 Hello! It’s been a speedy five weeks, but a lot has happened since my last blog. My first few weeks in this program have been phenomenal. So far, I've made a lot of new friends and morgued a lot of flies, which leaves me with some conflicting emotions. I am so grateful for all of the people I have met, especially because of how new so many things have been to me these past couple of weeks. With some hard work and the help of my peers, I've finished my kickoff experiment and begun my independent project.  Firstly, I have finished and presented my kickoff experiment. My question was about analyzing the effects of Ginkgo Biloba and head trauma on the sociability of fruit flies. In this experiment, I learned how to go about experimenting with and analyzing model organisms. This will help me in my independent project. I also presented my findings to my peers and instructors. This gave me some great constructive feedback and will help me prepare to present at the end of TRIP. Overall, I am very happy with all that I have learned in the first couple TRIP sessions.  Now, I've begun to work on my independent project. The topic I have settled on is the effects of manganese poisoning and milk thistle on offspring. I will be looking into generational effects to analyze if this form of heavy metal poisoning affects the overall health of offspring. This means that I will have a lot of flies, but I am very excited. I chose this because for lithium batteries, people need to mine manganese. The production of lithium batteries has only begun to such a high degree in recent years, so it is unknown the generational effects of poisoning from this metal. I am interested in if there will be generational effects, what that could look like, and if it can be mitigated with milk thistle. In conclusion, this will be a fun approaching couple of weeks.
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 Hello, my name is Sharizoda, and my peers and I have recently conducted our Kickoff Experiments. It was certainly a novel experience, working with fruit flies in a professional setting. In contrast, I felt very out of place for a little more than a hot second, but that's all right since the purpose of the Kickoff Experiment is meant to prepare you for your own design, which means making mistakes at this time is okay!  My Kickoff Experiment was centered around whether circadian rhythms would affect fruit fly anxiety, which I tested with a centrophobism assay, also known as the open field test. The drug I used for this test was rhodiola, an adaptogen, which is a part of a class of natural substances that help the body resist stress and fatigue. I more or less learned to accurately create the diluted solution for food using measurements and micropipettes, which I'm relieved I figured out how to do (especially thanks to my peers and TA!). My stressor was darkness, intended to disrupt the circadian rhythm or natural biological clock in the fruit flies, which was simply achieved by wrapping the fly vials in foil. This was all for the setup of my experiment, which progressed rather smoothly.  To actually conduct my assay, I first had to create a thin layer of agar in petri dishes to limit fruit fly movement to a 2-Dimensional plane, ensuring that they could not fly or jump. This part was super fun to do with my friends! Things did go a little downhill while recording my data, as my flies were much less active than what is considered normal. This was a hiccup that other TRIP members faced as well, and we formed a thorough hypothesis that we were conspired against by the fruit flies. (The fruit flies knew what they were doing!) Noticing something was wrong the first time I collected data, I decided to run another trial for my control group, which was not perfect but definitely better than my first run. In spite of this, the most nerve-wracking part of the Kickoff Experiment was most certainly the presentation. I feel like the sheer number of flips my heart did during the span of those 5 minutes could make it a world-class acrobat. The positive thing about the presentation is that the feedback and commentary will certainly aid in preparing you for the future symposium.  With the end of the Kickoff, the planning for the Independent Project officially began. Having options open to whatever you can imagine is both a blessing and a curse. I ended up choosing to do an experiment comparing the effect of two different wavelengths of light on senescence, which is the process of aging. Blue light is something that everyone in the modern age is exposed to for frequent periods of time, which can have a detrimental impact on the body's circadian rhythms and strain certain parts of the body, like the eyes. In contrast, other types of wavelengths, like the red light spectrum, have become popular for their therapeutic and antiaging effects. For my independent project design, I chose to compare blue light to green light, as red light is not visible to fruit flies, and have recently learned during my research process that green light is also used as a therapy method for different things, like migraines and sleep. The independent project is something that my peers and I must work hard on, so I wish good luck to us!
