

Thanks everyone

have a read of my paper when finished titled Black Hole Entropy: In Search of Quantum Microstates. Im doing GCSE; is that the level were looking at here in gifted/ talented ?

hmm, what restriction enzymes do you have at your disposal?

Here's a list of bacteria the the Department of Energy has deemed important for genome research. There are "good" ones and "bad" ones - but there is a section that lists bacteria that might be used for bioremediation.

 

http://www.er.doe.gov/production/ober/mig_cont.html

 

Here's the home page and a Point of Contact. Maybe he could tell you of projects that are being conducted in your area and you could talk to the researchers for leads as to a project that would be "doable" for you.

http://www.er.doe.gov/production/ober/mig_top.html

Thanks Sandi,

I was looking into the oil aspects of this as well. Large Oil companies would need a way of cleaning up their mistakes with a natural, or at least biological method. I've seen an experiment like that but with cooking oils. do you think that the bacteria used in that experiment would work with something like crude oil?

 

http://www.edvotek.com/pdfs/956.pdf

Thanks Sandi' date='

I was looking into the oil aspects of this as well. Large Oil companies would need a way of cleaning up their mistakes with a natural, or at least biological method. I've seen an experiment like that but with cooking oils. do you think that the bacteria used in that experiment would work with something like crude oil?

 

http://www.edvotek.com/pdfs/956.pdf[/quote']

 

Why don't you give it a shot and find out?

 

If there are any refineries near you, they might be able to give you a sample.

 

I know that one place there is a great need for bioremediation is "tank farms" and old service stations. I used to be on our industrial authority. During WWII the navy built a huge underground "tank farm" near a facility called "Cheatham Annex". The property eventually was turned over to the state, and the Industrial Authority was asked to find a use for it. What we discovered was that in the years since WWII the underground tanks had corroded and, even though the tanks had been emptied long ago, they had contaminated the surrounding soil. We did a little research on "brownfield remediation", the cutting edge seems to be in bioremediation, but it is in its infancy.

 

Anybody with underground tanks (ie gas stations) are liable to have the same problem. There are a lot of wonderful corner lots vacant in this area that once had gas stations on them, however, no one will buy them because the soil is contaminated.

 

If you found an inexpensive means of cleaning the soil, and had time to wait, you could buy those corner lots, put your critters in the soil and wait for them to do their job. Once the ground was clean, you'd have a very valuable piece of property.