Skin Sample

The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to analyze a piece of Brendan Waffle's skin. The skin was from a sunburn that occurred during the prior weekend. The skin was dead and peeling off. The sample was taken between 2-3 days after the sunburn was obtained. We thought it would be interesting to look at a sample of this nature. Below you can see the skin sample being obtained. We took 2 samples of skin.

(Viewer Discretion Advised)

Below is an image of the skin from Sample 1, obtained from the SEM.

Below is an image of the skin from sample 2, obtained from the SEM.

After finding these two locations from the different samples we performed an elemental analysis of the skin. Below is a map of elements found in sample 1 with the image in the background.


Below is a map of elements found in sample 1 without the image in the background. Notice how the elements are evenly scattered throughout the skin. There's not specific concentrations of the elements on different locations of the skin.


Below is a map of elements found in sample 2 with the image in the background.
The next image is after eliminating elements that didn't have sufficient peaks on the spectrum.


Below is a map of elements found in sample 2 without the image in the background. You may notice the quantity of Aluminium in the skin. This we found particularly interesting.


Below is our spectrum from skin sample 1.


Below is our spectrum from skin sample 2.


Below you can see the mass percentages of the different elements of skin sample 1, remember, we are  excluding oxygen and carbon. The most prominent elements on the skin from sample 1 were Sulfur(26.46%), Chlorine(18.9%), and Aluminium(14.97%). The least prominent were Magnesium(2.13%), Phosphorus(3.45%), and Silicon(4.01%). These percentages are the normal weight percentages found below in the Excel Spreadsheet. 


Below you can see the mass percentage of the different elements of skin sample 2. Here it can be observed that Aluminium makes up 88.80% of the elements of the skin. Magnesium and Potassium both make up less than 1% of the skin. This data does not seem to be accurate because the skin should not be 89% metal. We are not sure what went wrong with this sample, but we still want to included these strange outcomes.

We had a couple of difficulties during these testings of skin. It was difficult to work with the dead skin because it tears easily and it is hard to get a good, large sample without the skin tearing. Also, the skin was charging a lot more than we thought it would. This may be why our sample 2 data was so skewed. Even though the skin was dead and dry, it just was not dry enough. These were the problems we had when performing our analysis of dead skin.