Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi! Here again.

On the antibacterial soap project, has it been done yet? I mean, hasn't the government or whatever group lookover what is in antibacterial soap, making it ok for people to use it? I think they already tested for triclosan. Do you think that the exposure to UV rays has been done before?


Thanks,
dlsmadscienctist
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As Chris already told you, don't worry at this stage about whether something is unique--worry about whether or not it's interesting to you at this stage. I honestly don't know what sort of government oversight of hand soaps there are (very little, would be my guess), but just because someone somewhere has done it before doesn't mean it's not worth doing. In fact, science is built on what we call repeatable results--things that happen every time someone performs a test. Thus, it's sometimes important to replicate experiments that have already been done.

Hi dlsmadscienctist,

If you do a google search on "antibacterial soap science project", you'll discover that there have been many projects on this theme. Note, however, MelissaB's and ChrisG''s comments that it's OK to do another project with the same theme. You may also be inspired to think about a variant to prior work, tough it's not necessary.

Hi,
I assume you are talking about the project idea you presented on page 1 to look at the effect of UV on triclosan. As I mentioned on page 1 of this thread, I think that would be a fine project. Have you gone through the exercises I suggested related to this project idea? If you have, what did you find, and what further help do you need? If you haven't, please go take a look at those suggestions and give them a try.
Thanks,
Chris

Thank you to all and to you ChrisG!

I have read the information you have given me about the UV light and its effect. The other about zone inhibition and agar places, I do not quite grasp, and it was somewhat confusing. Anyway, The second website was understandable. Hopefully there are some labs that can help me out.
I think this project would be good, and I am wondering whether it is good enough for intel? What should I do to maximize my chances of winning and getting to intel or isef?

Thanks,
dlsmadscienctist
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dlsmadscienctist,

Another student has been having worries similar to the ones that you seem to be having about whether or not your project idea is "good enough" for ISEF.

I gave the other student some advice based on my own experiences; that post can be found here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... =28&t=3908.

In addition to looking at the post, I would also highly recommend looking at the material under the "Competitions" page of the Science Buddies website. It is full of useful advice about preparing for a top competition like Intel ISEF.

Good luck!

Thanks,

I've been thinking and I've come up with a couple more ideas.
I was wondering if there was some type of exotic fruit or plant that could be researched? for poisons maybe.
Also, I've heard about a fish's gallbladder and how it has medicinal effects. But what could I possibly do with that?

It's getting close to school time, and I am determined to get my idea as clear as possible.

-dlsmadscienctist
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If you wanted to research poisons, you would need access to a chemistry lab and proper safety equipment. You'd also need to figure out what your question was and what organism you were thinking about in terms of poison (for example, some plants are poisonous to insects but not humans, and vice-versa).

Can you link to the information you saw about fish's gallbladders? Most of what I saw when I did a search was medical papers detailing cases where people had actually been poisoned by eating fish gallbladders. In general, what you would want to do is figure out what its benefit is supposed to be and then find a test you can do with it that doesn't involve human or animal subjects. For example, if it's supposed to prevent kidney stones, which are calcium deposits, you could put calcium tablets in salt water with and without pureed fish gallbladders and see if the one with fish gallbladder puree dissolves faster.

Thank you,
I haven't gotten a definite link, I just heard some info about it. Fish oil is another topic I might be interested but I can't decide what I would investigate..

so what could i do with fish oil?

Hi,
As far as I know the main interest in fish oil has been as a dietary supplement. Try an internet search for "fish oil experiment" and you'll see what I mean.

It is probably time to stop thinking of potential topics and to choose one that you've already considered. You have a few good ideas to choose from already in this thread. I sense the experts are running out of time to give advice on these very broad questions about which topic to choose. These forums are intended to help students who have a specific question about their project that they have tried to research but have been unable to answer using other resources. I would suggest you dig into the project ideas section:
http://sciencebuddies.com/science-fair- ... deas.shtml
and the project guide:
http://sciencebuddies.com/science-fair- ... ndex.shtml
Please keep us posted about your progress and any difficulties you encounter.

