Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,

I am interested in running an experiment to determine if ferrofluid is a viable option for cleaning up wild life exposed to oil spills. I have a few questions I am having trouble answering.

1) I'm thinking about using feathers and measuring their weight before and after my clean up procedure. What kind of scale could be used to measure what I foresee being a very small variance in weight? My mom's kitchen scale does not appear to be sensitive enough. And is such a scale cost prohibitive? Can a scale like that be borrowed?

2) Is there a magnet strength that would be detrimental to an animal such as a bird? I wouldn't to pull all of the iron in an animal's blood into one place on their body. What is the strongest power of magnet one would consider safe?

3) I have also considered using strips of a faux fur for my experiment. I know sea/lake animals have a very specialized fur, but would a faux fur potentially yield helpful data? Or is it just too far off the real deal to be of significance?

Hello there!
Sounds like you have a really neat project underway!
Here are a few possible answers to your questions:

1) I believe for the small variance in weight, I would use an analytical balance. These vary in cost from $50-200, but I am sure a nearby science classroom would have one of these for you to use. If you are able to contact a highschool chemistry or biotechnology (or biology) teacher, I am sure they'd allow for you to use their balance to mass out your feather. Let me know how that goes!

2) As far as the magnet goes, a quick google search would help you answer that question

3) I think that using faux fur for the purpose of your experiment is a great idea! When you write up your project, just be sure to include that some of the limitations of the project included not being able to use structurally-accurate fur. But because you are using an alternative that would act as a model for real fur, I think it's perfect!
You could conduct some background research about real fur and how it absorbs oil and include that in your project background.
https://seagrant.uaf.edu/topics/environ ... -facts.php
Here's a site you might find helpful.

Please let us know if you have any other questions!!
Best of luck!

Stay nerdy!
lmp1341