Topic that involves physics, chemistry and biology?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around potential project ideas for an IB Diploma course that integrates aspects of physics, chemistry, and biology, with a specific focus on the theme 'Go Green'. Participants are exploring various interdisciplinary topics that could serve as the basis for their investigation.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests investigating energy efficiency or clean energy sources, specifically considering manure or feces as an energy source.
  • Another participant proposes organic photovoltaic cells as a project topic.
  • Photosynthesis is mentioned as a potential topic by a different participant.
  • Concerns are raised about the feasibility of conducting experiments on organic photovoltaic cells due to limited resources.
  • The function of the human eye and photoreceptor cells is suggested, with a focus on how rods and cones convert light into molecular and electrical signals.
  • A participant questions the connection between photoreception and chemistry.
  • Biomedical engineering is mentioned as a relevant field of study.
  • Another participant explains the biochemical processes involved in photoreception, linking biology to chemistry through molecular mechanisms.
  • There is a discussion about the relationship between electrical signals in the brain and physics.
  • Additional suggestions include investigating organic electronics, carbon nanotubes, and the magnetic properties of organic materials, as well as biological responses to light and other stimuli.
  • A participant mentions researching green gasoline and carbon dioxide scrubbers, expressing concern about the availability of resources for modeling these recent inventions.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants present multiple competing views and suggestions for project topics, with no consensus reached on a single idea. The discussion remains unresolved as participants explore various interdisciplinary approaches.

Contextual Notes

Participants express uncertainty about the feasibility of certain projects due to limited resources and the recent nature of some inventions. There are also unresolved questions regarding the connections between different scientific disciplines.

OhyesOhno
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Does anyone know about the IB Diploma course? We're supposed to make a project or investigation and analyze the physics, chemistry and biology aspect of it... the theme of the project is 'Go Green' and it can be literal (do things involving green things, paint green stuff)... I'm confused of what project should my group do (my group consists of 3 people). We were planning on focusing on energy efficiency or clean energy source, and we wanted to investigate manure or feces as an energy source... but I don't think anyone would do that.

Can anyone give an example of a topic that involves physics, chemistry and biology?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
how about organic photovoltaic cells ?
 
Photosynthesis could be a good topic.
 
organic photovoltaic cells... is that even possible? And if it's possible... I want to conduct an experiment on it (I'm not in US so my number of resources are limited
 
How about the function of the human eye and photoreceptor cells? Rods and cones are able to convert are able to convert a physical stimulus (light) into molecular and electrical signals.
 
How is that related to chemistry then?
 
biomedical engineering.
 
Photoreception is related to chemistry because of the biochemical cascade that occurs when our retinas receive light. This process activates an enzyme that catalyzes the degradation a signaling molecule. Loss of the signaling molecule turns off ion channels, which leads to the electrical signal that goes to the brain.

Basically, anything in biology that is understood at the molecular level is related to chemistry because chemical principles underlie all of molecular biology.
 
Okay, so the signaling molecule involves physics then? Since signals in brain are electrical signals?

Thanks a lot!
 
  • #10
Johannes said:
how about organic photovoltaic cells ?

alone the same lines are organic electronics, carbon nanotubes (not so much biology) or organic superconductors. There seems to be a whole bunch of solid state topics that involve organic materials. You can also do something like investigating magnetic properties of some organic materials--some kind of spectroscopy. For more biological stuff maybe look at responses of micro-organisms under light, E&M field, and/or other stimuli. Or maybe look at various physical properties of things like spider silk, bee hives, water gliders' legs, bee wings...etc. I don't have good knowledge in any of these topics so I don't know if they are really interesting or not.
 
  • #11
Hmm... I did some more research, and find topics such as green gasoline, carbon dioxide scrubber... I was thinking of doing that and make a model out of it. But the number of resources are very limited because its quite a recent invention. Do you think its possible?
 

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