Basic+Overview

During the last 18 weeks of my senior year at Newton North High School, I'll be studying how to distill natural scents and writing a paper on the neurological connection of scent to the brain. I'll track my progress on this wiki so that you can follow what I'm doing; look on the Activity Log page for a daily list of what I've done, or on the The Project page for how my project has started taking shape. In order to do this project, I'll plant a garden at my house in the plots that we have studiously ignored for years, build a still to extract essential oils from plants and research neurological processes. I want to know if certain odorants are more universally evocative than others, by researching the biological aspect of olfaction and the molecular process of distillation.
 * In brief... **

**Building the garden:** 1) Remove all old plant matter (or hoe into the soil) 2) Treat soil with fertilizer and a new layer of topsoil 3) Buy seeds, write a plan for the garden   4) Start some seedlings indoors, in March   5) Transplant seedlings, direct seed other crops   6) Water and weed and harvest   7) Dry the plants

**Distilling the scents:** //Steam Distillation// 1) Build a still (using 2 milk jugs, copper wire, a tea kettle, and a glass jar), or set up distillation apparatus 2) Pack the plants into one of the milk jugs or flasks 3) Boil water to create steam that runs through the still and picks up the molecules from the plant matter //Lard Distillation//   1) Fill a large coffee tin 1/3 of the way full with lard   2) Make a bag out of cheesecloth, or similar cotton cloth, and place inside tin once lard has set   3) Fill the bag with plant matter and leave for 2-3 days   4) Remove the bag, refill, leave for 2-3 days   5) Repeat a few times   6) Heat up the lard and strain through cheesecloth to separate essential oils from lard/oil   //Oil Distillation//   1) Heat up oil in a copper sauce pan on the stove   2) Put dried materials in once oil is warm   3) Without boiling the oil, heat for 2 hours   4) Remove plants and replace with new batch   5) Repeat for about a day, or until oil is saturated   6) Strain oil of leftover plant matter

Store all products in dark glass containers.

**Writing the paper** : 1) Research olfaction, sensory neuroscience, memory in the brain  2) Write a literature review   3) Determine my purpose, audience, and scope   //Purpose//: Review of Scholarship //Audience//: The interested layman, anyone who has ever wondered why scent is so closely connected to memory. They will be thoroughly informed about the process of olfaction, including its journey to the brain, and briefed on major theories of how memories are experienced.    //Scope:// To describe the entire process of olfaction in detail, from sensory information intake to perception, and speculate about categories of scent. My sources, other than those that describe the basic facts of this process, are mostly labs found in journals from online databases that examine particular cases of olfaction and olfactory memory.   4) Prepare a "Big Three" (Topic, Question, Thesis) //Topic//: //The connection of scent to memory// //Question: Are certain odorants, or categories of odorants, more frequently tied to autobiographical memories than others?// //Thesis: Averse and stable odorants may be more capable of evoking autobiographical memories than pleasant or voluble odorants.// 5) Write a paper outline 6) Write drafts and revise them 7) Write a final paper

**AND PRESENT EVERYTHING IN MAY**