Hypothesis

Research Topic: An investigation on how acids in fruits affect the amount of bacteria on the iPhone.

Hypothesis: The citric acid in fruits such as oranges will kill bacteria on the iPhone the best.

Background Information: Based on certain studies in the UK and US, it has shown that there are 3 types of bacteria found on the iPad which possibly means the iPhone as well as both gadgets are receptors of bacteria from the hands which pass it on. An example is a what the New York Daily Times has done. They swabbed 4 iPads and they found that the bacteria present on the iPad were

1. Staphylococcus aureus (a common source of staph infections)
2. Candida parapsilosis (a yeast)
3. Corynebacterium minutissimum (a common source of skin rashes)

The Wall Street Journal also did a similar experiment in which they collected 8 random phones from a Chicago office to investigate on the amount of bacteria found on them. They discovered abnormally large numbers of

4. Coliforms (a bacteria indicating fecal contamination)

The labs that tested the phones, HML Labs of Muncie, Ind., discovered that there were between 2,700 units to 4,200 units of coliform bacteria. To give you an idea of how much that is, in normal drinking water, the limit is less than 1 unit  of coliform bacteria per 100 ml of water.


Sources: 
1. Steve Sande.  (2010, October 15).  iPhone, iPad glass crawling with bacteria and viruses.  Tuaw.  Retrieved July 8, 2013.  From http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/15/report-iphone-ipad-glass-crawling-with-bacteria-and-viruses/

2. Oren Yaniv.  (2010, June 5).  Do they have an app for hand sanitizer? Demo iPads at city Apple stores are crawling with bacteria.  Daily News.  Retrieved July 8, 2013.  From http://www.nydailynews.com/news/app-alling-demo-ipads-found-crawling-bacteria-article-1.179212.

3. Caroline Porter.  (2012, October 23).  Calling All Germs.  The Wall Street Journal.  Retrieved July 8, 2013.  From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444868204578064960544587522.html?mod=e2tw.