Mouldering Bread and Television
a science project by
Joseph Barillari
Title Page
MOULDERING BREAD AND TELEVISION The project "Mouldering Bread and Television" had the purpose of determining if the radiation emitted by television sets had a detrimental effect on the growth of mold. The control group was a series of pieces of bread sealed in plastic bags with water, and left in a dark warm place for 120 hours. The experimental group followed an identical procedure, however an active television was placed next to the sample and left on constantly for the duration of the experiment. The results after the 120 hour period showed 0.0 cm2 of growth on either sample C(A), C(B), E(A), or E(B). The experiment is currently in the process of being extended in order to contain more information (e.g, another 120 hours have been allotted for the purposes of growing mold). However, if results are to be considered conclusive at this time, it has been shown that since no growth took place on either sample, the project has proven that television radiation does not affect mold growth.
Electricity and mold spores are everywhere. Virtually every aspect of our daily lives is concerned with electricity in one way or another, and virtually everything we deal with in our daily lives is bathed in mold spores as well. It was from this information that I decided to start a project that dealt with both of these aspects. I doubt that I am the first to finish such a project, but I know that this project is a new experience for me. It provided an interesting challenge, one that I worked on from many angles. It is now that I have met this challenge that I am able to write this. This is not the first time electromagnetic radiation has been used to sterilize foodstuffs. Iowa State University has a program funded by the Department of Energy that uses a linear accelerator to irradiate foodstuffs. Both of these methods utilize a heated wire of thin metal in a vacuum to produce electrons, which are focused into a beam and accelerated down a tube. The difference is that while televisions take the voltage up to thousands of volts, the linear accelerator takes the current up to millions of volts. (Gunther 6) The point of the effort is to destroy bacteria, fungi, and other parasites in food in order to preserve it for longer periods of time than would be normally possible. The point of my experiment was to discover if a source of said radiation with far less power and a glass shield could do the same. As I discovered through this experiment, it could not with the materials and equipment that I used. Before I read the article in Popular Science called "The Food Zappers," I was aware that televisions did emit radiation and this radiation was theorized to be hazardous. Part of this knowledge was from reading Ellen Sugarman's Warning: The Electricity Around You May Be Hazardous to Your Health in the past. This was the extent of my knowledge at the time I considered the problem. I see this as being an important problem for several reasons. Initially, I chose the topic because I thought that people were doing their bodies untold harm by sitting too close to television sets. I later discovered that on simple organisms, this seems to have no effect (once again, within my experiment). I will close this introduction on a note that I will bring up later on in this report: the research and experiments I have done so far do not entirely rule out the possibility of television radiation affecting mold growth. The conditions under which I performed my experiment may be different in other situations (e.g., the preservatives in the bread) and the mold may be spurred on to grow more in other places. I will discuss how the experiment could be modified in a later section.
Problem: Is bread mold growth affected by television radiation? Hypothesis: If bread mold is exposed to electromagnetic radiation from television sets, then it will exhibit less growth than unexposed mold.
This section of the research paper has been dedicated to the purpose of outlining the procedures that I went through to research this project. I consider it to be extremely helpful to anyone who wants to trace my exact path to the writing of this report. In short, I made very good use of the North Canton Public Library's various electronic filing and information systems. The main library terminals were my first target, where I completed several subject searches on keywords such as "mold" and "electromagnetic." These resulted in titles such as Non-Flowering Plants and Warning: The Electricity Around You May Be Hazardous to Your Health. These titles and a few others were helpful in the production of this project, but a select few others were far more helpful. The most useful resources that I used were as follows: the article from Popular Science called "The Food Zappers" that I obtained from the library's Magazine Article Summaries CD-ROM and the book Biology for Every Kid by Janice Pratt VanCleave, for its procedure on the setup of the experiment. This book, however, I had at home. Please excuse the lack of detail on the books in this section, every one of them is in the bibliography later in this report. I hope that this research summary helps this make this project more understandable, with a short summary of where and how I preformed my research.
The basic mold-growth procedure was an adaptation of the procedure outlined in the reference (VanCleave 80).
