High School Science Project- Can unexpected results make your research irrelevant?

[alison97]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm just about in the home-stretch of my high school science project, which aimed to create a "cruelty-free" substitute for fur requiring less petroleum than currently available synthetics by using H. erinceus, a mushroom covered in very fine spines resembling fur, as the primary material. After conducting the bulk of my expieramentation, I was excited to find the resulting fabric has commercial potential- as a leather substitute. The only problem is that, over the last five months I've been researching like crazy and now have 19 pages worth of research primarily on the fur industry. Does this new development mean all that research was a waste? Should I try to complete 19 more pages on the leather industry by early March (the date of the fair). I was really hoping to advance to INTEL, and therefore want my project to be the absolute best I can make it!

 

Thanks for your insight,

Alison

[esbo]

No your results are highly relevant you have proven that you have failed to produce a fur subsitute, so worthwhile research, you have proven beyond reasonable doubt that you failed in your objective.

[Bill Angel]

I don't think your effort is a failure. You have sparked MY curiosity about the subject. Have you thought about using photography to enhance the presentation of your project? I'd like to see pictures of what "mushroom fur" looks like. The techniques of macro photography would allow you to make closeup images of the mushroom fur. You might also show what mushroom fur looks like through a microscope.

[Enthalpy]

Leather is, for most species, a by-product of meat. So to avoid cruelty, I'd prefer a fur substitute.

Though, there might be some species grown for their leather only.

 

Does you pseudo-leather have special properties? Exotic materials find uses! You dont' have to replace leather in every aspect, nor do you need to find by yourself the uses of a new material - designers will. Just find and tell what makes it special! Find a dozen imaginative people around you, ask what they would do with the stuff, that will be a first glimpse.

 

For instance, do object bounce very little back on it? Are shocks against it silent? Does it stay flexible in liquid nitrogen? Is it impossible to light, or if it burns, produces no toxic fumes? Does it float on water? Resist UV light, seawater? Biodegrade quickly, or not at all? Smell good, or repel insects? Is it fluorescent, phosphorescent? Does it concentrate some minerals from the soil?

 

Even better, as it comes from a mushroom: is it antibiotic, or does it repel other fungi? You could then make shoe insoles of it, or carpets, air filters, beds, seats, additional bark for sound or ill trees, fruit baskets, paper sheet replacement...

 

You wanted a fur, maybe it just needs some different processing. Say, the separated fibres are in some liquid. You can evaporate the liquid and get a leather-like agglomerate, but if you pull fibres from the liquid and twist them, do you get a yarn? Or if you evaporate the liquid in a fluidized bed instead, is the result as fluffy as fur? A sticky impregnation may suffice.

Edited February 10, 2013 by Enthalpy