Science Heroes Home Page > Blake Zwerling

Blake Gordon Zwerling

OMSI: Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

BZ: I was born in Portland, Oregon and have lived in the same bright blue house for all of my life.

OMSI: What three words best describe you?

BZ: I think that diligent, focused and thoughtful are words that describe me well.

OMSI: Do you have any hobbies, interests, or experiences that have helped prepare you for success in science?

BZ: I think that this year's science fair, and the research and hard work that led up to it, have begun to prepare me for future successes.

OMSI: Please tell us about a mentor or teacher who helped to inspire your interest in science.

BZ: Ms. Migaki, my science teacher, has been my inspiration for the past two years. Up until I began her class in seventh grade, I found science too easy, it didn't pose a challenge to me and therefore I found it uninteresting. That all changed the moment I set foot inter her classroom. Through her guidance, I have been able to expand my knowledge base and explore areas in science that interest me personally.

OMSI: What's the worst trouble you ever got into in school? Have you ever blown anything up?

BZ: I'm sorry to say that so far, I've been a pretty good student, I've never gotten into much trouble.

OMSI: What is your dream? What do you most hope to accomplish in your career?

BZ: My dream does not involve a specific career, I do not feel that I have explored my interests enough to choose a path for the rest of my life. Even so, I do know that I want to help people. Not only that, I want to be recognized as a respectable and knowledgeable person in my field.

OMSI: How do you feel about the current state of science education in the U.S.?

BZ: I feel that personally, going to a private school, have been given a wonderful opportunity to study science in an open and supportive environment. None the less, I do realize that many children are not as lucky as I am. There are many kids in public schools in classes of 30 or more, without adequate learning materials or support from their teachers and families. Many public schools are suffering from enormous budget cuts and therefore are unable to give specialized attention to each individual student. This is an enormous problem, the children in this country are the future, how are they supposed to succeed without a good education?

OMSI: What is your favorite class this year?

BZ: I absolutely adore my science class and the teacher for that matter. Ms. Migaki supported our science project from its infancy and really sparked my interest for science with her fervor for teaching.

OMSI: What do you like to do in your free time?

BZ: I spend almost all of my free time during the week either in the pool, practicing for swim team, or doing my homework. Lately, it seems that I have very little free time to truly do what ever I want. When I do find a free moment, I love to read, especially fantasy books.

OMSI: What do you consider your very best skill?

BZ: I would consider my very best skill to be my ability to "stick with it". Especially in the case of the science fair, which took nearly a year to complete, it took a lot of patients and perseverance to finish.

OMSI: Please tell us about your science fair project. How did you come up with the idea for your project? How did you go about researching and building your project? What was it like to participate in the science fair, and what do you remember most from the fair?

BZ: My partner and I first became interested in psoralens and their effect on yeast in March of last year when our science teacher, Ms. Migaki, came to us with an article from the Scientific American magazine about porphyrins (photosensitive chemicals now used in the treatment of cancer.) Unfortunately, porphyrins are toxic and therefore, we were unable to experiment with them. Through research, we found psoralens, which is a weaker form of photosensitive chemical produced by plants of the umbelliferae family to protect themselves against fungus. We decided that we wanted to test the affects of these chemicals on an organism and investigated yeast, brine shrimp and planaria. We settled on yeast because they are easy to obtain, have a short life span and are fungus, therefore mutations would be easy to detect. To study the yeast, three communities were established, a community of control yeast, one yeast community with limejuice and one with celery (lime and celery belong to the umbelliferae family and produce psoralens.) We looked at the communities under a microscope and found that the variable yeast began to reproduce much more quickly than the control yeast, but then began to die out. We believe that this is because the psoralens broke the yeast's sporal coat, allowing them to reproduce faster, but also giving the chemicals direct access to the yeast's nuclei. After about three days, the variable yeast began to loose their round shape and their nuclei became darker and engulfed much of the cell. We also collected data by measuring the yeast's carbon dioxide emission over a three hour period. The enzyme in yeast breaks down sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is easier to measure, so my partner and I set up communities of control and the two variable yeast and contrasted their carbon dioxide emissions. The science fair was exhilarating, being able to show professional judges how we worked so hard to research and develop our project was a joy, nerve wracking, but a joy. I think the best part of the fair was hearing our names over the loudspeakers, announcing that we should stay for the "best of show judging". At that point, I felt that all our hard work had been justified and that someone was appreciating our project.

OMSI: If you were to build your science fair project again, would you do anything differently?

BZ: We had some problem with the carbon dioxide collection, making it a huge source of error. If I were to do this project again, I would measure the gas in a different manner.

OMSI: Please tell us about your educational plans and goals.

BZ: Next year, I will be attending Catlin Gable High School. There, I hope to not only advance my academics (both science, math and literary arts), but I also hope to expand my interests through theater and sports.