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What's Really in Your Water?

CSEF · 2026 Earth & Environmental Sciences (Junior Division)

Michael Hicks

Overview

I would like to test different water sources in Merced to figure out which are likely to have the most microplastics versus other particulates. Using two different identification methods, I am testing Lake Yosemite, Little Lake at UC Merced, Bear Creek, Well-water (310ft), and tap water. During last year’s iteration of this project, I only used Nile Red, a dye that stains plastics, but can also stain anything that has oil (lipids) in it. This includes most biological particles. To reduce the likelihood that I am over-identifying the amount of plastics in our water, I needed a method to isolate the microplastics from the genetic, and non-genetic, non-plastic particles in our water. This is where my innovation in this years project enters. I introduce Syto-9 dye which stains DNA green in addition to the Nile Red. By doing this, I can separately light up the two different dyes and isolate those particles that do not fluoresce (non-bio, non-plastic), those that fluoresce as only green (solely biological without lipids), those that fluoresce as both green and red (biological that have lipids), and those that only fluoresce as red (likely to be micro-plastics). I used a Thermofisher EVOS M7000, an automated inverted microscope to visualize the particles, and then I ran the water samples through a flow cytometer for more accurate counts than can be visualized by the naked eye.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2026 Earth & Environmental Sciences (Junior Division) · Entry J-08-11

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