Archer’s annual STEM Symposium is an opportunity for Los Angeles high school students who have completed independent or small group projects in STEM to present their findings. Students are invited to present their research in the fields of molecular biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering.
The Archer RISE Award honors exceptional young women for their innovative scientific research or engineering design projects that further existing knowledge or develop solutions to pressing scientific challenges. Finalists for the RISE Award are noted in throughout the online program and will be awarded at lunch on May 21.
The electromagnetic sensing ability found in many different vertebrates and invertebrates is mostly mediated through the opioid receptors, which receive and use opioids to control the feeling of pain. This sensing ability has been shown to be light dependent on the Cepea nemoralis (garden snail). Most of this research has been done using the Cepea nemoralis (garden snail) but very little been done using the Arion distinctus (land slug). This experiment continues the research done by Garrick et al (2015), using the Arion distinctus as the experimental subject and the Cepea nemoralis as a control group. The experiment was conducted by injecting the slugs and snails with an Enkephalinase Inhibitor, followed by a 15min exposure to a ±60μT magnetic field while the slugs are placed in two different wavelengths of light (red light- 730 nm and blue light - 455nm). This research tested the effect of the different wavelengths of light on the electromagnetic sensing abilities of the Arion distinctus (garden slug). This work is significant because it expands our current knowledge on how many animals sense and interact with their environment. In addition, it furthers our understanding of electromagnetic sensing in invertebrates and how it relates to light sensing. This research also demonstrates a new species with this electromagnetic sensing ability.