Young scientists win big in Washington

An article that I found on http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/2012/03/young-scientists-win-big-in-washington/ was about the Intel STS (Science talent search)’s winners. The top 3 winners were Nithin Tumma, Andrey Sushko, and Mimi Yen. These 3, along with 40 other finalists, went to the big gala in Washington D.C. at the National Building museum. This years’ honors were given to kids who explored treatments for breast cancer, developing ultra small motors, and studying worms that smear mucus on each other. Sounds bizarre? Well, almost anything science-related can win you the Intel STS first place award.

The first place winner, Nithin Tumma, was exploring new cures for breast cancer. He found that there is a protein in the cancer cells that makes it more malicious, which turns it from bad to worse. Tumma decided to shut these protein cells down, or at least try, and tamed some samples in petri dishes. This was only one step closer for a cure to breast cancer, but it would help a lot in finding a cure. Breast cancer is a very big disease, and it would really help in finding a cure.

The second place winner, Andrey Sushko, developed an ultra small motor. The motor is only seven millimeters long, which is about the size of one grain of rice. This motor, with the right external machinery, might be able to create tiny pulses just using the water itself. He hopes that one day his motor will be used to power small robots.

Finally, the third place winner, Mimi Yen, studied the habits of the roundworm, Caenorhabdits elegans and it’s gross pastime. When the males of this species are alone, they wriggle up to one another and launch an attack; using a type of mucus, they plug shut pores on top of their friends’ heads. This seems to be a pretty nice pastime, and is quite.....eccentric.