This figure is a graphical display of the setup:
This section is dedicated to information about the various changes and difficulties that shaped the final procedure. It also discusses how the procedure was shaped by research.
In the interests of brevity, the important data has been condensed here. For more detailed references, check either the logbook or Appendix A for a day-by-day analysis.
Experimental Run #1: 96 hours Sample 1EA: No Growth Experimental Run #2: 72 hours Sample 2CA: No Growth (Above Results Discarded, preserved results follow.)
Experimental Run #3: 120 hours Experiment Control Table Of Results
Sample A Sample B Notes: The bread in the bags had a fresh smell, even after remaining sealed for 120 hours. Apparently little or no contaminants actually were in the bags.
With the procedure and materials used, my hypothesis was proven false and it has been shown that television radiation has no effect on mold growth. All results in all experiments were 0.00 square cm, so this experiment nonexclusively proves my hypothesis to be false.
This project perhaps asked more questions in the end than it answered. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the purpose of science is the eternal pursuit of knowledge. Some things that I may want to discover in the future are...
This project could be applied to the real world (after some refinements) to determine if...
I would like to do a similar project next year, use a slightly different procedure, and see if I obtain different results. Perhaps I would use something with fewer preservatives than bread, and see if I could entrap more spores in the bags. This project could get very interesting at that point.
Day 1 - Sunday, 2 February 1997
Today was a research day. From the North canton library I amassed a wealth of knowledge, in the form of books and magazine articles, one of which will be very helpful later on. With the help of a book I discovered at home, I outlined the procedure that I would use to grow the mold.
Day 2 - Monday, 3 February 1997 Today, I wrote the procedure and, using it, set the experiment in motion. The procedure was completed up to step 15 flawlessly. In 96 hours after 3: 43 PM EST, which will be this Friday, the experiment will be finished, and the control group will be started. Unfortunately, a problem with the television developed, and it was replaced with another model. Another reflecting panel was added, and the procedure is to be updated to reflect these changes. Day 3 - Tuesday, 4 February 1997 I finished drawing the top view diagram and updated the procedure to reflect the changes made yesterday. The new design will gather radiation from the point from which most of it is emitted„the side. The radiation from the screen will be reflected around the chamber, as well. As I write this, the experimental group has completed 1,472 of its 5,760 operating minutes. It has 4288 remaining. Day 4 - Wednesday, 5 February 1997 The project was checked several times to assure the televisionÍs continued operation. Other than that, nothing was done today with relation to the project. Day 5 - Thursday, 6 February 1997 Today was spent on the same note as Wednesday. Preparations were made to have the sample analyzed on Friday during my absence Day 6 - Friday, 7 February 1997 Although I was not in Canton for the bulk of this day, the sample was analyzed by another person. Visual analysis revealed 0.0 cm2 of growth on sample A and 0.0 cm2 of growth on sample B. The sample bags did contain moisture, indicating that the correct environment for mold growth was present, i.e. warm, dark, and damp, with food, but the radiation may have prevented growth from occurring. This matter will be resolved when the control group is put into operation. Day 7 - Saturday, 8 February 1997 Nothing of any relation to the project whatsoever took place today. Day 8 - Sunday, 9 February 1997 The control group was put into operation today at 2:25 PM EST. The exact same procedure was followed, however the reflection panels and the television were left out. If time permits, both this group and the experimental group will be repeated, with samples E and F, G, and H. This group is using samples C and D. Day 9 - Monday, 10 February 1997
Nothing of any relation to the project whatsoever took place today.
Day 10 - Tuesday, 11 February 1997
Nothing of any relation to the project whatsoever took place today.
Day 11 - Wednesday, 12 February 1997
After it was noted that no growth had yet occurred in the control group, either the temperature or preservatives were presumed to be a problem, and the experiment was moved to a warmer area and used with artificial-preservative-free bread. Some changes were made in the exact orientation of the television, but nothing major. The procedure was updated to reflect the changes in the control group, however. Both groups were started over at 10:15 PM EST today. All previous readings will be discarded. The diagram will soon be updated to reflect the slight changes.
