Bryan is a saxophone player in his school's jazz band. He is also a Boy Scout and is actively involved in his church. He enjoys chess, basketball, and robotics. As for his career goals, Bryan says, "Although I am not sure of the exact subject area, I think it would be very interesting to do original research discovering and observing things that have not been studied before—such as a new species, discoveries in outer space, and new discoveries in the atomic world."
The astronauts of the Columbia Space Shuttle were "great heroes" to Bryan because "they loved space travel, scientific research, and application of new technologies. They did this even in the face of risk, uncertainty, and the dangers of space flight."
After doing some research, Bryan learned that caffeine has been used in recent years as a pesticide on a frog species in Hawaii. Bryan was interested in seeing if caffeine-based pesticides would be as effective against agricultural pests in South Florida. After a few preliminary experiments, Bryan found that caffeine was toxic to snails and slugs. He decided to further observe and analyze the effect on a South Florida snail, Bulimulus guadalupensis.
Bryan obtained a terrarium and a collection of plants and snails from the local area. Test plants were sprayed with a 1,600 milligrams/liter concentration of a caffeine solution and placed at one end of the terrarium. Ten snails were placed at the opposite end. After a specified time, Bryan counted the snails infesting the plant area. Bryan repeated this test five more times with different plants and snails, lowering the caffeine solution concentration (to 800, 600, 400, 200, and 0 milligrams per liter) each time. He found that the solution of 800 milligrams per liter was the lowest concentration that had 100 percent effectiveness in repelling the snails from the plants. Bryan is interested in exploring the effect of caffeine-based pesticides on other pests as well as the environmental impact of such pesticides.
