Tomatoe Tomahtoe by Angel Viskinda

    First, I’d like to start off on how wonderful TRIP has been to me. I’ve always had somewhat of an interest in science but I’ve never had the initiative to try and dive deeper into the subject.  When I get older I want to be a nurse, so what’s there to look into? I was totally wrong in not deciding to try and discover what else I could do with science. Due to TRIP, I’ve had the opportunity to grow and learn more about my relationship with science.

For my independent project, I wanted to do something that would kind of “debunk” some sort of myth. In the age of modern technology, it’s easy for misconceptions and fabricated stories to spread, and in most cases than not, it’s usually at someone’s expense. One myth that I had focused on in particular was the idea that eating the pit of apricot seeds can completely get rid of cancer. Once a loved one is diagnosed with cancer, many people are willing to try just about anything in order to gain a solution, including the apricot seed idea. The problem with this is that once apricot seeds are ingested, the body turns it into cyanide, which can kill you if found in abundance. What I wanted to learn was if this miracle cure actually has some weight to it. As a replacement for apricot seeds, I decided to lycopene, a vitamin found in tomatoes on flies treated with UV light.