(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭✧  Hello everyone! It’s hard to believe that it’s already been almost a month since I started TRIP, having completed my kickoff experiment and now steering towards my independent project. I’ve learned so much in these past few weeks, figuring out how to sort flies, perform assays, collect and analyze data, and so much more! For my kickoff experiment, I explored the effects of Melatonin and disrupted circadian rhythms on fruit fly sociability. To do this, I had to put my flies to sleep using ice, sort them on the ice, carefully place them into small chambers, and finally take photos and measure the average distance between the flies using a program called FIJI. I learned that the larger the average distance is between the flies, the less social they are, and the smaller the average distance is between them, the more social they are. My results ended up contradicting my hypothesis, revealing that melatonin and constant darkness actually increased fruit fly sociability instead of decreasing it. I was also surprised to see that instead of the effects getting stronger when both were present, sociability ended up returning to normal when both were present. Seeing everyone else’s projects was also extremely compelling and the kickoff experiment definitely helped kickstart ideas for what I wanted to do for my independent project.  While performing my kickoff experiment, I realized that I found studying sleep extremely interesting and decided that I wanted to venture back into the world of sleep for my independent project through sleep deprivation. Not only is it extremely common in teenagers, but I also find myself deprived of sleep sometimes as well while juggling academics and extracurriculars in my schedule. On the dietary side of things, I knew I was interested in testing the effects of teas and their impacts on possibly remedying the effects of sleep deprivation. My family drinks a lot of tea as it is- and I’ve always been interested in herbs and their effects as home remedies like tea to alleviate symptoms of sleep deprivation like anxiety. While doing more research, I learned that sleep deprivation can significantly increase anxiety levels along with discovering that Chamomile and Ashwagandha tea are popular options for calming people down and relieving anxiety, leading me to investigate if they can mitigate the impacts of sleep deprivation on fruit fly anxiety.
Through gaining more skill and confidence in the first few weeks, I’m excited to dive deeper into my independent project and the results I’ll uncover along the way. See you next time, and remember to get enough sleep  Time has gone by a lot quicker than I expected! This past month has been super fun and I’ve been learning a lot of new things. We learned how to knock flies out using CO2 and ice, sort flies, make fly food, make grape plates, count total vs. empty pupae to quantify development, and more. I conducted my kickoff experiment which investigated the impact of melatonin and the disruption of circadian rhythms (via darkness) on fruit fly sociability. I really enjoyed the Social Space Assay which measured the flies’ sociability because it was fun to see the flies move around and hang out with each other.
 We also came up with our independent projects! The research question for my independent project is “How does chamomile tea versus decaffeinated green tea affect fly anxiety and depression?” I’m asking this question because chamomile and decaffeinated green tea have been associated with lessened anxiety and depression, and anxiety and depression have been shown to go hand in hand. I want to see whether chamomile or decaffeinated green tea better alleviate anxiety and depression. I thought this question would be fun to ask because I like tea, and I have loved ones that like tea. I’ve seen how harmful anxiety and depression can be, and I want to investigate ways to mitigate it.  I am really excited to conduct this research, and to discover something new! Although I am a little worried about how much time I have in the lab per week to get everything done, it’s all a learning experience and I’m sure I will get better each week.
 Hi everyone! My name is Dakshvir Salaria, and I’m currently a sophomore at Penncrest High School. I decided to get involved with TRIP because being able to conduct real, proper research has always been a goal of mine. Most of my experiences with science came from classes and experiments that were structured for you, so the idea of having the chance to do my own independent research was something that definitely stuck with me.  Outside of the lab, I love exploring lots of different interests. I’m currently teaching myself the basics of photography, which actually has made me notice the smaller details in life. I also love being outside and spending time in nature, whether it’s just going out and taking a hike while listening to music or just observing what's around me. I love learning more about science every day. As a member of Envirothon for my school, I get to do deep dives into Environmental Science and Ecology, a passion of mine. In my free time, I enjoy listening to music, learning new things, swimming, playing video games, and hanging out with my friends and my family.
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