10 Amazing Science Projects

In 2008 Daniel Burd, 16, discovered a process for breaking down plastic bag polymers—compounds that often last over 1,000 years—in three months. Since plastic does eventually degrade, Burd looked to isolate the microbes responsible and increase the speed at which they work. He found a simple way to do so, speeding decomposition rates up over 40% and nabbing Canada's national science fair title. Applied on an industrial scale, his technique could reduce landfill use.

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Amy Chyao has potentially found a way to treat cancer using photodynamic therapy, a process now used to treat superficial skin cancers but not those deeper in the body. Her initial 2010 project was so promising that Intel awarded her the grand prize at their International Science and Engineering Fair. University of Texas Dallas, where she had spent previous summers working in a lab, invited her to continue her research at their facilities. The now 18 year old hopes to eventually attend medical school.

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At just 14 years old, South African Luke Taylor submitted a project to Google’s Science Fair that caught every judge’s attention. Taylor created a software program that translates the English language into a code that robots can more easily understand and execute, allowing those who haven’t been trained in robotics to perform a variety of functions. While he restricted design and assessment to a prototype robot and used only a basic set of instructions, adapting his idea to work on a larger scale could lead to advances in a number of fields including manufacturing, surgery and food production.

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Jonah Kohn, winner of the Google Science Fair’s 13-14 year old category, came up with his innovative idea to improve the musical experience for people with hearing loss using multi-frequency tactile sound while in his school music class. Unable to perceivethe sound of his own guitar over the noise from his classmates, Jonah realizedthat putting his teeth on top of the instrument helped hear thanks to boneconduction. He wondered whether this principal could be applied to help thosewith hearing loss experience music. Jonah created a device that divides the sound spectrum into frequencyranges, each of which outputs to a vibrating speaker located at a specific bodylocation, allowing people to essentially “feel” the music.

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Florida’s rapid urban development has caused the destruction of seven millions acres of forests and wetlands. Hoping to better educate their community on the importance of environmental sustainability, students at Davenport School for the Arts worked with professional gardeners and architects to build a hydroponic garden, butterfly garden, berry patch and in-ground irrigation system. The students created the video here for the 2011-2012 Samsung Solve for Tomorrow contest, in which they were one of five finalists.

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16-year-old Catherine Wong realized that while rural areas of the developing world have a shortage of doctors, they have plenty of cell phones. With this in mind, she made a Bluetooth-enabled wireless transmitter, microprocessor and circuitry to amplify cardiac activity. These items combined can communicate real-time EKG images over any cell phone with Java software. So, if doctors aren’t close by, an aid worker can attach EKG leads to a patient and send images to a doctor stationed elsewhere. Pretty smart use of a smart phone!

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Though Fine Needle Aspirates (FNAs) are the least invasive breast cancer test they often produce inconclusive results, leading most doctors to choose more intensive procedures. Luckily, 17-year-old Brittany Wenger may have fixed this problem: she designed an artificial neural network (ANN) on Google’s Cloud system that can detect 99.1% of malignant breast tumors from FNAs. Using FNA data from the University of Wisconsin her ANN proved 5% more effective than those currently available from commercial networks. Her groundbreaking project earned her the grand prize at the 2012 Google Science Fair.

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Regional, National and International award winner Yamini Naidu used computer modeling to create novel treatment pathways for methamphetamine addiction. Not only did the 17-year-old find two new binding sites in the brain that are activated by meth, she also created compounds that can block the drug from sticking to these sites. Medicines developed from her work may lead to a new and better way to treat meth abuse. Oregon Health and Science University helped the teen with her research and now holds a patent on the binding sites and compounds that she found.

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14-year-old Raymond Gilmartin won the grand prize at the 2012 Broadcom Masters National Science Fair with a project about how SUV spoilers effect gas consumption and in turn air pollution. Raymond made a series of spoilers in various shapes and sizes then tested each in a wind tunnel. He was able to determine which designs increase drag, slowing the vehicle and burning more gas and which decrease drag, reducing fuel usage and in turn carbon emissions. Car manufacturers may be able to use Raymond’s recommendations to create more efficient and environmentally friendly SUVs.

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An award winner at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Jack Andraka came up with a new way to detect pancreatic cancer. The 15-year-old made a basic dipstick sensor that can assess the level of the protein mesothelin, a biomarker for the disease, in blood or urine to determine if a patient has early-stage pancreatic cancer. In addition to a 90% accuracy rate, Jack’s patent-pending device proved 28 times faster, 28 times cheaper and more than 100 times more sensitive than current tests. Moreover, his sensor can also detect ovarian and lung cancers.

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