VSEPR_VOID
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Nutrition, Cobalt Content and Sustainability of Glycine max in Martian Soil Analog for Colonization - A Three Year Study
This is a modified version of my science fair project I have been working on for a few years. I started it during my freshman year and have been
adding to it since. The first year of this project awarded me participation at the state level, the second year I placed at states, and this year I
intend to take 1st place. I wanted to share this project with the forum and see what you guys, and gals, think.
It is attached below in PDF form.
Attachment: Nutrition and Cobalt levels of Glycine max Cultivated in Martian Soil - A Three Year Study.pdf (627kB)
This file has been downloaded 669 times
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VSEPR_VOID
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I was hoping for criticism and feedback 
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unionised
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Why cobalt?
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VSEPR_VOID
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The presence of cobalt was indicated in rye grass grown in the Martian soil so I wanted to determine if, and how much, cobalt was in G. max. Extracts
made from G. max tissue showed a concentration less than 10mg/dL, no more than the control.
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aga
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A couple of years back i grew some tomatoes in bare rock (just for mechanical stabilisation) using a chemical mix derived from an 'ideal' tomato
recipe.
The Weight of Cobalt was minimal, trace even.
Glycine ?
The main Macro component required would be Water.
After skimming your pdf i'd suggest that Magnesium is another Macro ingredient required.
If a transplant (pardon the pun) of plants from Earth to Mars is ever contemplated, or feasible, we'd have to start at the micro-level with things
like algae.
Whatever the plan, it'd have to take into consideration the recycling that the 2nd gen plants would do with the remains of the 1st gen plants.
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mayko
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Overall it's a pretty cool project!
A few things I noticed, with different degrees of nitpickiness:
*When you state values like, "519.8362 ug/mL", I have to wonder if you've really got 7 significant digits of precision?
* Captions for Figs. 3 & 4 describe error bars but none are plotted. The plots are 3D barplots, and error bars might be visually confusing here.
Also, the results are grouped by sample number, but there's no obvious reason to directly compare Earth Sample 1 to Mars Sample 1 rather than to Mars
Sample 2. The comparison you're really interested in is between all Earth samples and all Mars samples. A box or violin plot with a dot plot overlayed
might be a good way to visualize the measurements.
* Be more explicit about your significance and hypothesis testing: maybe make a table of parameters/results for each t-test. Explain how you derived
your critical t value (what confidence interval does it represent?) When you tell us that the difference between two treatments is or isn't
significant, what confidence interval is attached to the significance? Maybe explain a little what you mean when you say a null hypothesis is
valid/invalid, since this can be a tricky point.
* Reclassify Fig. 5 as a table; flip the inequality signs.
* You ran a negative control (distilled water) to make test for false positives from the cobalt assay. None of your results on this assay were
positive, though; you're interested in the rate of false negatives. Did you run one of these?
* In the Results, you don't tell me the direction of the difference between treatments in the stem-protein analysis, or give a size of the change in
either the stem- or leaf-protein analysis. When you restate these findings in the conclusion, you tell me about the significance of the differences,
but not their size or direction.
* Did you gather any other data on viability/other phenotype? (eg, growth rate, max size, survival curve, percent flowering)
*Some footnotes look incomplete
*Your dataset is small enough that it could be included in a table
* Looking at figure 3, I get the impression that there are two discrete kinds of plant, a low-yielding and a high-yielding type, and more MSSM plants
became the low-yielding.
* Looking at figure 4, the sample #10, MSSM treatment looks like an outlier. It's interesting one way or the other, but you might want to try
excluding that data point and running the test again to see if your result is robust.
* I wonder if you could mechanically promote soil aeration with something like wooden skewers? Fungal mycellia are important for formation of soil
from regolith; if you tossed some oyster mushroom culture into some Martian soil beds, would it help soil growth? 
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"Chemicals, chemicals... I need chemicals!" - George Hayduke
"Wubbalubba dub-dub!" - Rick Sanchez
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unionised
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Glycine max is, rather confusingly, the Latin name for soy beans.
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VSEPR_VOID
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Quote: Originally posted by aga  | A couple of years back i grew some tomatoes in bare rock (just for mechanical stabilisation) using a chemical mix derived from an 'ideal' tomato
recipe.
The Weight of Cobalt was minimal, trace even.
Glycine ?
The main Macro component required would be Water.
After skimming your pdf i'd suggest that Magnesium is another Macro ingredient required.
If a transplant (pardon the pun) of plants from Earth to Mars is ever contemplated, or feasible, we'd have to start at the micro-level with things
like algae.
Whatever the plan, it'd have to take into consideration the recycling that the 2nd gen plants would do with the remains of the 1st gen plants.
|
Glycine max is the scientific name for Soybeans
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VSEPR_VOID
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An Update-
The project has won 1st in its category at the district level and is proceeding to states. In addition is won two special awards.
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MrHomeScientist
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Congratulations!
I just judged our local district science fair, and our area is pretty disappointing. There are no actual chemistry projects in the chemistry category;
just the same ones year after year, gotten from googling "chemistry science fair project". Or from Science Buddies. God I hate Science Buddies.
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mayko
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Congrats! Do you have a version of the final draft you'd want to upload?
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VSEPR_VOID
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| Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist | Congratulations!
I just judged our local district science fair, and our area is pretty disappointing. There are no actual chemistry projects in the chemistry category;
just the same ones year after year, gotten from googling "chemistry science fair project". Or from Science Buddies. God I hate Science Buddies.
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I know that feel bro. I almost got a perfect from my judges. One gave me a 98/100. The state fair is in March and I am thinking about entering a few
different private fairs? Any thoughts on which I should apply for? The final draft was almost exactly the same but with some errors obvious errors
removed. Thank you guys for the suggestions. I am starting work on next years project already by planting some corn. I will keep you posted with
pictures.
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ninhydric1
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Your science fair is pretty early; the one in my area is around mid-March.
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
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VSEPR_VOID
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I believe that the Google science fair will open for applications in March.
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VSEPR_VOID
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An Update on States and Awards:
I placed 3rd at states and also received an 84,000 dollar scholarship. I will probably not use the scholarship as the school seems it is not up my
alley so to speak. Next year I hope to take home 1st and go to internationals. Thanks go out to all those who left feedback for me.
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