HBCAC Experience Essay Draft
Experience was my one major goal for this summer internship, and my only real
expectation for this summer. While I definitely gained experience from this position I also gained
so much more. I developed a greater confidence in myself, and I also gained a greater
appreciation for the field of research. I learned science is not always black and white like it is
portrayed in the classroom. I was taught a study or experiment is just the final piece of a
research project, and most of the research is performed before the study begins. I learned the
behind the scenes aspects of research as well. Mainly, how to write a proposal and find
appropriate sample sizes and means of measuring data. Before this summer, those concepts
were arbitrary to me, I would test hypotheses with materials and sample sizes that made sense
based on the resources available to me, not based on statistical analysis. Overall, this
experience has been overwhelmingly positive for me, as it was an experience I never would
have been able to obtain in a conventional high school setting. Yet, this journey was not without
minor bumps and frustration, just like any other science research project.
When I received an email from the Huntington Breast Cancer Action Coalition, stating
that I was accepted into their program and would be working with a researcher at Stony Brook
University, I was thrilled. I was finally awarded the opportunity to work with a real scientist on an
important, relevant project in a real research setting. When I met with Dr. Meliker for the first
time I was surprised to learn that he did not work in a lab because all of my friends who had
participated in summer research in previous summers were always placed in laboratory
settings. Despite this, Dr. Meliker ensured me this summer would be great, and I would still
learn a lot about the research project. Dr. Meliker and I decided in that meeting that my research
partner, Karthi and I would lead a pilot study for him on the carcinogenic properties of artificial
turf. Naturally, I was excited to work on a project that had a direct impact on my life, as I play
soccer and lacrosse, two sports in which we practice and play games on my high school’s
artificial turf field. I now had the opportunity to contribute to a ground breaking project with
relevance to my personal life, and potentially help my community learn about the dangers of
artificial turf. The first step of this process, Dr. Meliker told me was to read articles published by
other scientists pertaining to the dangers of artificial turf. After reading articles I learned the most
dangerous chemicals were a group of compounds known as PAHs, hydrocarbons that were
formed through the process of incomplete combustion. Yet, after a few weeks of research into
PAHs and expensive tests that show the presence of PAHs but not the quantity of PAHs or
when and how a person was exposed. We realized in order for the PAHs to register in these
tests, the concentration of these chemicals must be significantly high in the human body, yet the
concentration of PAHs was not even high enough in the direct samples of crumb rubber taken
from artificial turf fields. Without being able to study it further and no findings pushing us
forward, we concluded that exposure to PAHs via crumb rubber on artificial turf was not
significant enough to cause carcinogenic effects in a recreational athlete. Yet, there is still
evidence to show that excessive use of artificial turf fields may lead to a greater risk of the
development of certain cancers such as lymphoma, as many collegiate soccer players have
been diagnosed after years of playing on artificial turf fields. Therefore, the conclusion to our
research only provides that PAHs are not the sole cause of the carcinogenic effects of the turf, it
may be possible that the exposure to these low levels of PAHs in combination with other
chemicals present in artificial turf that have not yet been studied could be leading to the high
incidence rate of cancer among collegiate soccer players. However, because there is no
research into other chemicals that might be present in artificial turf, there is no way to know if
the incidence of cancer is linked to use of artificial turf fields until further research into the
complete chemical contents of crumb rubber is conducted, a study that would need to take
place in a lab. Even though this conclusion was a relief for a two sport athlete like myself, it was
not as exciting from a research standpoint because I still had the majority of my internship left
and was stuck with no project idea.
HBCAC Experience Essay Draft
Fortunately, Dr. Meliker and the HBCAC were able to quickly come up with a new project
idea quickly, and I was able to seamlessly transition from researching artificial turf to
researching synthetic musks. This transition was extremely insightful, as it provided me with
another aspect of the science research process. Through this transition I learned that
researchers are capable of pursuing multiple research inquiries at one time, and you do not
need to completely conclude one project before beginning another, a concept that was foreign
to me in my high school research class. I also learned that sometimes the research process can
be frustrating as you do not always receive the answers you expected once you start
researching a topic. However, I also learned that there is always another topic to look into in the
scientific community as technology is progressing at a faster rate than scientists can regulate
the chemical ingredients in a product. When I started researching synthetic musks I knew very
little about them and did not think synthetic musks research was worthwhile or relevant to my
life. I believed synthetic musk was found solely in expensive perfumes, a product that I did not
use. However, I found out synthetic musks are contained in almost every personal care product
as one of the chemical components of fragrance. I was unnerved by this discovery because if
chemical compounds I have never heard of were in 90% of all my personal care products, what
other harsh chemicals are present in my products as well? We discovered through our research
that an exposure study has never been performed on humans to establish a correlation between
the application of synthetic musks through personal care products and the concentration of
synthetic musks, specifically galaxolide in blood. This objective is what we devoted our summer
research. We were able to write a comprehensive project proposal, and we hope to execute the
experiment in the upcoming school year. The major difficulty in studying synthetic musks was
the concerns about these chemicals have only been recently voiced, therefore there is limited
literature available to explain the effects of synthetic musks. Additionally, the literature that is
available have been studies conducted on small sample sizes to simply establish that synthetic
musks were present in the blood serum of individuals, or in vitro experiments that do not
accurately indicate how these chemicals affect the whole human body. Additionally, it has been
a challenge to find a laboratory with the technology and resources to test for synthetic musks in
blood serum because it is such a new topic in research. For me, these challenges have only
added to the positive experience of my summer research because I believe although this
process was difficult at times, I believe my research will be able to contribute to the
understanding of synthetic musks in a way that would not be possible if I had researched a topic
that was already comprehensively studied.
Overall this experience has been extremely positive. I now have a better appreciation for
research science, as I learned about the entire process of research not solely about a specific
laboratory activity. This summer has taught me way more than I could ever learn in a standard
high school class or in a research laboratory.