Looking forward to hearing more about your project,
Chris

Thanks again Chris,

I've leaning towards the antibacterial soap project. Your suggestions are great, but I wouldn't see what I would be doing if I were to just test for triclosan..? Do you think I should take one brand of antibacterial soap because there are many? I also like the effects of UV exposure...but if you could just answer a coulpe of questions that would be superb.

Thanks a lot,

dlsmadscienctist
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You're welcome. What you would be doing and how you would design the experiment will depend on your scientific question and hypothesis. For the first step, you will need to come up with a sentence or two that asks a question, for example, something about hand soap, triclosan, and UV radiation. For additional guidance, please read the following section on "Your Science Fair Project Question":
http://sciencebuddies.com/science-fair- ... tion.shtml
When you have read that section and you have come up with a scientific question, please post that scientific question here. It doesn't have to be a final version of the question. We will help you to refine the question so that you can conduct some in-depth background research to develop a hypothesis. Once that is done, we can talk about experimental design and questions such as how many hand soaps to use.

I hope that helps.
Chris

Ok I've come up with a question, and I believe it's good: How does UV exposure affect the amount of triclosan in antibacterial soap?

Anything wrong with it?

Also, will I be needing approval from the science committee to do this project?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts,

dlsmadscienctist
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dlsmadscienctist,

I think that your question is an excellent one. You have clear, well-defined, quantitative independent and dependent variables. Having well-defined variables is important for any science fair project. The fact that both your variables are quantitative (you can measure both of them) means that if will probably be fairly easy to determine the relationships between your independent and dependent variable, but this is something to worry about later. As ChrisG pointed out, the first thing is to get your question nailed down, the second thing to to do some serious background research, and then we can worry more about methods. I'm sure that the other Experts will have some helpful comments on your question.

As far as whether or not you need to get approval from the science fair committee, that depends somewhat on the fair you will be competing in. Intel ISEF has some very strict rules that must be complied with in order to be eligible for competition at the fair. Since you said earlier that you were concerned about your project being "good enough" for ISEF, I am assuming that you are planning to enter the project at an Intel ISEF-affiliated fair. The affiliated fair has to comply with the Intel ISEF rules I mentioned earlier, but some fairs make their rules stricter. If you need to compete at a school or district science fair to qualify to attend an Intel ISEF-affiliated regional fair, the rules at that fair may also be slightly different from the international rules. The best person to talk to regarding questions you may have about complying with the rules at your local and regional science fair is the regional fair's SRC Committee Chairperson. He or she will be able to determine whether or not your project needs pre-approval and whether or not you need to fill out any additional forms. My gut-level response would be that you will need some sort of pre-approval to work with UV, but I'm not certain; the best person to talk to is the SRC Committee Chairperson for your fair.

Good luck on the project!

I agree with Terik that you have a very good question, and that the next step will be to conduct background research. When you see what studies have been been done on this topic, you'll start to get a sense of what you could do to improve on what has already been done. Keep in mind some of the practical and scientific questions that are related to the key words in your main question. For example, what, exactly is triclosan? What exactly is UV light? What is known about how UV affects its concentration? What are methods to quantify the concentration of triclosan? Are those methods available to you? Where does one find UV light? What sources of UV light have been used in previous experiments. What methods are available for using UV light in your own experiments? These are just some examples to get you started, and I'm sure you will think of many more.
Good luck!
Chris

Hello all!
I have discussed my project with my teacher and she had a few questions that I thought you guys could probably answer.
1) What the chemical name for triclosan is? so she can get familiar with it..
2) what instrument or device is used to measure chemicals like triclosan?
3) will it be expensive?
4)what are the procedures?
5) Also, she gave me some other possible ways like measuring the light source and wavelength..

But if you could answer these questions it would be helpful. please i need specifics!

Thanks write ASAP,

dlsmadscienctist
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Welcome back! I'm glad you have been able to discuss the project with your teacher.

The first question can be answered with a quick web search. Try going to google.com, or any other search engine, and type in "triclosan". You can find the answer right away. You can let us know if there is something that confuses you.
To answer the second question, try a search for "triclosan determination" or "triclosan analysis". You'll find many documents. Please let us know if you need help understanding those.
To answer the third question, yes, it would be expensive by science fair standards to directly measure triclosan concentrations unless you can find an analytical laboratory or university researcher who will mentor you and let you use their equipment.
The answers to the fourth question will be in the articles that you find when you answer the second question.

