2008-10-24 Student Science Presentations

These presentations were given by four students, many of which were funded by the NIH Bridge Grant, at Daytona State College in Room 134 in Building 410 at 2 P.M. on Friday, 2008 October 24. I wasn’t there to take photos, but I took a few anyway.

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Dr. Backer saying hello to friends and students.

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Dr. Backer explaining the pizza, which was given out before the show.

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Students acquiring the pizza. There were two types: pepporoni and mushroom. I ate a slice of mushroom pizza and drank six ounces of Coca-Cola. At the start of this month, I became a vegetarian [5] and I no longer believe in eating animals.

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The procession continues. Some people couldn’t get pizza, because there was none left.

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My friends from speech class attending this conference.

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Dr. Backer talking with another faculty member. I don’t remember her name, but she’s always active in school events.

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Dr. Ram Nayar, introducing the last presentation: “Do Ants prefer Extrafloral Nectar over Floral Nectar of Passiflora incarnata?” by Justin Duffy and Cynthia Bennington of Daytona State College and Stetson University, respectively. This was at the beginning, as he was showing us how dedicated his students are.

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Two presenters on the right.

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The first presentation: cloning a cell in the Portuguese Man o’ War [13], a fish that looks like a jellyfish. I can’t remember this student’s name, but his slides were fascinating and his research may help us further understand the nature of life.

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This was my favorite, because anything that relates to night vision also relates to photography. The student found that the LpOps5 antigen, a newly discovered substance, is present in the eyes of all animals, but always in smaller quantities than the well-known LpOps1 (he couldn’t measure exact figures for either). Nocturnal animals always have more of both, so they evidently contribute to better vision at night.

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This student observed the s-nitrolysized proteins in germinating durum wheat seeds. They may be critical to all life, because the seeds don’t grow without them.

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This doctor has published several papers on the subject, and added, clarified, and corrected the student on several details.

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I couldn’t stay for the last presentation by Justin Duffy, but from Dr. Nayar’s exhibition of its poster earlier, it was likely the most detailed of the four.

I’ll be attending today’s conference in two hours (Thursday, 2008 October 30 12:30-1:30 P.M., Rm. 134, Bldg. 410), where I’ll take some more photos.

If you have names or details I should add to this entry, let me know in the comments. Thanks!