Day 12-15 - 13-16 February 1997
Nothing of any relation to the project whatsoever took place during this span of days.
Day 16 - 17 February 1997
Results were checked today after a total of 120 hours (5 days). No mold growth was revealed on either sample, despite the fact that that the procedure for mold growth on bread was followed to the letter (VanCleave 80). This provides proof that television radiation has no effect on mold growth. However, the samples will be left in their current state to see if any mold appears after an extended exposure period. Three to five more days is presumed to be all that is necessary. This will probably not be part of the project turned into science class, of course, but rather an epilogue thereof, and, if the project goes on to the Plain Local Science Fair, an integral part of the project.
Day 17 - Tuesday, 18 February 1997
Nothing of any relation to the project whatsoever took place today.
Day 18 - Wednesday, 19 February 1997
The project has now produced its final results. 0Ís all across the board. The project is now at an end. Phase III is now being implemented (organization and printing.)
[The final results were omitted from this last entry as they appear in the Data and Observations section.]
The following Photographs are of the bread samples.The left photograph, labeled F, is a picture of the two slices of bread from experimental run #1. They were frozen, but the photographic quality was not impaired. The right photograph, labeled E is a picture of the four samples form experiment 3. None of the above exhibit any growth.
The following is a guide to the photos on the backboard:
Photo A: The fur samples from Experiment 3. Top Right and Bottom Left were exposed, Top Left and Bottom Right were unexposed.
Photo B: Similar to A, but with the two Experiment 1 slices for comparison. Center slices are experiment 1, both exposed. Bottom Left and Right are Exposed group 3, and Top Left and Right are Unexposed group 3.
Photo C: Same as A, but with bags flipped over to hide labels to show more detail of each slice of bread.
Photo D: Experiment 1 slices, exposed, and labeled.
(The photographs have yet to be scanned and converted to GIF format. We apologize for any problems that this may cause.)
A few mistakes may have been made in the production of this project, mistakes that I hope to clarify here and correct in the future.
First of all, I think that my use of distilled water and my prompt sealing of the Ziploc bags did not enable enough spores to get inside. I should probably repeat this experiment another time, but attempt to spread more contaminants onto the samples.
I should also attempt to find a warmer environment, one that would be more nurturing to mold growth and help speed its germination. I think that the few spores in the bag were not able to take root and grow quickly enough, therefore no growth appeared anywhere.
I should also attempt to find bread without preservatives or else switch to another food for the mold.
I addressed this to some degree earlier, and I will clarify it now: should I build a similar project, as outlined in the section on Future Projects, I will take into account my mistakes and refine my project to a very high degree. Doing so will assist me a great deal in science fairs.
That is, assuming, I can do a similar project next year, of course! What will happen, will happen. There is no way of knowing what will occur next year.
Gunther, Judith Anne. "The Food Zappers" Popular Science January 1994: 72+.
Kavaler, Lucy. Mushrooms, Molds, and Miracles. New York: The John Day Company, 1965.
Shuttleworth, F.S. Non-Flowering Plants. New York: Golden Press, 1967.
Sugarman, Ellen. Warning: The Electricity Around You May Be Hazardous to Your Health. New York: Fireside, 1992.
Tesar, Jenny. Fungi. Woodbridge: Blackbirch, 1994.
VanCleave, Janice Pratt. Biology for Every Kid. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1990.
Author's Note: Not all sources mentioned within this page were used in the final report. However, to avoid accusations of unintentional plagiarism, I included them anyway. I offer my apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause. They might be helpful as resources for those who want more background information on this topic.
Without the following people, this project would not have been possible. In no particular order, they areƒ
Susan Barillari, my mother, who purchased the all-natural bread, agreed to give up the basement television for an unknown amount of time, and served as my chauffeur all over Canton.
The librarians and reference desk staff at the North Canton Public Library, without whom I would be lost in a see of information.
Ms. Hersha, my science teacher, for providing guidance throughout the process of assembling the project.
And last, but not least, anyone else who happened to assist me in this odd quest whom I forgot to mention here. Thank you.
