Appleby High School Oakville, ON
Top: Steven Murray (Student), Daniel Mitropolsky (Student), Faraaz Ahmed (Student).
Middle: Christopher Ryan (CLS), Kiersten Locas-Hoeltken (Student), Emma Raaflaub (Student), Anjuli Ahooja (Teacher), James Dynes (CLS)
Bottom: Chithra Karunakara (CLS), Tracy Walker (CLS), Bonnie Chaban (UofS)
The goal of this project was to develop an understanding of the effect of zinc oxide nanoparticles on cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are found in natural freshwater ecosystems and play a vital role replenishing oxygen to the environment through photosynthesis. Zinc oxide, in the form of nanoparticles, has become a common additive to many household products such as band aids, paints, adhesives, and batteries and is disposed of regularly into public waterways. Cyanobacteria are a link in the ecological cycles of carbon fixation through photosynthetic activity. Nanoparticles could have negative impacts on the cyanobacteria. This could be not only detrimental to the cyanobacteria itself but could also threaten other species in the environment.
In our school laboratory we conducted a visible light absorbance longitudinal analysis in the 720-740 nm range as well as observed our samples in an optical microscope. At CLS we studied the x-ray absorbance of carbon and oxygen K-edges of a control sample as well as samples with difference size nanoparticles and concentrations using the Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy and Spectroscopy (STXM) on the Spectromicroscopy (SM) beamline.
Our experiment indicated that cyanobacteria exhibit several effects that could be attributed to the zinc oxide nanoparticles. The cellular junctions are more pronounced in the presence of nanoparticles. Also, oxygen scans revealed dense, round ?inclusion bodies? present in the bacteria exposed to nanoparticles that were not present in the control samples.
Click here to view their poster.
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Welcome to the Canadian Light Source! Bright-eyed in the morning sun. |
Surveying their new workspace. |
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Careful and meticulous sample preparation. |
Everyone gets to try their hand preparing the bacteria for analysis. |
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Samples are mounted and ready to go. |
Faraaz searches for the perfect bacteria while Kiersten prepares precise records. |
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Data analysis is a collaborative ... |
though gruelling process. |
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Presenting their findings to CLS staff. |
Answering some tough questions. |
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Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:39