Taylor plays competitive basketball and runs track for his school. He wants to become a doctor or scientist someday. Taylor says, "I watched my grandfather go through chemotherapy and I would like to discover a treatment that kills the bad cells but not the good ones."
Last year Taylor's grandmother became sick, and her doctor suggested that the illness might have been caused by bacteria from soda cans purchased from a vending machine. Taylor hypothesized that snacks and sodas exposed to a germicidal light would have fewer bacteria on their surface than those straight from the vending machine.
Taylor collected 13 snacks and drinks from area vending machines. He took them to a laboratory at the University of Tennessee, swabbed each package, and incubated the swabs. He then recorded the number of bacterial colonies for a baseline score. He exposed the packages to germicidal light for 15, 30, or 60 minutes, reswabbed, and grew more colonies. All packages tested positive for bacteria; 60 minutes' exposure to a germicidal light killed 100 percent of them.
