
Girl, 14, is America's Top Young Scientist: Her Solar-Powered Jug Cleans Water - Cbasedlifeform
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/most-popular/americas-top-young-scientist-2012.html
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hcarvalhoalves
Yet, you won't hear about people investing on ideas like these, but another
social-mobile-location-enabled-micro-payment startup with 10M valuation.

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Jach
Where have I seen this before... <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9fepEyGRx8>

Okay I get her version isn't at all the same as the Watercone (it's the rack,
right? Or just the rod?), but it purports to solve the same problem. So
where's the discussion about what this system and its potential deployment do
differently to Really Solve the Problem This Time? I know it's only a 5 minute
presentation and she has to go through each of the "Steps of the Scientific
Method", but still.

Are the other finalists' presentations online somewhere?

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shawn-butler
The irony of 3M scientists mentoring and awarding a project dedicated to
purifying water is not lost on this reader.

<http://www.cleanwateraction.org/publication/pfc-factsheet>

Great to see these kids being rewarded and recognized for their hard work
though. Inspires me to think about volunteering to be honest.

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mrlyc
The award prizes seem odd with first place winning $25,000 while the other
finalists win only $1,000 each. I feel uncomfortable about that "winner takes
all" approach as it increases the importance of luck and decreases that of
effort. Is it common in the United States?

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shawn-butler
The only other one of this sort of scope of which I am aware is the science
and engineering competition held by Intel [0]: US $75,000 for winner, 2 awards
of $50,000 each, and 17 best of category awards of US $5,000 ea. Then smaller
dollar amounts for the next 5 finishers in each category.

[0]
[http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/competition...](http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/competitions/international-
science-and-engineering-fair.html)

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nickporter
Wow, impressive! I wish I had the resources to do cool stuff like this in High
School. I don't think I knew anything beyond the structure of cells and some
really simple compounds back in 9th grade.

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bradleyjg
More of an engineer than a scientist, no?

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kapiolani
These are some talented kids. "Anin Sayana from Bellarmine College Preparatory
in Cupertino, Calif., received third place for his innovation that selectively
targets chemotherapy-resistant cancer stem cells." Only 3rd place!

