Too often predictions of the future
are dystopian, full of daunting challenges due to climate change, exponential
population growth, environmental disasters, and economic woes. Finding solutions to these problems seems so
hard, but this last month I was able to peek into a much more hopeful future
at the Intel Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), where Monsanto sponsors
a special award for plant science. I was a judge for the award and helped one day at a booth in the expo hall to talk to the thousands of parents,
students and teachers about Monsanto. One day was open to the public and there
were a lot of questions about genetic engineering, Monsanto, and plant breeding.
Intel sponsors this science fair together with
the Society for Science and the Public (SSP) for some of the brightest students
from around the world. This is the world’s
largest international high school science competition with approximately 1,700
high school students from over 75 countries.
Each participant has already won their regional science fair or national
fair and came to Pittsburgh to compete for around $4 million dollars in
prizes. We met students from the USA,
Saudi Arabia, Korea, Japan, Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, South Africa, Thailand,
Ireland, and many other countries.
As I wandered the two huge halls I was
so impressed with the breadth and depth of the research presented by students
that ranged from 10-17 years old.
Research topics covered everything from demonstration of how to build a
trinary computer using Legos®, a method for improved silk production, 3-D
printing custom implants and prosthetics, a homebuilt PCR machine with improved
algorithms for controlling temperature, improved airplane wing design,
environmental studies on changes in ocean pH and flora due to global warming,
the mechanism for folding of cotyledons in radishes, and so many others. I kept
thinking that many of these students had done Ph.D level science as high school
students.
After some significant deliberation, we
chose the 2015 ISEF Monsanto Special Award winners:
1st
place --- Anna Marie McEvoy --- Drogheda, Ireland. Aetiology of ‘bleeding canker’ disease of horse chestnut trees.
Anna McEvoy noticed a tree growing by her school with an oozing disease
lesion. She wondered what it was and how
common it was. She catalogued and
sampled thousands of trees throughout Ireland, cultured the diseased regions to
find the candidate pathogen, sequenced its genome, compared the genomic
sequence to other available sequences to potential origin of the disease, and
developed PCR markers that could be used to quickly identify the disease in the
future.
2nd
place --- Saumya Ramadugu Keremane --- Riverside, CA. A rapid field detection of Liberibacter bacteria using lateral
flow technology. (She was our 2014 3rd place winner.) She worked
to develop methods to detect citrus greening bacteria prior to the development
of symptoms. She made labeled primers
and a single amplification PCR using wax and a coffee cup. The results are read similar to a commercial
pregnancy test. If farmers tested trees prior to the development of symptoms
they could potentially remove and replant those trees before it spreads to the
rest of the farm.
3rd
place --- Vasu Chavanasupitchaya, Natchamukda Paibooi, Wanicha Khotwongsa ---
Khonkaen, Thailand. The effect of crude
extract of Imperata cylindrica and the survival and growth rate
of Nilaparvata lugens Stal and its impact on predatory insects of Nilaparvata
lugens Stal eggs. This team from rural Thailand noticed that rice pests
avoided a weedy grass growing in their fields.
They made extracts from the plant and tested efficacy of the extract as
a pesticide on replicated field trials on their own farms and in larger field
level tests in four locations.
We also gave out 12 honorable
mentions. We really wished we could have
given awards to them all. There were
that many great presentations. The
Society for Science has descriptions of the grand award winners:
It is a hopeful future with such
hardworking and bright young scientists.
I came home buoyed up with optimism.
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