Ideas for ISU

Ok.  So first of all, I had this awesome idea.  But it was unethical.  So it had to be scrapped.

Then I came up with a borderline ethical idea.  Experimentation involving deprivation of sunlight during growth in mammals.  But it turns out we actually can't experiment on live animals.  Bah humbug.

SO.  Some further ideas...
1) Effects of biting on your pencil.  You know it - lead poisoning!  Everybody's chewed on their pencil at least once... even if just out of curiosity.
2) Is stress contagious?  You would think so at AY Jackson.  Perfect school for such an experiment.  Too bad exam periods are over, data would be harder to come by.
3) Attention span.  Not sure what I can do with this... not sure about societal implications either.  I think this idea has potential though.  As our ability to share information and multi-task increases, our attention span seems to decrease dramatically.  Perhaps over time will alter human behavior.  Might be too much to hope for to see effects on human hormones/homeostasis... but I won't know that until hard evidence is in my hands.
4) Future technology.  With such a broad idea, there's bound to be future technology that involves biology/ecology/psychology.  Perhaps stem cells.  Overdone idea though.  Everybody knows what a stem cell is.  Any ordinary smuck on the street can probably tell you what a stem cell is.  Not interesting at all.  Maybe nano-technology?  But it's being discussed in class, will take away from ISU project... still, a good idea to pursue.
5) Linking physics and biology together.  We all know that without physics there would be no chemistry... but the extent to which biology and physics are related are hazy at best sometimes.  There might be a link somewhere that can be used.  Perhaps quantum biological computing.  Certainly sounds like something out of a comic book...
6) On the topic of comic books... perhaps superhero powers and how they might be biologically possible.  Goodness knows a lot of Marvel comic heroes involve some sort of radiation as a background to their powers... maybe Spiderman?.... or Captain America?  Captain America was injected with a cocktail serum to improve his puny muscles.  That just sounds like steroids now that I think about it... Or maybe Iron Man.  Remember how his body was getting poisoned in Iron Man 2 because of his impure core (or something like that...)?  Wow, now that I think about it, this is a really stupid idea.  But with a little bit more research, I might uncover something.  Or I might get killed because there might actually be a secret government project going on right now attempting to create a Captain America.  If I don't turn up to school on Monday, some nut-case American agency probably has me in a dungeon asking if I work for Russia, China, or the Middle East.
7) Everybody knows that the human head releases a lot of heat.  Lost energy.  Is there any way to harness that leakage?
8) Modified food.  Basically genetic engineered food... do a project on difference in terms of nutrient breakdown, benefits and consequences?
9) Edible paper.  We recycle paper a lot, but I don't think all of it is getting recycled.  Perhaps if we make paper more pleasant to taste and nutritional, people can be convinced to eat paper if they're too lazy to get off their butts to put it in the recycling bin.  Or if there's no recycling bin available at the time.  Because paper is technically edible... high in fiber.  Just... people don't eat it cause it's just not tasty.  So the project could possibly include the manufacturing process of paper, effect of ingestion of paper on human body, and... different ways to modify paper flavour?  O.o Will have to think more on this.


Hmm... not very good ideas after all.  Not one of them are good in terms of both quantitative observations and interests...  Must go back to the drawing board.  Good thing I never left it.

Carlos