Topic that involves physics, chemistry and biology?

[OhyesOhno]

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?

 

[Johannes]

how about organic photovoltaic cells ?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Photosynthesis could be a good topic.

 

[OhyesOhno]

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

 

[Ygggdrasil]

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.

 

[OhyesOhno]

How is that related to chemistry then?

 

[Topher925]

biomedical engineering.

 

[Ygggdrasil]

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.

 

[OhyesOhno]

Okay, so the signaling molecule involves physics then? Since signals in brain are electrical signals?

Thanks a lot!

 

[tim_lou]

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.

 

[OhyesOhno]

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?