Science Fair Rock Stars: Mikayla Sharrieff, India Skinner, and Bria Snell

High school juniors Mikayla Sharrieff, India Skinner, and Bria Snell have been in the news quite a bit in the last week, but the articles have only barely touched on what I consider to be the really exciting part of their story: these smart girls came up with an inexpensive and easy way to filter lead out of drinking water! And not only lead, but other impurities and bacteria like e. coli.

Their creative system builds on NASA Spinoff technology using specially created filtering floss made from nanofibers. A spinning fan circulates the contaminated water through the floss, which traps the unwanted particles. The clean water is then transferred to the storage container.

Their project "From H2NO to H2O" earned them a spot in the finals of the 2018 NASA Transformers Optimus Prime Spinoff Promotion and Research Challenge (OPSPARC) contest, which was created to encourage students to come up with creative uses for existing NASA technology in projects that would benefit the general public. Mikayla, India, Bria decided to turn their attention to the problem of lead-contamination in school water fountains.

Tragically, contaminated drinking water is an everyday issue for far too many students around the country, and one that hits home for these three burgeoning scientists: their school, Benjamin Banneker High School in Washington, DC, has several drinking fountains that have been taken out of commission because of concerns regarding lead contamination.

They took their idea to their mentors at the Inclusive Innovation Incubator, a technology incubator whose mission is to support entrepreneurs and businesses from underrepresented communities that provide products and services benefiting under-served communities, who gave them the encouragement and guidance they needed while building their prototype for the NASA OPSPARC contest. Their mentors' confidence is well-placed. This team of resourceful young women are the only all-black, all-female team to make it to the finals.

The winning team will be announced later this month. Winners will be invited to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for a two-day workshop, and a $4000 stipend to cover their expenses for the trip. But these girls are already winners! They've caught the attention of celebrities and politicians alike. The Washington, DC, mayor Muriel E. Bowser has pledged a $4000 award to help the girls continue work on their filtration system.

Not only are these young women looking at careers in STEM, they're already looking for ways to inspire others. As Mikayla, who is looking at becoming a biomedical engineer, put it, "It’s important to be role models for a younger generation who want to be in the STEM field but don’t think they can." India, who wants to be a pediatric surgeon, wants to make sure others see their full potential, to "see our faces, and see we’re just regular girls, and we want to be scientists."

If you appreciate the work I do here on SRPS, please support me!

Read More

Google Science Fair Winner Kiara Nirghin!

Congratulations to Kiara Nirghin, the Grand Prize winner in the 2016 Google Science Fair!

I am not at all surprised this brilliant young scientist won! Her remarkable project was the first one I reviewed for this year, and I was struck by its simplicity and the amazing potential it has to improve the lives of farmers around the globe adapt to increasingly dry conditions. When asked what could she make better with science, she looked around her and saw poor farmers struggling to bring in enough crops to stay in business, and she wondered if there was something she could do to help.

In her project "Combating Drought with a Low-Cost, Biodegradable Superabsorbent Polymer Made Out of Orange Peels," she shares her research looking for a low-cost, biodegradable, water-storing polymer that can be added to the soil to help retain moisture during periods of drought.

"I sought to create a product that can improve soil quality, preserve water and resist drought therefore producing a better environment for crops grow. It is must be harmless and non-polluting with super water absorbing ability and water preserving ability."

Like all of this year's contestants, she followed her natural curiosity and used her scientific know-how to figure out a way to make something better, and in the process discovered something pretty remarkable that can have a long-lasting impact on the environment as well as the lives of people around the world.

Brava Kiara!

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please consider donating to my Patreon.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star: Anushka Naiknaware

This is the eighth in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in the 2016 Google Science Fair. (Here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh posts.) Each of these smart young scientists has survived both the rigorous first pass and the second regional round, and have been named Global Finalist, meaning they have moved into the final round of competition. You can be sure I'll be watching the celebration event on September 27, 2016.

Wound care is a critical part of health care, but one that too often gets overlooked in research in favor of bigger, more prestigious endeavors like cancer detection or treating heart disease. But the number of people treated for wounds far outpaces those who need most other kinds of health care. And while it might seem like clinicians are simply wrapping a wound to protect it, there is far more going on underneath the bandage than a little ointment and cotton gauze.

