Matthew swims competitively, plays trumpet, and listens to jazz. His newest hobby is studying Japanese because "I like to learn about other people and their cultures." He would like to someday become an ambassador or lawyer.
Matthew noticed termites often live near the marigolds in his backyard. They turned out to be the long-jawed desert termite Gnathamitermes perplexus, a termite common to the Sonoran Desert. It was unclear whether or not the termites' mounds and mud tubes were good for the plants, so Matthew resolved to find out. He hypothesized that the termites' mud tubes, made from chewed up wood, serve as a mulch to help desert marigolds grow.
Matthew collected termite mud tubes built near weathered wood. He extracted nutrients from the tubes by steeping them in cheesecloth under water for two days—like a teabag. He did the same using ordinary dirt and dirt from an anthill. Next he grew 25 desert marigolds from seeds. He watered the seeds with the termite-tube water, dirt-steeped water, anthill water, or distilled water. Over eight weeks, plants getting termite-tube water grew much better than the others, with long green leaves. Plants receiving dirt-water fared second-best. Plants getting distilled or anthill water started to shrink after six weeks and turn yellow.
