Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi. i am doing a science fair project for my school and i came across an article in the science and techonology section in "The Economist". they found a potential problem for the idea of burying carbon dioxide gases as a result from the greenhouse effect. However, they have found that it cuases increased acidity of the water. what i thought about was to find alternative ways to change carbon dioxide gases to substances that can be usable to the environment. i was wondering if this experiment is able to be done, and if it is appropriate for a highschooler. thankyou.[/i]

Hi SW,
With as broad a topic as that, I'm sure there are projects that you could do for a high school science fair. The challenge will be to narrow the topic down to an experiment that is appropriate for your resources and time restrictions.

A good place to start would be a web search for "CO2 uptake."

I think CO2 sinks could be an interesting topic for science fair. The Department of Energy's Office of Science has a web article about it at http://cdiac2.esd.ornl.gov/index.html . The idea of sequencing the genomes of microbes that aid in carbon sequestration is perhaps an interesting angle on the topic that might be dropped down to high school level. I think carbon sinking into soils or vegetation might be an angle that could drop down even into the grade school level. The Wikipedia article on the topic also has a good lay person's overview at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_sink .