Anushka Naiknaware, 13, knows that effective treatment of wounds involves balancing several different but interdependent goals: stopping any bleeding, absorbing any excess fluid, addressing signs of infection, and keeping the wound at the optimum moisture level to heal quickly and cleanly. To that end, she's created a bandage with a built-in sensor to do all of these things.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star: Nishita Belur

This is the seventh in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in the 2016 Google Science Fair. (Here are the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth posts.) Each of these smart young scientists has survived both the rigorous first pass and the second regional round, and have been named Global Finalist, meaning they have moved into the final round of competition. You can be sure I'll be watching the celebration event on September 27, 2016.

One of the things I love about reading about these Google Science Fair projects is seeing the these kid's intense curiosity about how things work and how they can apply what they have learned to the objects around them and in the process learn even more. It's endlessly fascinating for me how they will take a principle they learn about in class and look for ways to use it to understand the world around them, and then look for ways to improve it.

Nishita Belur was curious about how sheet metal is inspected for use in manufacturing, and shocked to learn that production facilities still rely on a simple visual inspection for dents and scratches. For many items, like automobile panels, this may be an adequate technique, as paint and other finishes will cover most minor imperfections. But for other uses, like being formed into pipes or boxes, where even minuscule flaws can compromise the structural integrity, inspection of the sheet metal becomes increasingly important, and flaws that could cause problems in the final product may be missed by the human eye.

So she had the bright idea of using a laser to test the surface of a piece of sheet metal to find any scratches or dents. In her project, "Detection of Metal Surface Defects Using Laser Light Reflection," she investigates the effectiveness of measuring the reflection of a laser off the surface to determine if there were any underlying imperfections. She connected a photo-diode to measure the reflected light's intensity and turning it into voltage. The closer to perfect the surface is, the more light that falls on the photo-diode, and the higher the voltage.



While her test sheets were quite small, it is easy to image a system that could be build to run along larger sheets as they are being pressed and rolled, measuring for imperfections and recording their locations. While this may not change the way automobile factories operate, it could have wide-ranging benefits for manufacturing operations that rely on precision measurements.

Most exciting, though, is this young scientist is only thirteen years old, with many more years of learning and experimenting ahead of her!

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please check out my Patreon.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star: Maria Vitória Valoto

This is the sixth in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in the 2016 Google Science Fair. (Here are the first, second, third, fourth and fifth posts.) Each of these smart young scientists has survived both the rigorous first pass and the second regional round, and have been named Global Finalist, meaning they have moved into the final round of competition. You can be sure I'll be watching the celebration event on September 27, 2016.

Do you know someone who is lactose-intolerant? Sixteen-year-old Maria Vitória Valoto of Brazil does -- her father -- and he inspired her to find a way to help others with the same condition.

Dairy products, in particular milk, have long been used as an inexpensive source of calcium and protein, but a significant portion of the population cannot tolerate the lactose. For many this means they must forgo dairy, missing out on the the benefits altogether. Others may choose to purchase enzymatic capsules to take with dairy products, or to purchase substitute products that either have already had the lactose (and much of the nutrition) removed or are completely dairy-free, such as soy milk -- all of which can be quite expensive.

For her Google Science Fair project, Maria had the brilliant idea of making a reusable capsule containing the same enzymes in the over the counter pills and applying it directly to the carton of milk, creating a less expensive alternative for those who cannot afford to purchase special substitutes but who also cannot afford to miss out on this important source of nutrition. In her project, "Development of reusable capsules of beta-galactosidase intended for people who are lactose intolerant," for which she was named a Global Finalist, she asks whether it would be possible to develop a more economical, reusable product, capable of hydrolyzing lactose that would be practical for everyday use by a wide range of the world's population.

And, as you can probably guess, she was right! With a little trial and error, she was able to come up with a reusable sachet-type device with beta-galactosidase that can be added directly to the milk, can be used for up to a week, will work regardless of fat content, and is able to be stored at room temperature. And all this for a teeny fraction of the cost of special items!

