Does caffeine affect the heart rate?

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Does caffeine affect the heart rate?

Introduction

The object of this experiment is to see the affects of caffeine on organisms and how potentially lethal it can be under certain circumstances.

For this experiment I will be using daphnia (the water flea) as it has a very thin membrane meaning the caffeine will affect it almost instantaneously and its heart is visible through a microscope as it has a translucent membrane coating it.

I believe that the caffeine will significantly affect the heart rate and behaviour of the daphnia as caffeine is a stimulant so speeds up the processes of the brain including respiratory and cardiac cycles.

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The experiment will be performed in controlled circumstances and I will try not to kill the fleas as there are many ethical issues using live organisms as harming creatures is un-ethical and immoral, the flea will be kept in water at all times so that it doesn’t coagulate in the air and die.

Apparatus

  • Light microscope
  • Pond water
  • Caffeine concentration(s)
  • Cavity slide
  • Daphnia
  • Timer/stopwatch

Variables

other variables to consider when doing this experiment are temperature as it can affect the heart rate of the daphnia and cause outliers in ...

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