There weren't any vinegar and baking soda volcanoes or crystal radios at this science fair.
More than a hundred undergraduate students from across Western Pennsylvania gathered at Duquesne University on Friday for the 10th annual Summer Research Symposium -- the region's largest and most advanced science fair of its kind.
"This is so much more than a typical science fair," said David Seybert, dean of Duquesne's Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences. "We're celebrating the research of undergraduates who will form the future generation of researchers."
The symposium brought together students from across the country who did research for 10 weeks this summer at Duquesne, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, St. Francis University in Cambria County and Washington & Jefferson College.
Projects ranged from mathematically modeling black holes to finding ways to block breast cancer enzymes. Discoveries and data gathered by the undergraduates will be incorporated into the larger research projects being done by their advisers, usually professors at the universities.
"Absolutely, without a doubt, what was done this summer will be part of continuing research," said Partha Basu, an associate professor at Duquesne.
Basu advised Duquesne senior Lawrence Blume, 26, on a project investigating the effects of a form of arsenic called roxarsone, which is added to chicken feed to make broilers bigger and their flesh redder.
Through laboratory tests in cells, Blume learned that roxarsone is taken into the cells differently than other forms of arsenic known to be toxic. Basu plans to study what effect that might have on people who eat the chickens.
"The undergraduate research program taught me about research ethics, how to do research and how to conduct laboratory tests," said Blume, who plans to pursue a doctorate in pharmacology.
While analyzing the light given off by bright young galaxies to learn about the metals that are in them, Gregory Hrinda unexpectedly got a lesson in scientific culture during his 10 weeks at the University of Pittsburgh.
"I learned a lot about ... what goes on behind the scenes," said Hrinda, 20, a junior at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. "The collaboration and information sharing that scientists do -- that's pretty important."
For Robert Leonard, 21, a senior at West Virginia University, his summer research project at Duquesne put him on track for a career studying the universe. He created computer models of black holes, so that astronomers observing them with telescopes will know what to expect.
"I never had a chance to do cosmology before," said Leonard. "Now that I'm involved in it, I think it's really cool."
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