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please check out my Patreon.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star: Mansha Fatima

This is the fifth in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in the 2016 Google Science Fair. (Here are the first, second, third and fourth posts.) Each has survived both the rigorous first pass and the second regional round, and have been named Global Finalist, meaning they have moved into the final round of competition. You can be sure I'll be watching the celebration event on September 27, 2016.

Rice is the staple food of over half the world's population. According to Wikipedia, rice provides as much as one-fifth of the calories humans consume, either as food they eat themselves or feed/fodder for their livestock. As such an important crop, it's surprising how little attention has been given to improving crop yields or environmental impacts.

Fifteen-year-old Mansha Fatima wanted to find out if using inexpensive automation systems would show an improvement in crop yields and a reduction in water usage, both of which would improve the lives of farmers in her home country, India.

For her 2016 Google Science Fair project, "Automated Water Management and Monitoring System in Paddy Fields" she created a miniature rice paddy with an automated system to open and close the gates between the water reservoir and her fields. She knew that the water requirements for rice plants vary over the course of its growth period, and that opening and closing gates on large scale farms is time-sensitive and labor-intensive. She wanted to find an easy and cost-efficient way to automate this process, and then see if it improved crop outputs.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star: Saliha Rehanaz

This is the third in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in the 2016 Google Science Fair. (Here are the first, second and third posts.) Each has survived both the rigorous first pass and the second regional round, and have been named Global Finalist, meaning they have moved into the final round of competition. You can be sure I'll be watching the celebration event on September 27, 2016.

Fifteen year old Saliha Rehanaz has set herself an ambitious goal of creating a "revolutionary, natural absorbent that would change the world." And you know what? She just might have!

This rising young star has set her sights on improving the lives of the rural women of Bangladesh where she lives with her older sister and mother. Until recently, women and girls (and others who menstruate) in the poorer rural areas still used rags for their periods, but that caused problems with comfort and wear-ability throughout the day, keeping many girls home from school because of the social stigma associated with menstruation.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Stars: Marion Pang Wan Rion, Joy Ang Jing Zhi, and Sonia Arumuganainar

This is the third in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in the 2016 Google Science Fair. (Here are the first and second posts.) Each has survived both the rigorous first pass and the second regional round, and have been named Global Finalist, meaning they have moved into the final round of competition. You can be sure I'll be watching the celebration event on September 27, 2016. 

What if your smart phone could bend and stretch? What if your smart watch's power was doubled while the battery was smaller -- or even if the wrist band was the 'battery'? Or your hybrid vehicle's batteries were in the upholstery or its paint job rather than stored in giant batteries under the hood? How cool would that be? Three smart young women from Singapore have come up with something that could do all that, and more!

Marion Pang Wan Rion, Joy Ang Jing Zhi, and Sonia Arumuganainar, all 18, have come up with a supercapacitor composed of an ultrathin electrolyte solution sandwiched between layers of graphene-based electrodes which is then painted directly on the surface of a variety of materials, including cloth and paper, that can store a large amount of energy and discharge it quickly to keep your smart devices running smoothly, even when the fabric itself is folded or torn.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star: Anika Cheerla

This is the second in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in this year's Google Science Fair. (Here is the first post.) Each has survived the rigorous first pass and have moved into the first regional round. The second set of winners will be announced on August 11, narrowing the field of candidates for the final round. You can be sure I'll be watching the celebration event on September 27, 2016. 

Looking at the list of Regional Finalists for the 2016 Google Science Fair, one name jumps out at me right away. Anika Cheerla was one of the 2015 Finalists as well! Last year she created a neural net program that could be used to detect brain damage when presented with MRI scans and clinical features and aid in diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in patients. Her Alzheimer's screening program has a remarkable 95% accuracy rate, and dramatically cut down on the "wait and see" time doctors often employ for patients whose scans are not as clear to the human eye. Oh, and at the time she was only 13.

She's back with another brilliant bioinformatics project: Automated Prediction of Future Breast Cancer Occurrence from Non-Cancerous Mammograms. This time she's using her love for research and coding to predict the likelihood of a patient developing breast cancer by analyzing the data from previous mammograms. And, again (no surprise!), her method works.

She took images from over 400 mammograms of healthy breast tissue and ran them through a series of algorithms to teach her code how to recognize changes that eventually lead to cancerous growths, creating a program that is 35% better at predicting cancer than previous methods employed by medical staff.

