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About This Project
To “show one's metal” is to reveal one’s strength of character. Ticks may have tiny character, but I propose they do have metal! As blood sucking parasites, ticks must penetrate thick animal skin to obtain food. I propose that ticks enrich their appendages with metals to strengthen them for penetration. I intend to use electron microscopy to quantify the chemical elements in the appendages of deer, dog, and lone star ticks to observe their composition and determine if ticks employ metals.
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