E The Magazine For Today's Female Executive August 2018 issue

Alana has conducted rigorous experimentation
using the highest quality equipment
and meters
Likewise, Watson Bros. Precision Balances in
Burbank, CA allowed her to use one of their
analytical scales, which weighed to the
10,000th of a gram, in order to test oil adhesion
to the feathers. Not satisfied with her experimental
procedure after the first round, Alana
upped the test medium from four 1000 ml
beakers to four 10 gallon fish tanks, adjusted a
few other parameters, and retested everything
finishing the night before the California State
Science Fair.
Having skipped a grade in middle school, Alana
ended up taking one of three honorable
mentions in the Senior Division of Toxicology
out of 36 participants during her first year competing
at the high school level. Right on the
heels of the Science Fair, the Santa Barbara
oil spill took place on May 19, 2015 bringing
home the importance of her work.
already toxic oil (one study showed as
much as 52 times more toxic than untreated
oil). She also found that there were
many gaps in the research which have not
proven the effectiveness of dispersant
technology. More importantly, research
studies neglected to reveal the damage
that dispersants could do to our oceans,
as well as the harm to wildlife and especially
to people.
For her second round of toxicity and adhesion
experiments, Alana was fortunate
enough to enlist the support of local businesses.
GeoTech Engineering in Orange
County allowed Alana to use their sophisticated
mini Rae3000 meter and their Horiba
meter to test the toxic VOC's (Volatile
Organic Compounds*) and parameters
such as pH, temperature, turbidity, dissolved
oxygen, and total dissolve solids.
It has been difficult for her to watch as the
days go by, knowing that nothing but fairly ineffective
mechanical clean up has been used on
this spill
while these
much more
effective bi-
Page 55 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
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