Accurate prediction of an individual's future cancer risk helps doctors and patients alike: enabling the early detection of breast cancer if it does arise and allowing patients to get possible interventions to lower their cancer risk. Hopefully, this research is a step towards reducing the fatality rate of breast cancer. My system also can significantly reduce burden on on our health care systems and patients by reducing the false positive rates of the mammograms, which often leads to expensive MRI scans and invasive biopsies.

Until now, the purpose of regular mammogram screening has been to detect existing cancer. But what if it could predict cancer before it develops? How great would it be to have more infrequent screenings that were able to give doctors and patients a better idea of who is more likely to develop cancer based on changes in breast tissue, relieving the financial strain on medical facilities and saving many patients undue worry while giving others a better chance through pre-treatment routines?

Perhaps by the time Anika Cheerla is able to fine tune her algorithm through further study, this may become a reality. Did I also mention she's only 14? With brilliant young scientists like this, the future is bright for all of us.

If you appreciate the work I do here on SRPS, please support me!

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star: Kiara Nirghin

When thinking of ideas for her Google Science Fair project Kiara Nirghin, from Johannesburg, South Africa, looked around and wondered where she could best apply her natural scientific curiosity for the greatest good. She credits her father for her this humanitarian pursuit, saying he continually reminds her of what is truly important. "You can get as many A's in school and university but what matters most is what you do for the [person who] cannot do for themselves."

South Africa, as well as many others around the globe, is in the midst of a terrible drought, leading to food insecurity and further environmental degradation as poor farmers resort to dangerous practices to survive. Kiara, who loves studying physics and chemistry, had learned a bit about superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) in her chemistry class and wondered if they might hold the key to improving water retention in soil.

Read More

Google Science Fair Winner Olivia Hallisey!

Congratulations to Olivia Hallisey, the Grand Prize winner in the 2015 Google Science Fair!

Her project was an amazingly simple invention that will save countless lives around the world -- an Ebola Assay Card that allows fast detection of Ebola in remote locations, and can carry life-saving antibodies to the right places as quickly as possible. Her simple silk protein assay sets up in 30 minutes, costs less than $25, and can go for a week without refrigeration.

Winning the Grand Prize $50,000 scholarship will give her the financial support needed to make her card a multi-disease diagnostic assay, meaning it can save even more lives!

Brava Olivia! I can't wait to see what you do next!

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please consider donating to my Patreon.

---

You may also be interested in:

Science Fair Rock Star - Lauren Rojas
Twelve year old Lauren Rojas's science project for school wasn't your typical science fair fare. Instead of building the ubiquitous baking soda volcano, she wanted to test the effects of altitude on air pressure and temperature. So she built a weather balloon, attached several cameras to record the view, and a high altitude computer to track the changes in temperature, air pressure and altitude.


Samantha Smith, Cold War Princess
In 1982, the US and USSR were still quite deep in the cold war. It may be hard to remember now, but we were still worried about nuclear attacks. Not in the naive way the folks in the 50s and 60s were ducking under desks or building bunkers. By the late-70s and early-80s, we were pretty much aware that any nuclear attack would be the end of civilization as we know it, and survival was unlikely.


Happy Birthday - Dr. Dorrit Hoffleit
During World War II, she went to work at the Aberdeen Proving Ground ballistics laboratory in Maryland. Not unlike many women working for the war effort, she was forced to take a position below her status while she watched men who had less experience take higher level jobs. Frustrated that women weren't getting the training they needed and the promotions they deserved...

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star - Laura Steponavičiūtė

This is the fourth in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in this year's Google Science Fair. (Here are the first, second and third posts.) Each has survived the rigorous regional rounds, and are awaiting the results of the final testing to see who will win this year's prizes. The results will be announced on September 21, 2015, and you can be sure I'll be watching!

As always, I am impressed with all the participants and their projects, but the nature of this blog is to highlight the stories of kickass women and girls, so I'm focusing on them for this series. Over the next week I will be sharing stories of many of these remarkable young women. Stay tuned!

