Atlantic Beach resident studies blue light on flies

Atlantic Beach resident Kayla Palumbo and student at Sacred Heart Academy is a recipient of New York Institute of Technology’s Mini-Research Grant Awards aimed to fund ongoing research.

“The girls get to work on any and all aspects of science,” said Stephen Sullivan, the  research director of the school’s science research program and behavior scientist. “Economics, sociology, psychology, environmental science. A lot of what they do, I don’t understand it.”

Palumbo is a part of the four-year program at Sacred Heart, where students focus on science and math that prepare them to apply their scientific knowledge to real-world challenges. The academy is an all-girls Catholic high school in Hempstead.

“The program has grown so much,” he said. “They are lovely and they are wonderful.” upwards of 90 students are part of the program.

Palumbo’s project is titled “Can available light-blocking technologies minimize the harmful effects of blue light on Drosophila melanogaster?” It studied the effects of blue light on fruit flies.

“Dr. Sullivan had emailed me a study over the summer and it showed the effects of blue light on fruit flies,” Palumbo said. “I came up with the idea of using the same methodology to test blue light glasses and I did some research and there’s a lot of controversy on whether they are effective or not.”

Palumbo conducted her research in the comfort of her home due to the worry of flies being affected by the temperature at the school.

“On the weekends, the building gets cold,” Sullivan said. “So after talking about it with an entomologist out in the Cornell extension in Suffolk, he suggested we do it in her home.”

Palumbo said she has more than 200 fruit flies in her basement.

“Mom is not too happy,” she said. “I think she pretends they are not there.” When doing her research, she spends her time “playing with the flies.”

When asked how, she said she does that by testing the fly’s mobility to see how long the flies live to see if blue light glasses block blue light on the flies.

This year marks the sixth year NYIT has funded a student in high school for research project proposals or continuing projects. Palumbo was awarded $300 towards her research with the intention of paying for the cost of materials needed for the research, such as the light source, test tubes and the flies which came from Carolina Biological.

“It is a website that distributes lab materials,” she said. “I got my fruit flies and the food.” Delivery took about two weeks. 

To be considered for a grant, students must be in high school conducting a STEM-based research program and projects must be related to health-related research. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math.  Palumbo was required to write a proposal to be considered for the grant, which she completed in two weeks.

“It’s like an introduction,” Palumbo said. “How you plan to conduct a research and I think they look for potential.”

Sacred Heart Academy girls have received two awards in each of the four years they have taken part in the university’s grant competition with a total of $2200.

“She’s very particular,” Sullivan said speaking about Palumbo. “She is incredibility professional, incredibly mature and one of those teenagers when I’m talking with her about her project, I forget she’s 16.”