Zoology project topic help !

[ttl64]

Last year, I did a study on the effect of a vitamin on the growth of mealworms. I've surprisingly discovered an ability of that vitamin, which is extend the life of the worms. I really want to discover more from that aspect but I currently don't know how. Does anyone have any suggestion on how to advance this idea further ? Is there any way to determine if it would have the same effect on other species or even ... on human ?

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

You sound like you have the start of an idea for a great project. I am not enough of a biologist/zoologist to be able to give you much specific guidance, but I recommend looking at this Google book review, particularly chapter 5:

http://books.google.com/books?id=_ctHCo ... fetime&lr=

Note that the Google page can help you find a way to borrow this book from a library.
You might find this general info on mealworms helpful:

http://mealwormstore.com/mealworm_info.php

From what I could find out many things can affect mealworm lifetime, so you will need to be very careful to be sure the effect you observed is due to what you think it is. This sounds like a really excellent line of research, and I wish you every success with it.

You did not mention what vitamin you were interested in, so my research for you was very generic. Please feel free to ask a more specific question if you need to. I also recommend Google Scholar as a search tool for good information.

Best regards!

Barrett Tomlinson

[missybitsy]

Hi,
Thanks for replying! I realized that there might be several factors that affect the life duration of mealworms. For my recent project, I did a control set of worms, which doesn't contain any Zinc (the type of vitamin I used), to confirm the significance of my experimental group. So, I am pretty sure that Zinc played a major role in extending the life of mealworms. My next research project is probably just focus on the "anti-aging" aspect (It's okay otherwise). I'll try to look at the sites you've suggested before making any further comments. If you have any other input, please let me know. Thanks !

[ttl64]

The reply above was typed by me. It was made under my sister's account while she forgot to log out. Sorry !

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

I looked a little further into the life extending potential of zinc. It appears there is a large amount of scientific interest in this topic. Too little or too much zinc causes severe problems for humans. Zinc is an essential component of Superoxide dismutase(SOD),an enzyme that destroys free radicals, and many other enzymes, . Free radicals can damage cell machinery(oxidative stress) and are theorized to lead to aging and death. This is still very controversial, with lots of studies not finding positive results if you increase the amount of SOD in cells. Explore this further in this Google search:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls= ... art=0&sa=N

This looks like a really good area for a science project to me, because I don’t see that the science is completely understood yet. If you can do really clever and careful research there is the possibility you might be able to contribute new knowledge.

Best Regards,

Barrett Tomlinson

[MelissaB]

This is a really interesting result, and I can think of several things you might do to extend it. First, you could raise a different animal and see if zinc had the same effects. Second, you could try different concentrations of Zinc and see if you got the result Barrett mentioned--e.g. that if they get too much, their lives will actually get shorter! Next, if Zinc is supposed to act by destroying free radicals, you could look up other vitamins that supposedly do the same thing and see if they have the same effect.

Good luck!

[ttl64]

I was thinking about trying Zinc on a more complex animal or even warm-blooded animal. I realized that it could be very time consuming. I did some researches and one said that Zinc pushed up the blood level of albumin, a protein. Albumin could be a biomarker of longevity. I was considering in evaluating albumin level of Zinc consumed animal vs. control animal. Somehow, I can estimate some difficulties in this study (such as timing, bleep of extracting blood, and environment) so I don't think it's possible for me to do this project. If you can think of a way how to make this experiment more accessible, please let me know! Otherwise, I'll go with the different Zinc concentration idea.
Thanks so much for all your helps !

[MelissaB]

I'm afraid that you'll need access to a lab if you want to measure albumin amounts (albumin, incidentally, makes up most of the clear protein in an egg, e.g. an egg white). Could you contact your local university and see if anyone there does anything like this (I would suggest the chemistry or biochemistry departments). Incidentally, keep in mind that if you're going to work on vertebrates you'll need permission from your teacher and the science fair, etc. Unless you're working with an experienced mentor, I would avoid taking blood samples from animals.

[ttl64]

Mealworms have an ability of digesting protein. Since albumin is a type of protein, usually found in egg white, can mealworms really consume albumin ? Can mealworm produce their own albumin ? What are some experiments in the past that involve mealworms and albumin ?
I'm asking these questions because a person with higher albumin protein level tends to live longer than one who has a lower level. Thanks!

[ttl64]

I discussed the idea of using different concentrations of Zinc. Somehow, it doesn't sound like a kind of project my teacher would expect for high school level. I can't have an experiment on veterbrate because I don't have enough time. What am I going to do ?

[deleted-71447]

Hi,
Did your teacher have some specific objections to your project idea? If you can tell us what those objections were, we can help you to redesign the project. It is often possible to make a project more suitable for higher grade levels by making minor changes to the project design. It may also be a matter of doing a little additional research so that you can narrow the focus of the study and demonstrate the importance of your project by relating it to previous scientific work.
Regards,
Chris