Laura Steponavičiūtė is a remarkable young scientist with a bright future ahead of her in nano-technology, or whatever else she decides to pursue. Her mother, herself a sciences teacher, fostered a sense of curiosity and exploration in her young daughter, providing her with a wide variety of books and creative pursuits.

Recently, Laura became interested in learning more about nanotechnology, and more specifically, how these innovative nanoparticles actually interact with the environment and the various organisms they come into contact with. She was inspired to do more research when she learned that the titanium oxide nanoparticles that make sunscreen work tend to have a detrimental effect on coral reefs. As a swimmer applies sunscreen to her face, she may not realize that the minute particles that wash off are being carried away to where they can actually damage the environment they came to the ocean to enjoy.

In her research, she looked at gold nanoparticles and how they influenced the health of plants. She compared the effect these particles had on the growth of beans and algae, and how these could lead to both helpful and harmful consequences -- faster plant growth is good for crops, but terrible for fresh water in that it encourages algae blooms, which can lead to eutrophication and the death of the animal life in the water.

When asked why she wants to be a scientist, she answered, "I want to know answers to the questions that pop in my head while reading articles or discussing various topics. I want to help to improve our environment and help people. I see science as a way to do that." It's true.

For more reading, please check out the Google for Education blog post about Laura Steponavičiūtė.

Photo source: Kauno diena

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star - Olivia Hallisey

This is the third in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in this year's Google Science Fair. (Here's the first and second posts.) Each has survived the rigorous regional rounds, and are awaiting the results of the final testing to see who will win this year's prizes. The results will be announced on September 21, 2015, and you can be sure I'll be watching!

As always, I am impressed with all the participants and their projects, but the nature of this blog is to highlight the stories of kickass women and girls, so I'm focusing on them for this series. Over the next week I will be sharing stories of many of these remarkable young women. Stay tuned!

Olivia Hallisey is a brilliant and determined young woman. I expect to see great things from her in the future. She's only a sophomore in high school, and already she has earned major science fair cred for her project to create a diagnostic tool for fighting Ebola and other highly infectious diseases. The picture above is from her win at the International Science and Engineering Fair, held earlier this year.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star - Sripada Srisai Lalita Prasida

This is the second in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in this year's Google Science Fair. (Here's the first one.) Each has survived the rigorous regional rounds, and are awaiting the results of the final testing to see who will win this year's prizes. The results will be announced on September 21, 2015, and you can be sure I'll be watching!

As always, I am impressed with all the participants and their projects, but the nature of this blog is to highlight the stories of kickass women and girls, so I'm focusing on them for this series. Over the next week I will be sharing stories of many of these remarkable young women. Stay tuned!





Sripada Srisai Lalita Prasida is a smart, environmentally-minded young scientist who lives in Delhi, but spends a fair amount of time traveling around the countryside, visiting with local farmers. It was on one of these trips where she learned about the different ways farmers were disposing of dried corn cobs once the kernels had been removed. The common methods of burning them, burying them or dumping them seemed wasteful to her, so she decided to look for ways to reuse them in a more productive manner.

Another pressing concern of rural communities is water safety. Lalita wondered if there was a way she could combine these two concerns and come up with a way to use corn cobs to purify water. Initially she tried making a hole into the center of a corn cob and pouring dirty water into it and measuring the quality of the water that came out. She was pleasantly surprised to find that the particles in the water had been trapped inside the cob.

As it turns out, they make an excellent and simple filtration system, absorbing as much as 80% of common contaminants. Their high mechanical strength, rigidity and porosity combined with their easy availability make them a ideal option for rural communities.

Hence, contaminants like oxides of salts, detergents, suspended particles, coloured dyes, oil and grease get adsorbed in the surface of the corn cobs. Some of the heavy metals are also adsorbed by corn cobs. If the drain pipe of the household is connected to a chamber having different layers of corn cobs in partition layers or to an S-trap pipe having corn cobs, it will separate about more than 70-80 % of contaminants including suspended particles from the waste water. Similarly the factory out let pipes carrying effluents must be opened to five inter-connected chambers having long slices of corn cobs, pieces of corn cobs, powder of corn cobs, activated charcoal of corn cobs and fine sand for the easy adsorption of TSS and chemical toxicants both organic and inorganic. Corn cobs fitted to bamboos buried on the ground floor of the ponds and allowed two to three weeks to stand can be useful for cleaning of water in ponds, tanks and rivers. This is also useful to clean overhead water tanks of individual households and community tanks.

