Please help. 8th grade science fair project research questions - (Jan/06/2011 )

@ chimera: Actually, saliva has antibacterial properties. Its viscosity, enzyme content, and quantity serve to clean away dental caries. It contains amylases that break down carbohydrates, though.

Nick,

A chicken-egg incubator should be fine for the cat and dog bugs. Cat and dog body temps range between 100 and 102 F. A bird's core temp, which is what the incubator is designed to deliver, is around 100 F. This may be a bit high for your human bugs. (What is the temperature of a fever, and what happens to the pathogen?)

lab rat

My teacher told me that if i could test a turtle along with my experiment then i could have extra credit. any suggestions?

Go to a pet store that sells turtles and ask them to help you obtain a sample. Bring a Petri dish with your agar in it and some sterile Q-tips (you can get these at a pharmacy) with you so you can obtain the sample on the Q-tip and paint it on to the plate immediately.

In your report, be sure to acknowledge the help of the pet store staff.

Also in your report, be sure to mention that this experiment will not indicate *all* the bacteria that are in the saliva of these various species, but only the ones for which your media provides adequate nutrients for growth, that will grow at the incubation temperature, and that are aerobes (bacteria that grow in the presence of oxygen).

Good luck!

Another hint: you might want to check the salive of a cow (or ruminants in general).

They have a higher pH level in their mouth + an enzyme (lysozomeC) that is present more then in other animals.

Good call pito. I forgot about that. How's it going Nick?