Humans may have an unexpected ally in the fight against the hospital superbug MRSA: the common sea sponge may harbour organisms capable of killing off the infection on contact.
Finding and assessing bioactive compounds from the sea sponge, Haliclona simulans, provided the subject matter for a project at the BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition, under way at the RDS.
Paul Stewart (15) and Kevin O'Connor (16), transition year students attending Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig, Co Cork, had noted the news coverage of MRSA infections.
They wanted to study naturally occurring bioactive compounds and learned of the organisms that colonised the sea sponge. "We wanted to see if we could use it against MRSA," explained Kevin.
They had no way to recover live sponges, but learned that no less than 13 bacterial and fungi species colonised were in a symbiotic relationship with the sponge. They were able to source these four bacteria and nine fungi species from University College Cork to begin their tests.
They were looking for any sign that these organisms contained bioactive compounds that could inhibit MRSA, a drug-resistant form of the common bacterium Staphylococcus aureus or "staph". For the tests they used the ordinary rather than drug-resistant form of the bug.
They cultured the bacteria and fungi and then applied these to agar plates on which staph was actively growing. They found that two of the four bacteria and four of the fungi species showed signs of inhibiting staph, a hit rate which they found very promising, Kevin explained.
They also attempted to use paper chromatography to separate out the compounds found in these organisms, the goal being to see if the bioactive against staph could be found. Initial attempts failed, Kevin said, but these experiments could easily be repeated to see if the agent could be identified.
Coláiste Choilm schoolmates Ellie Townsend (16), Ciara McCarthy (17) and Lisa O'Sullivan (16) have an equally complex project, but this time in the physics area.
They studied the "physics of perforation", how thin film plastics handle stress when perforated with either slits or small holes.
Ellie acknowledged that this was a somewhat exotic project with few immediate applications. "We wanted to do something original," she said, particularly as all three are Young Scientist veterans with no less than eight years of RDS experience between them.
Even so, the project provided a good learning experience as it involved a wide range of subjects from polarisation patterns to stress analysis and the application of Young's Modulus related to the stiffness and elasticity of a substance.
They conducted a wide range of tests using nothing more complicated than opened-out plastic sandwich bags. These were put under uniform and non-uniform stress tests with a variety of perforation patterns to see how they would subsequently tear.
The project carried out by Anna McGlynn White and Keelin Drew of Coláiste Chraobh Abhann, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow, was much more down to earth: a study of scotopic sensitivity syndrome.
Few might be aware of this visual disorder, yet it is startlingly common, the two 14-year-old first-years found.
They assessed 72 students in their school and found that more than half, 48, had degrees of this disorder.
Those with it have difficulty seeing black text on white clearly. Text may be slightly blurred or even apparently moving.
"It is caused by the brain, it can't interpret what it sees properly," Anna explained. "It distorts what they see and makes things fuzzy," added Keelin.
Some cases are linked to underlying dyslexia, she said. Symptoms include sensitivity to light and glare from a white page.
The fact that it could be so common, at least at some level, suggests that schools should be aware.
They recommend that schools retain blackboards rather than the more modern white boards as there is less glare. More information about the condition and how to reduce symptoms is available at www.irlen.net