As a bonus, as the corn cobs absorb the suspended particles, this also helps to reduce the temperature of the water, as well as acting as a flow regulator during high rains.

When asked what advice she'd give others, she reminds us discovery is only possible by observation. "Always observe your surroundings keenly. You never know what scientific breakthrough you may stumble upon."

For more reading, please check out the Google for Education blog post about Sripada Srisai Lalita Prasida.

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please check out my Patreon.

Read More

Science Fair Rock Star - Monique Hsu and Gina Wang

This is the first in an ongoing series highlighting some of the amazing young women participating in this year's Google Science Fair. (You can read the second one here.) Each has survived the rigorous regional rounds, and are awaiting the results of the final testing to see who will win this year's prizes. The results will be announced on September 21, 2015, and you can be sure I'll be watching!

As always, I am impressed with all the participants and their projects, but the nature of this blog is to highlight the stories of kickass women and girls, so I'm focusing on them for this series. Over the next week I will be sharing stories of many of these remarkable young women. Stay tuned!



Monique (Yo) Hsu and Gina (Jing-Tong) Wang are a pair of junior high school students with big ideas and big smarts to go with them. When these two childhood friends learned about the problem many in their area were experiencing with buying gas that had been diluted with other solvents, they put their heads together to figure out a test that would tell consumers exactly what it is they are buying.

Read More

Self-Rescuing Princess of the Week: Gaby Zane

It's pretty scary going in for an operation. But now, thanks to an inquisitive fifth grader, kids will be able to take their favorite stuffed animals with them for a little extra comfort and security.

When Gaby Zane had an idea for her fifth grade science fair project, she had no idea she'd wind up having her results published in a medical journal. But that's exactly what's happened!

Read More

Self-Rescuing Princess of the Week - Lauren Rojas

Twelve year old Lauren Rojas's science project for school wasn't your typical science fair fare. Instead of building the ubiquitous baking soda volcano, she wanted to test the effects of altitude on air pressure and temperature. So she built a weather balloon, attached several cameras to record the view, and a high altitude computer to track the changes in temperature, air pressure and altitude. And then she added a little something extra.

She wanted to send her Hello Kitty doll on the trip, so she build her a little rocket to travel in, and attached it to the scientific equipment.

She launched the rocket from Antioch, California, where it was buffeted by strong winds as it rose to its highest point, over 93,000 feet up! When the balloon burst, it sent Hello Kitty back down, to land nearly 50 miles away. Lauren recovered the equipment, with the help of several adults, as it was tangled in a tree 50 feet off the ground, and completed her assignment. And, then, for good measure, made this awesome video.

Best. Science. Fair. Entry. Ever.

(source: NY Daily News)

Read More

Self-Rescuing Princess of the Week - Brittany Wenger

I know it's only Tuesday, but I'm pretty sure it's safe to call it already! Google has announced the winners of the 2012 Google Science Fair. And, again, the Grand Prize winner is an innovative and enterprising young woman!

Winners of the 2012 Google Science Fair. Photo: Google

Brittany Wenger, from the US, won the prize for the 17-18 age category, as well as the Grand Prize, for her work, "Global Neural Network Cloud Service for Breast Cancer."

Brittany's project harnesses the power of the cloud to help doctors accurately diagnose breast cancer. Brittany built an application that compares individual test results to an extensive dataset stored in the cloud, allowing doctors to assess tumors using a minimally-invasive procedure.

Basically, a doctor enters the information about the mass into the database, and her algorithm can predict whether it is cancer with a 99.1% accuracy, reducing the number of malignant false negatives.

Brittany Wenger at her data input site. Photo: The Out-of-Door Academy

The other winners are quite impressive as well!

Jonah Kohn, also from the US, won the prize for the 13-14 age category for his work, "Good Vibrations: Improving the Music Experience for People with Hearing Loss Using Multi-Frequency Tactile Sound."

By creating a device that converts sound into tactile vibrations, Jonah's project attempts to provide the hearing impaired with an improved experience of music.

