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Brittany is a member of the National Junior Honor Society, Student Council and Future Farmers of America. She also participates in volleyball, basketball and track, and plays the piano. She hopes to pursue a career as a college microbiology instructor. "This would be the best of both worlds—I could research in the lab, and communicate the excitement of past, present and future science in the classroom."
Brittany's science heroes are Louis Pasteur, master of scientific method, and her dad.
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Since first grade, Brittany has remained faithful to the old adage "Wash your hands before you eat lunch and after you use the restroom." However, she always wondered what impact those who do not wash their hands have on those who do. In phase I of her project, Brittany discovered that 87 percent of people sampled had more bacteria upon exiting than they did when entering the restroom. Brittany was determined to find a solution for reducing transferable bacteria on restroom doors and designed phase II to test the potential use of wavelengths of light to eliminate the health risk posed by restroom doors.
Brittany first tested 30 subjects to confirm her results from phase I, that people do leave restrooms with more bacteria on their hands. Next, she identified the main types of bacteria on restroom doors by culturing 20 restrooms at her school, 20 restroom doors from a hotel in Washington, D.C., and 20 restroom doors in fast-food restaurants from Albuquerque, NM, to Dallas, TX. Brittany then tested the effects that different wavelengths of neon, helium, ultraviolet light, hydrogen and mercury had on the four main types of bacteria. Brittany determined that 725 nanometers of neon light reduced 96 percent of transferable bacteria. Thus, the people who exited the restroom door treated with neon light had 91.7 percent less bacteria on their hands than they had after using the untreated door.
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