KID STUFF??
CANADA
Ann Makosinski of British Columbia, Canada has created a "hallow flashlight" powered only by the heat of one's hand. The energy is harvested using something called Peltier tiles. As she explains, the tiles "take the temperature difference between your hand and the ambient air, and they produce power." Oh yeah, Makosinski is only 15 and the flashlight is her entry in the Google Science Fair. She cobbled together the necessary parts from eBay. Said the young researcher of science fairs, "You learn so much about the topic you are studying - I learned so much from it. It's a really good experience for people, too. So often we don't do anything with our hands but text, so here is a chance to do something."
NEW JERSEY
In New Jersey, another teenager is getting attention for his inventiveness, Justin Beckerman, a high school junior, has built a fully functional, home made submarine capable of reaching depths of 30 feet. The project isn't his submarine, but it's his most ambitious. It took five months to build and cost $2000. The restless inventor is also working on a jet engine.
SCOTLAND
Steve Bate of Moray, Scotland has become the first blind person to climb El Capitan in Yosemite. The vertical granite formation is 3000 feet high. He climbed it over a period of six days, while carrying 220 pounds of gear. "I fell twice on the climb," he said, "and it was so hot over there, I became tired a lot quicker than I had accounted for .... It was really tough and when I finished I couldn't really understand where all my strength had come from." He says of the pretty-much-impossible achievement, "I just hope it helps to inspire people, especially with disabilities, to believe that anything is possible if they set their minds to it, anyone can." He even did it without Spock's help.
ISTANBUL
Elif Bilgin, a sixteen year old from Istanbul recognized an ongoing environmental crisis in plastics, and spent two years working on her own bio-plastic - a kind of plastic derived from a renewable source as opposed to the traditional petroleum base. She chose banana peels as her source, and set a goal of devising a bio-plastic production method so safe and elegant than any one could manufacture it in his or her own home. Banana peels were chosen because they are "a material which is thrown away every day."
After two years of work and ten failed trials, she finally succeeded. She then went on to find the best application for her new kind of plastic. Her findings suggested cosmetic prostheses and cable insulation, for starters. Her banana based bio-plastic won the 2013 Science in Action Award, and has earned her a place as a finalist in the Google Science Fair. Asked about her success and the science fair to come, she replied, "For me, this means that my project actually has potential to be a solution to the increasing pollution problem caused by the petroleum-based plastic. It also means that I have started the process of changing the world, which makes me feel like a winner already."
_____________________________________________________________
Comments
Post a Comment