Adaptive Thermogenics

The Scenario: Much research is done over the subject of weight loss and dieting. It is not uncommon for a person’s metabolism to slow down as weight is lost. Sometimes, however, this slowdown (called “adaptive thermogenesis”) is more than anticipated. Scientists don’t fully understand why that happens. Some researchers have suggested that the reason for adaptive thermogenesis is because of higher concentrations of pollutants in a person’s blood. These pollutants include industrial chemicals such as organochlorines, which get stored in fat cells. (Organochlorines include pesticides.) When a person loses weight, these scientists believe that since the fat cells then get smaller, the chemicals get into the bloodstream and affect that person’s metabolism.

Your Task: Don the cap of a member of such a research team and design an experiment to test whether this idea is true or not. While you could certainly look some information up on the web or in journals on this topic, that effort is not expected. Instead, you will be graded by your thoroughness in thought and in your constructing a complete design. You are not able to actually run or design such a complicated and technical experiment, but tell what questions you would test and why. Tell what considerations you have made to determine that those are the tests that need to be conducted. Set up data tables you could use to record your findings. This will be organized in a lab report format: Title Purpose Background (within our lay technical ability) Hypothesis (Write as an if-then statement.) Materials (within our lay technical ability) Procedure (within our lay technical ability) Data Analysis Conclusion – include what would be the next step for future research as well as the conclusion. Write the lab report in a passive voice – no “I” or “we”