POSSIBLE TOPICS FOR RESEARCH

Use atomic absorption spectroscopy to monitor some aspect of water quality. Where is all the copper that accumulates on the faucets in Carr?

Use fluorescence spectroscopy to quantify riboflavin takeup in students. What happens to your vitamin pill?

Abiotic synthesis of RNA, with hydroxy apatite as a reaction surface for RNA (if Frank DeToma is willing to pursue this).

Light scattering investigation- maybe use a ruby laser and another laser at a shorter wavelength Measure the scattering efficiency of different sized particles at two different wavelengths. (This might be easier through water than through air.)

Destructive interference and energy- what happens to the energy present in light when destructive interference occurs?

Create a double slit interference pattern, measure the total energy output of the source, or just that which passes through the slits, and compare to the total energy contained within the light that comprises the interference pattern. (I don’t know if our light meters are sensitive enough to do this.)

Rainbow optics- develop an informative, graphic-filled poster explaining all of the optics involved in rainbows, including refraction, dispersion, primary and secondary rainbows, the dark fringe between, the pink and green interference color bands below the primary rainbow, and maybe include rings around the moon, etc.

Figure out a way to project a big spectrum (a meter wide would be nice) on a screen. We have lenses, projectors, and prisms, but have had little success.

Color photography of the spectrum- which types of film work and which don’t? How can one best photographically reproduce the rainbow?

How many colors can we perceive?- use computer RGB with student subjects, get them to place very slight hue variations into a sequence and monitor how successful they are. Determine a matrix of hue and saturation variations to calculate the number of "colors" we are capable of distinguishing.

How well do we agree on color boundaries? Use the computer screen or a spectrum inside a spectrophotomer.

Conduct a survey of students’ ability to discern the "red" and "blue" stars in the Orion constellation. We predict that the red star would be recognized more readily because of the intensity versus wavelength relation, but is that the case?

Conduct a survey of the number of stars discernible in the Pleiades. Either or both surveys could be done on Skinner Green on a clear night or nights.

Characterize GFP. What are its absorption and emission spectra? (We’d have to grow transformed cells in broth and break them open to release the protein.)

Isolate the GFP plasmid (and save UoS some money for the future), or isolate the GFP gene from the plasmid.

Continue and expand your urchin project.

Continue and expand your photosynthesis project from last semester.

DNA fingerprinting: make it work! Try it with other primers. Try it with other organisms.