DeBenedictis wants to space ships to use gravitational fields and the forces generated by the movement of planets to propel spacecraft the way wind and currents propel sailboats and rafts on water.ĭeBenedictis says we can use these space currents to replace fuel canisters for spaceships to pick up and use later, removing the cost of launching fuel reserves into space. Some have suggested mining asteroids for fuel, using solar power, or other means. So the further you go into space, the more expensive fuel becomes - even transporting extra fuel reserves into space requires. Our only known source of fuel for rockets is on Earth. She put that interest toward solving one of the most most basic, but intractable, challenges to space travel, fuel costs. Moore Award at Intel ISEF in 2012.Įrika DeBenedictis A cheaper way to travel further in space.Įrika DeBenedictis is now a student at Caltech, but she was only 14 years old when on a family trip to Cape Canaveral when she realized just how big and interesting space actually is. There are going to be a lot of light bulbs coming from him."Īndraka won the Gordon E. Maitra later told the Baltimore Sun, "what I tell my lab is, 'think of Thomas Edison and the light bulb.' This kid is the Edison of our times. All except one of them - Anirban Maitra of John's Hopkins - rejected his plan. Some "extra-curricular reading" on carbon nanotubes in the middle of biology class inspired Andraka to put together a plan and contacted 200 scientists for help. Here is how it works: He took a sheet of paper lined with carbon nanotubes (which seem to be useful for just about everything) and coated it with antibodies for mesothelin - a protein present in pancreatic cancer.
His method of using thin sheets of carbon nanotubes to detect cancers in their early stages is 168 times faster, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times cheaper that current cancer detection technology.
Like many young people in this list who have taken on cancer in their science projects, Jack Andraka - a 15-year-old kid from Maryland - watched a close family member suffer from the disease, and wanted to do something to help others. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Jack Andraka found new cheap way to test one of the world's most deadly cancers.
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