Youthful Ingenuity Honored at Intel Science & Engineering Fair

By Laura Sanders, Science News

LOS ANGELES—Cancer-killing X-rays, nuclear threat detection and a fishy new plastic were behind the projects that took top awards at the 2011 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. In addition to those top winners, hundreds of students took over $4 million in awards and prizes home from a May 13 awards ceremony.

The weeklong science competition, a program of Society for Science & the Public, drew over 1,500 students from all over the world.

“Your innovation will help our global community transition to sustainable energy sources, mitigate the impact of national disasters and lead to new ways of preventing and treating addictions and disease,” Society for Science & the Public president and Science News publisher Elizabeth Marincola told the finalists at the awards ceremony. “Congratulations to each one of you.”

The top prize of $75,000, the Gordon E. Moore Award (named for the Intel Corporation cofounder and inventor of Moore’s Law), went to two California high school seniors who invented a way to fry cancer cells. Matthew Feddersen, 17, and Blake Marggraff, 18, of Lafayette, Calif., injected tiny particles of tin into a simulated tumor (the team used yeast cells as tumor stand-ins). When hit with X-rays, the tin produced secondary radiation that killed more cells than X-rays alone would. In tests, the tin didn’t seem to have any toxic effects. “It’s like a chemotherapy drug without the side effects,” Marggraff says.

Feddersen says they got the idea from news reports of secondary radiation being produced by faulty tin-based shields at nuclear power plants.

The technique could be easily implemented with existing technologies such as the X-ray machines found in dental offices, say Feddersen and Marggraff, both of whom have had family members with cancer. What’s more, the total treatment would cost about 60 cents per patient, so the technique would offer a powerful and affordable way to combat cancer in places with sparse access to sophisticated health care technology.

Next year, Marggraff plans to attend Washington University in St. Louis, and Feddersen plans to go to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Just after the awards ceremony, the two top winners were stunned to hear their names called. “It’s amazing. I don’t know how to describe it,” said Feddersen. “We were disappointed when we didn’t get fourth, so hearing this was astounding.”

Three Thai students won Intel’s Young Scientist Award, which comes with $50,000, for designing a new type of plastic out of fish scales. Pornwasu Pongtheerawan, 16, of Muang, Tanpitcha Phongchaipaiboon, 17, of Meung district, and Arada Sungkanit, 17, also of Meung district, will split the award. With an abundance of fish scales in Thailand, the team wondered whether a gelatinous product that the bony structures produce might be useful. After many experiments, the three hit upon a winning formula that produced firm, moldable plastics from the fish scale gelatin. Bowls and plates made of the plastic decorated their booth at the fair (and it should be noted that the plasticware had no trace of fishy odor). The plastic completely degrades in about 21 days in soil and causes no ill effects on critters there, the team found. So far, the plastic isn’t able to hold hot water or go in the microwave, so the team is tweaking the recipe.

Another recipient of Intel’s Young Scientist Award—and $50,000—is Taylor Wilson, 17, of Reno, Nev. Wilson created a sensitive, low-cost way to detect nuclear material such as weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium. At the heart of the detection method is Wilson’s fusion reactor, which melds atoms of deuterium together and creates neutrons. By shooting these neutrons into cargo containers and seeing what kind of radiation signatures are emitted, observers can tell what kind of material is inside. In contrast to other nuclear detection methods that rely on helium-3, an isotope that is currently in short supply, Wilson’s relies on water, an abundant, cheap and nontoxic material. The method could be used to detect radioactive material at border crossings or ports. Wilson’s work receives funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.