With $32,000 at Stake, Things Get a Bit Weird at State Science Fair

Richard Palmer, a 16-year-old Riverside student, was losing his battle with four tubs full of tomato seedlings. He frantically sprayed the seedlings with water to keep them fresh, but their tiny leaves had begun to curl and turn black.

Palmer, who wants to be a cardiologist, knew why the plants were doomed. He had been the mad scientist who zapped them with a fatal dose of X-rays in order to get them to grow more. Despite the overdose, Palmer figured that in the dog-eat-dog world of the State Science Fair competition, the healthy looking seedlings in his exhibit--”X-Radiation Hormesis in Tomato Seeds”--might give him an edge.

He had plenty of competition Thursday from more than 500 students who displayed their entries at the California Museum of Science and Industry as part of the third annual State Science Fair.

The stakes were high. The museum’s advisory board, which sponsors the event, was awarding $32,000 in prizes, including a $10,000 marine biology scholarship that was won by Michelle Brand of Contra Costa County, whose project was water pollution’s effect on ocean mussels.

All-Day Task

It took the 200 judges, mostly high school and college teachers, all day to interview students--all 500 had won regional competitions--and scrutinize their bewildering array of notebooks, flasks, graphs, charts, photos, and strange-looking contraptions.

Among the more daunting topics: “Development of an Encoding/Decoding System Using Random Variables (a computer project)”; “Measuring Atomic Weights by Using Dulongs and Petit”; “Invertebrate Diversity Comparison of an Artificial Holdfast and a Holdfast of Eisenia” and “Phrase-space Analysis of the Properties of Chaotic Systems.”

Dr. Eric Amis, professor of chemistry at USC and a contest judge, said the entries fell into two categories--those developed by the students solely on their own and those who contacted outside research labs for equipment and guidance.

“Both techniques are excellent ways to learn,” Amis said. “There’s a shortage of students in science and we need to encourage their interest in it as a career.”

One of the winning entries was assembled by Erica Rowe, 18, a San Diego senior who worked in conjunction with the San Diego Zoo’s endangered species lab to find a vaccine for feline corona virus, a cat disease.

She didn’t come up with a vaccine, but feels confident it is possible. This fall, she plans to turn her attention to humans, studying medicine at Harvard.

Shades of Ink

For Kate Himsohn, 13, of San Diego’s Muirland School, getting an idea for her exhibit--”Chromatography--Is Black Ink Really Black?”--was as simple as finding an old black ink pen.

But when she “tried to write with it . . . it wrote blue instead of black,” she said.

Her science teacher encouraged her to find out why. For her project, she placed the ink on paper towels and dipped them into several solvents. When she used ethyl alcohol, the black ink dissolved into shades of red, blue, yellow and purple. The only thing she didn’t like about her project was that she had to buy all new pens.

“And it cost me $14,” she said.

Kenny Krueger, 14, of Huntington Beach studied the effects caffeine has on the web-making ability of spiders. He mixed caffeine and water and fed it to the six species of spiders using a tiny syringe.

“The spiders that took the caffeine were going faster and building their webs quicker, and didn’t pay attention to what they were doing,” Krueger explained. “The intricate patterns were shattered.”

Asked if he thought humans should drink coffee, he replied: “Only if they want to make really crazy webs.” To the chagrin of some zoology exhibitors, no live animals were allowed in the auditorium.

Giang Nguyen, 16, a Garden Grove student who wants to be a psychologist, was without the stars of his experiment, “Mice Following Directions.” Nguyen wanted to determine if 15 mice were intelligent enough to follow directions. He had set up cardboard mazes, which included bright orange direction arrows.

“I used three mazes so the mice couldn’t memorize them,” Nguyen explained. “They used them as reference points, and were able to run the maze faster. But they wouldn’t necessarily go the way the arrows were pointing.”

Nguyen also learned something else. “My mom doesn’t like mice,” he said.