It sounds as though you have proposed to do an experiment to measure concentrations of triclosan before and after UV exposure. If the expense and equipment for direct measurements of concentration are an obstacle for you, you could reconsidering the earlier recommendation to study the efficacy of triclosan hand soap for inhibiting microbial growth on petri dishes, as opposed to the actual concentrations of triclosan.

Good luck!

Chris

Thanks,

Wow this seems tough...which idea do you think would be better and unique? I'm just saying I need some originality here.....



-dlsmadscienctist

You're welcome.
Neither experiment is better or more unique. They are just different. One would tell you about antimicrobial properties. The other would tell you about chemical concentrations.
Chris

ok?...have you ever thought of the idea of whether hot water working just as well as soap/antibacterial soap? Just wondering if this could be a possible science experiment...

ok?...have you ever thought of the idea of whether hot water working just as well as soap/antibacterial soap? Just wondering if this could be a possible science experiment...

also, i remember things about maglev train back in the day, and i was wondering what kind of project might i be doing? i am interested in that as a form of transportation...

thanks,

dlsmadscienctist
i need some info soon thanks

Sure, you could do a project comparing hand washing with hot water, soap, or antibacterial soap. Really, you can do a project on almost any topic that comes to mind. The trick is finding one that you like, and working hard to understand the concepts and to build on what's already been done. I would recommend that you stay on track with what you've already chosen. If that doesn't work for you and you want to go back to exploring a wide range of possible topics, then I'd recommend you go back to the "project ideas" page. There are several ideas there about magnetism and magnetic levitation, and additional information in this thread:
http://www.sciencebuddies.com/science-f ... =29&t=3968

Chris

Oh ok. Thanks.

Yea, I like the magnetic one, it's just that all the soap ideas have already been done, so i'd just be replicating an experiment...

Please forget about whether, at first glance, a topic seems to have been done. Please forget about whether, at first glance, a topic seems "original".

The goal is to build on what has already been done by other scientists. Typically, a good experiment will generate as many questions as it will answer. Your mission as an aspiring scientist is to find one of those questions generated by previous high-quality experiments, and then do your best to answer it. Most any topic, explored sufficiently, will lead you to the outer edge of our understanding of the world.

yes thanks,,
tod u have any helpful information about magnets and levitation? except the link that you gave me?

Have you read that thread about magnetic levitation, or looked at the project ideas, or tried a web search for "magnetic levitation"? If you have, what specific information confused you and/or interested you? If you haven't, please do all of those tasks and take notes as you go. When you are done, please post back here with specific questions or ideas from your reading notes. Once you have chosen a topic and started to reading online and in the library about that topic, then we experts can offer some really great help.

If you are having more basic problems getting started on your project, we will still try to help, but we can not choose a topic for you or give a lot of basic background information. To do a great project, it is very important for you to do those things yourself. For more info about how to make the most of this forum, see:
http://www.sciencebuddies.com/science-f ... c+Question
For help finding a topic, please read:
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... Find+Topic
For general help about how to do a project from start to finish, see:
http://www.sciencebuddies.com/science-f ... ndex.shtml
For general questions about broad topics, we usually recommend web searches and library searches. Sometimes we help when a newcomer has a general question about a broad project, but after someone has asked about several different topics, it becomes a very inefficient use of our time.

Good luck!
Chris

Hi, I've been on here before. I need to know how to set up an exposure chamber pronto.


Thanks,

dlsmadscienctist
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Hi dlsmadscienctist,

Could you please some background.

Two questions:
1. What experiment are you working on?
2. How do "triclosan" and "exposure chamber" fit into the experiment?

Thanks.

Hi dlsmadscienctist,
Welcome back to the Ask an Expert forums. I've copied this thread about the triclosan project over to the Life Earth & Social Sciences forum, where it will get more attention from biology & chemistry specialists, and I've merged it with your previous thread so that experts can see the original background on your project. Please keep subsequent posts for this project in this thread. Thanks.
Looking forward to hearing more about your experiment,
Chris