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Free Radicals and Aging: 2006 Project Summary

1) The student investigated whether hydrogen peroxide, a free radical, causes flies to age faster and whether vitamin C can delay this aging. 2) Flies exposed to hydrogen peroxide alone lived 6.5 days on average, shorter than the 14.3 days for control flies. Flies exposed to both hydrogen peroxide and vitamin C fared even worse, living only 8.4 days on average. 3) Unexpectedly, the student found that high doses of vitamin C seemed to further accelerate aging rather than delay it, likely due to using amounts far exceeding recommended daily levels for humans.

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83 views1 page

Free Radicals and Aging: 2006 Project Summary

1) The student investigated whether hydrogen peroxide, a free radical, causes flies to age faster and whether vitamin C can delay this aging. 2) Flies exposed to hydrogen peroxide alone lived 6.5 days on average, shorter than the 14.3 days for control flies. Flies exposed to both hydrogen peroxide and vitamin C fared even worse, living only 8.4 days on average. 3) Unexpectedly, the student found that high doses of vitamin C seemed to further accelerate aging rather than delay it, likely due to using amounts far exceeding recommended daily levels for humans.

Uploaded by

uhfste
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CALIFORNIA STATE SCIENCE FAIR

2006 PROJECT SUMMARY

Name(s) Project Number


Isaac I. Su
S1428
Project Title
Free Radicals and Aging

Abstract
Objectives/Goals
Does hydrogen peroxide, a free radical, cause flies to age faster? Will Vitamin C, an anti-oxidant, delay
this aging process?
Methods/Materials
1. Separate 130 Drosophila wild-type flies into 13 vials with 10 flies each.
2. Prepare 20 mL solutions of hydrogen peroxide in the following concentrations: 0%,0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%,
2.0%, 2.5%, 3.0% hydrogen peroxide.
3. Prepare 20 mL solutions of hydrogen peroxide and Vitamin C in the following concentrations: 0.5%
with 0.724 g Vitamin C, 1.0% with 1.44 g, 1.5% with 2.17 g, 2.0% with 2.89 g, 2.5% with 3.6 g, 3% with
4.224 g. The amounts of Vitamin C were determined by calculating exactly how many moles of Vitamin
C would be required to neutralize all the moles of hydrogen peroxide.
4. Place 10 flies into one of 13 vials containing all these different concentrations.
5. Note # of flies living in each vial every 8 hours.
6. Record results.
Results
The average lifespan of flies exposed to a controle nvironment was 14.3 days. The mean average of
lifespan of flies exposed to solely hydrogen peroxide was 8.39 days. The mean average of lifespan of flies
exposed to both hydrogen peroxide and Vitamin C was 6.48 days. The range of statistical deviation of
each vial ranged from 0.42 to 3.3
Conclusions/Discussion
According to my data, hydrogen peroxide did prove to age flies faster. However, Vitamin C did not delay
this aging process but rather seemed to facilitate it. This is probably so because I used a lethally high dose
of Vitaminc C (the most I used ina vial was 4 grams) that was almost 66 times the RDA (recommended
daily allowance) for a human. So obviously, a fly would be much more severely affected by this high
concentration. The data itself was rather accurate and showed a relatively logical trend in which higher
concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and/or Vitamin C killed flies faster than flies living in vials with
lower conccentrations. The only case this didn't happen was in the 1.5% hydrogen peroxide and 1.0%
hydrogen peroxide. 1.5% seemed to live longer than 1.0%. Flie lifespan also decreased significantly int he
2.5% and 3.0% solutions when compared to the 0.5% to the 2.0% solutions. Some factors I didn't consider
when I designed this experiment that could've had an effect on the data were sex of the flies, generation of
the flies, and fly food medium.
Summary Statement
In my project I basically exposed flies to differing concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen
peroxide with Vitamin C. I then observed their lifespans to see if these chemicals had an effect on their
lifespans.

Help Received
Dad bought materials. Dad helped transferred flies. Mom helped put together project board. Parents drove
me places for research. Mrs. Corbett (chemistry teacher) helped make calculations and figure out other
aspects of my proejct.

Ap2/06

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