Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi,
In the fall I am participating in a competitive regional science fair and am feeling completely lost right now. Last year's winning topics seem complex, and I am not quite sure how the participants came up with topics of the sort. I want to focus my research on biology, most preferably something to do with human anatomy and physiology. I browsed through ScienceBuddies recommended topics and was interested in projects like BLASTing Flu Viruses, Antibiotic Resistance, Direct Cell Reprogramming, and the Planarian Regeneration one. However, my project needs to be original and innovative....so I'm not sure how to progress with these ideas and come up with something of my own. I have a month before school starts and would like to come up with a topic before then so I can start my research. Any advice? Please respond, and thank you so much for your time.

Hi and welcome to Scibuddies. We’ll try to help you come up with some good ideas for a new project.
In order to think of something that hasn’t been investigated before, you have to know what the current knowledge is in a particular field. Scientists do this by reading journal articles and going to scientific conferences. Then they test some of their ideas in the lab and if they seem promising they do more work on them. Sometimes they produce useful data and sometimes not. It’s a hard job even for professionals to develop a new project that hasn’t already been explored.
Of the four things you mentioned as interesting, I would say antibiotic resistance and cell reprogramming are the best choices. But the problem as usual is that you are limited to working at home or in a high school science lab with minimal equipment and supplies. Unless you have access to a university research lab and a mentor to help you, much of what you would like to do is beyond your resources.
But you can still do great science on a limited budget—you just have to be more creative and inventive—which I think is actually more fun!
For example, you can buy the standard research bacterium, Escherichia coli, quite cheaply from Carolina Biologicals and do some interesting experiments testing a variety of plant or fungal extracts for antibacterial properties. You could use commercial herbals or make your own. What you measure is the effect of the compound on bacterial growth by counting the number of cells before and after treatment and comparing them to untreated controls.
Reprogramming cells, usually stem cells, to become some other kind like muscle, nerve or joint cells is a really hot research area today. Unfortunately for high school students, experiments with mammalian cells require the use of a pretty advanced cell culture lab that is beyond the budget of most high schools. You could make up a hypothesis about cell reprogramming and use internet databases to create a project proposal that you would submit like a grant proposal. This is not as satisfying as doing hands-on experiments but creating a workable proposal to test an important question is useful. It is something that a scientist spends a lot of time doing because the money for their lab and people usually comes from grants.
Do some more reading and thinking and let us know what you decide. We will guide you in how to develop and execute a great project within your budget and time frame.
Good luck!

Sybee