And Iván Hervías Rodrígues, Marcos Ochoa, and Sergio Pascual, of Spain, won the 15-16 age category for their work, "La Vida Oculta del Agua (The Secret Life of Water).

Iván, Marcos, and Sergio studied hidden microscopic life in fresh water, documenting the organisms that exist in a drop of water, and how those organisms influence our environment.

Well done, all!

Read More

Blog Around

Geek Mom has a post about a great new CD for science geeks: Science Fair.

The songs of Science Fair are all performed by women and girls, including some kids’ music greats like Frances England, Elizabeth Mitchell, Lunch Money, Renee & Jeremy, and Ashley Albert of The Jimmies. The musical styles represented are as diverse as the science topics, from hip hop to rock to folk, phytoplankton to fossils to outer space. The album name drops Feynman, Heisenberg, Einstein, Bohr, Newton, Schrödinger, with a terrific ukelele-filled song dedicated to Marie Curie.

Speaking of women in science, the Elsevier Foundation, The Academy of Sciences for the Developing worls (TWAS) and the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) have launched an awards program for women scientists in developing countries.

Valerie Weiss has an excellent post on indiewire.com about the problems of portraying science in the media: Women, Science and Film.

1. Girls are not dumb. They have interests outside of the world of Abercrombie or Forever 21. They are actually just as discerning as you and me and can tell when they’re fed dumbed-down messages.

2. Science can actually be cool. Why else would there be news reports on the search for dark energy and why else would we care about the race to find a cure for cancer? Why else would people actually study it?

In this Word & Film interview, the fabulous Kristen Scott Thomas dishes about being an older woman in Hollywood and why she prefers to make movies in Europe these days.

“The Hollywood film industry nourishes everything else because that’s the mother hand, but it’s true: The movies I’m making in Europe are more exciting to me than the things I’ve been asked to do recently coming out of America. That doesn’t mean to say I don’t want to do them anymore, but when you have even a much smaller part, it’s so exciting. And in Europe, they’re interested in women of my age. I don’t think that here they are.” 

Have you ever thought that computer science should include more dragons and wizards? Well, you're in luck! Computational Fairy Tales is here to save the day!

Did you hear Maureen Corrigan's NPR review of Caitlin Moran's book, How To Be A Woman?

But, more importantly, like Barr used to do, Moran invests her consciousness-raising confessions with an all-too-rare working-class worldview.

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is presenting a five-part piece called Women of Will, created by Tina Packer, which will explore the female roles in Shakespeare's plays.

Packer's theory is that Shakespeare's changing approach to women over the years illustrates his own ever-evolving complexity of thought and understanding. Women in his time, she points out, were necessarily shrewd observers, analysts of the power structure and their own place within it.

The Comic's Journal has a review of a new publication of Flannery O'Connor's lineoleum cut cartoons she made while in high school and college.

I think the significance of O’Connor’s cartoons lies not in their connection to her fiction but the gap between them. That they stand so puny and so far from her writing speaks to the wonder of the creative process. They attest to the mind’s capacity to access and master dangerous and potentially self-devouring material in ways that can not be foreseen, for which logic can construct no model for others to follow. 

I've seen some photos of awesome swag people are bringing home from San Diego Comic-Con, but I'm pretty that Mercedes Becerra has them all beat. She scored a ticket to space!

The SF Gate had a great piece about Dona Bailey, the woman who helped create the iconic arcade game Centipede.

"It was interesting to see how a male society functioned," she says. "It was kind of rough sometimes, too. It was a culture that I don't think they were thinking 'there is one woman, we should modify our behavior for her sake' ... I grew a thicker skin."

Meet Missy Franklin, who will soon become the first US woman to swim in seven events in one Olympic Games. She's definitely someone to watch. According to Teri McKeever, the head coach of the US Olympic women's swimming team.

"Missy is definitely the marquee female athlete on this Olympic team and probably has the highest expectations. Our job as coaches is to help her manoeuvre those and help her stay true to who she is."

Sabera Talukder, 16 years old, invented an inexpensive and portable water purification sysmter for developing countries, and became a finalist in the Google Science Fair.

Read More