Total Time I Spent On This Project: 15-30 Hours, Probably 22.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Abstract
Introduction
Statement of Problem and Hypothesis
Information on the Progression of Research
Equipment
Procedure
More Procedure Information
Observations and Data
Results and Conclusions
New Questions, Possible Applications, Future Projects
Appendix A: Day-By-Day Data Journal and Time Spent
Appendix B: Photographic References
Appendix C: Probable Errors and Possible Corrections
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Joseph Barillari, GlenOak Career Center
2300 Schneider Rd. NW, Canton, OH 44721
Introduction
Statement of Problem and Hypothesis
Information on Research
Essential Equipment
Procedure
*
More Procedure Information
The setup of the proximity of the television set was completed so as to bring as much radiation as possible from the television into contact with the bread. With the knowledge that the most radiation would be absorbed if the television were placed extremely close to the substance, this was implemented as soon as possible (Sugarman 156).
One difficulty that occurred immediately after the implementation phase was the television setÍs inability to stay on. The television, for some reason or other, would turn itself off every 15-30 minutes or so, without any warning. I was coming close to pulling my hair out as the blasted box refused to stay on, despite everything I tried. (It was not the sleep timer, by the way). I eventually replaced it with another, much larger television set that actually stayed on.
Some may be interested in the fact that no mold appeared on either sample. My only response to this is the fact that since a previously tested procedure was followed to the letter, one must conclude that either the samples did not pick up enough spores before being sealed, or there are simply not enough spores in my house to grow molds. Or, as another possibility, the distilled water had an effect. Whatever the reason, the experiment is still valid, as the hypothesis was proved false beyond any reasonable doubt (that is, with reference to my procedure and the materials that I used).
Further comments on the procedure are recorded in the lab book and in the day-by-day analysis in Appendix A.
Observations and Data
Experimental Group Only
Sample 1EB: No Growth
Control Group Only
Sample 2CB: No Growth
Control & Experimental Groups
Sample 3EA: No Growth
Sample 3EB: No Growth
Sample 3CA: No Growth
Sample 3CB: No Growth
Experiment 1............0.0 0.0
Control 2...............0.0 0.0
Experiment 3............0.0 0.0
Control 3...............0.0 0.0
Growth In Square Centimeters
Results and Conclusions
Photographs of the samples will be provided in Appendix B, along with captions to assist in their interpretation. The table provided above provides a more graphical method of looking at the research, though it contains the same information as the line-by-line information. The codes are written numeral-letter-letter, with the numeral meaning the spot in the order in which the experiment took place (1=first, 3=latest). The first letter is the type group (E=Experimental, C=Control), and the second letter is the sample group (A or B).
Since all values were zero, and no growth occurred anywhere, the hypothesis is false as the radiation had no effect.
The results do not necessarily mean that television radiation will have no effect on mold growth in all cases. They actually mean that television radiation has no effect on mold growth in the given circumstances. Possible reasons why (or errors) will be listed in later in this report.
What these results may mean is that electromagnetic radiation only has an effect on complex organisms such as humans. Molds may be unaffected by it. However, since no mold grew on either sample this cannot be proven. We can prove, however, that radiation does not have a reverse effect from the hypothesis; i.e. causing extremely rapid growth patterns. This radiation is of a different nature. What these results really inspire are yet more questions, questions which I will discuss in a later section. The most logical conclusion, however, would be this: television radiation may not detrimentally affect mold growth. More on this will be discussed in other parts of the report.
New Questions, Possible Applications, and Future Projects
Then again, that project would take place during my sophomore year, and probably be set up differently than this one. After all, one never knows what lies ahead. Future research is just that, research that may be done in the future.
For those interested in this project who want to learn more, I strongly suggest reading some of the resources in my bibliography, especially the article "The Food Zappers." More information can be obtained from your public library. I sincerely hope that this report has been of use to someone, as every scientist must think of their work.
Good luck, and don't sit too close to the television.
Appendix A:
Day-by-Day Data Journal
Appendix B:
Photographic References
Appendix C:
Probable Errors and Possible Corrections
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Copyright © 1997 Joseph Barillari. All rights reserved.
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