Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
I am doing a science fair project, and my topic is: what are the effects of botanical antioxidants on preventing free radical propagation caused by uv rays on the Drosophila melanogaster? I am researching currently, but I am worried of how I am going to do my experiment. Can anyone help me?

Hello and welcome to Science Buddies!

I am very impressed by your out of the box thinking for your science project. The materials you will need for this project (Drosophila Melanogaster, botanical antioxidants, and UV light) seem very complicated. Also, free radical propagation seems to be a very hard variable to measure. Although I still encourage you to research this topic, I would suggest going to our Science Buddies Project website [/url]https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... deas.shtml] to find an experiment under the environmental section that has a clear control variable.

Feel free to follow up and ask more questions!

Hello hkviolinconcerto,
Thank you for posting your question. Wow, that is an ambitious project, but I think you can do it given the right materials and time. So you are trying to see if the addition of antioxidants after UV exposure will aid in decreasing the death of Drosophila? Is this right? Do you have a hypothesis yet? Tell us what your hypothesis is, you can read here about forming one: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... esis.shtml

If you are trying to see whether the addition of antioxidants will have a negative effect on the flies, how are you going to determine, and thus measure "free radical propagation"? One way to do this would be to expose flies to UV and make observations, then expose to antioxidants and report observations.
You will need to know how to set up your experiment, by mapping out your test subject protocol. Read this about variables: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... bles.shtml

Remember that you will need several experimental groups: a control group and variables. Your test will be the combination of UV, followed by antioxidants. One control will be flies exposed to nothing (no uv, no antioxidants).
Your subject/ control will be the flies with no exposure of UV or antioxidants.

Your independent variable is the the part of the experiment that you will change. After you change the environment, you record what you observe. Can you guess what your independent variable will be:
Your dependent variable is the effect of the independent variable on your subject. You can have several dependent variables. The dependent variable is one that is dependent upon the independent variable. Look at some of the examples on the link I gave above. If you expose subjects to UV, the dependent variable could be: how long flies live after UV exposure, or how the rate of movement changes by exposure to UV.

Your experiment gets complicated because you are measuring 2 variables, rather than one. One variable is the antioxidant exposure, the other is UV exposure. Ideally in science you want to look at one variable, for example, the effect of UV on healthy flies. You can choose to do 2 variables if you want, but this will take more time and the results can sometimes be difficult to interpret.

That was a lot of information, so please ask more questions if you are confused and ask questions in this same thread. I can't wait to hear what you learn. Good luck!

Hi hkviolinconcerto,

You have already gotten some great advice from the other experts. I just wanted to suggest that you look into finding a research mentor for this project. Although it is possible for you to do this project yourself, it is much easier to do a project with Drosophila when you have the resources available in a research lab.

Here is some information about how (and why) to go about finding a mentor for your project: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... tors.shtml

Please post again (in this same thread) if you have more questions! I have a colleague who studies Drosophila, and I may be able to ask her questions about how long to apply treatments or when to take measurements.

Best,
Heather

Thank you everyone for replying to my post!
I actually changed my topic because I don't think I had the time to do my previous topic.
My project now is about finding the best natural treatment (using different extracts) to increase DIT (Diet Induced thermogenesis) of macronutrients.
I know I am going to need lipids, carbs, and protein for my experiment, but do you know where to get them?
I am going to put alpha amylase enzyme in the carbs, pepsin in protein, and lipase enzyme in the lipids.
I will also use different extracts to see the reaction times, but how do I calculate the inhibitory effects and the DIT effects on the macronutrients?
I know what my topic is, but I am quite unsure of how I am going to do it. I have the big picture, but I don't know the details yet. Please help me.

Hi hkviolinconcerto,

Wow! This sounds like an excellent, high-level project - great job for taking it on!

As for obtaining lipids, carbs, and proteins, you may want to narrow those generic macromolecules down to specific compounds that are very prevalent in a variety of foods. That way, it'll be easier for you to search for and obtain what you need. This site may be of help to obtain supplies - also, if you try to contact a local university lab, they might be able to provide you with more guidance and/or give you some of the materials more easily.
Sigma Aldrich sells quite a few compounds for chemistry and biochemistry/biology: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/united-states.html

While I'm not exactly sure how to answer some of your questions specifically (maybe a few other experts could back me up on this?), I did do some research on your topic and found the following link, which may be of help to you.
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/1/1/5
What different extracts are you thinking of using?

Also, what inhibitory effects exactly do you want to look for?

Hope this helps!