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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 6 |
| Time required | Short (several days) |
| Material Availability | Readily available |
| Cost | Low ($20 - $50) |
| Safety | Adult supervision is recommended. Use caution when using sharp knives and do not eat any of your experiments. |
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| Sponsored by a generous grant from the Medtronic Foundation |
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| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
Antioxidants have become very popular in the news lately for their potential health and anti-aging properties. Antioxidants work by preventing oxidation reactions that produce free-radicals which can cause harm to the body. Try testing different vitamins for antioxidant activity. How do vitamins A, B, C, and E compare? Do some vitamins have more antioxidant activity than others? What are some other sources of antioxidants? Try testing extracts from proposed sources of antioxidants like coffee, tea, tomatoes, carrots, grapes, and berries (MedlinePlus, 2006). Do nuts contain antioxidants? Does roasting or processing affect the antioxidant properties of nuts? (Hopkins and Watts, 2003) A simple way to test for antioxidant activity is to see if the reagent can keep an apple slice from browning.Bibliography
- Hopkins, Z., and Watts, R. (2003). Nuts and the Dark Side of Oxygen. Retrieved May 1, 2006, from http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20040630/ScienceFairZone.asp
- MedlinePlus. (2006). Antioxidants. Retrieved May 1, 2006, from the Washington, DC: U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) website, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antioxidants.html
Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Human Biology & Health Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2008-11-10 15:20:25
Career Focus
If you like this project, you might want to think about career opportunities in
Human Biology & Health.
Doctor's need information to decide if a person is healthy or sick, if a baby's earache is bacterial or viral, or if the man next door needs medication to lower his cholesterol and prevent a heart attack. The information often comes in the form of results from lab tests. Medical and clinical laboratory technicians are the people who perform these routine medical laboratory tests, giving the doctors the information needed to diagnose, treat, and prevent disease. Learn more about this career: Medical & Clinical Laboratory Technician.
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