Young scientists rock Cleveland

What were you doing when you were 12 years old? Chances are, you were watching reruns of Doogie Howser, MD, but not contemplating going to medical school yourself by your 13th birthday.

What were your science projects like at 16? Did they have anything to do with discovering a method of determining the distance to near-earth asteroids, or developing a computer language for children or finding anti-bacterial agents from the midgut of cattle leeches?

At this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), held in Cleveland, Ohio, this month, 1,300 high school students showcased such projects and competed for $3 million in scholarships, tuition grants and scientific field trips. Cleveland was the perfect host city as it celebrates the century of flight of the Wright Brothers.

Walking the exhibition hall of the Cleveland Convention Center was a mind-blowing experience. You got that feeling of anticipation – you knew that one day some of these kids will be awarded the Nobel Prize, will discover new vaccines or cure diseases, change the way we live, how we look at the universe and how we will take care of our planet.

It wasn’t science fiction with improbable future scenarios, yet it was all about the future of the world and the projects gave us inkling just how exciting that future might be. These were high school students from 35 countries, ages 12 to 20, doing graduate school-level projects that encompassed 14 disciplines such as behavioral and social sciences, physics , environmental science, engineering, gerontology, medicine and health, zoology, mathematics, computer science and chemistry. In fact, eighteen percent of the ISEF finalists have obtained or are in the process of obtaining a patent on their projects.

Winners of the top prizes – called the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Scholarships – were Elena Leah Glassman, Lisa Doreen Glukhovsky and Anila Madiraju. Each received $50,000 scholarship and a PC. Elena’s project was on determining the distance between earth and nearby asteroids, which was submitted to the Minor Planet Center, enabling NASA scientists there to refine their estimates of distances. Lisa’s project was on a brain-computer interface, which could enable people with severe muscular dystrophy to access computers without physically interacting with them. Anila discovered a way to use ribonucleic acid, a genetic material, to selectively target and kill cancer cells.

Other projects ranged from the very sophisticated in scope to very practical ones. A ninth grader from Utah, for instance, wanted to know if dogs’ thinking abilities were higher after exercise. So he used his own border collie Wallace in his experiment. Before exercise, Wallace had a 67 percent success rate in sitting and 80 percent in jumping. After exercise, he increased his success rate by seven percent.

"Next year," says Nick Deeter, "I hope to extend the experiment into humans. I think it is also true in humans that we can improve test scores and grade by adding just 10 minutes of exercise to get their blood pumping."

The Philippines was represented by one team project (unfortunately, the other team was disqualified) and three individual projects.

Efrellene Galula of Agusan del Sur National High School, for instance, was interested in cattle leeches or linta. While leeches here are considered useless, in the west they are helpful medical tools in microsurgery and operations to attach fingers or limbs. These "blood letters" are placed on a wound and suck up blood five times their body weight. A medical journal says a leech "secretes its own anesthetic and an anti-coagulant, called heparin, which keeps the wound bleeding for hours, allowing blood to continue to flow and nourish the tissue."

Ef says that in the Philippines leeches are "a source of unpleasant emotions, considered useless and parasitic" yet they are invaluable in the medical world. This led her to ask: What else can we do with them? Her study explores the anti-bacterial agent obtained from the midgut of cattle leeches.

"Nag-research kami and read literature and found out that the midgut of leeches secretes antibiotic. I wanted to explore that medical use. My analysis revealed that the crude midgut fluid obtained from cattle leeches significantly inhibited the growth of P. aeruginosa, E. aerognes, B. subtilis and S. aureaus bacteria. It can therefore be used as an alternative and effective antibacterial agent against diseases and infections caused by both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria."

For her study, Ef Galula won the second prize of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, together with a student from New York, and received $250 and a certificate.

Not bad for an incoming Accounting freshman at UP Diliman. Why isn’t she taking up a science course? Ef giggles and says, "I’m not really interested in science. I just did the project because it was a requirement!"

Three students from the Philippine Science High School in Diliman wanted to help the country’s efforts in reforestation. Jenny Aggangan, Joy Charisse Bulan and Cheryll Anne Limos say they "want future generations to still enjoy our forests."

They experimented with bio fertilizer using ectomycorrhizal inoculation on two dipterocarp species, a type of hardwood indigenous in Southeast Asia and used for furniture. They took cuttings of Antisoptera thurifera (palusapis) and Shorea guiso (guiho) and inoculated them with "mucelial beads" containing the fungi. "We chose those two species of dipterocarp because they’re already endangered and they have economic value as they’re being used for export," says JC.

Jenny explains that the problem is that most of the soil in the Philippines is acidic and lacking in nutrients. "To successfully reforest an area, we need proper methods to ensure a high growth rate and high survival rate." One way is to apply chemical fertilizers, but the problem here is that apart from being expensive, "pagkagamit ng fertilizer nagiging barren ang lupa. An alternative is the use of bio fertilizers, which come in bead form and are cheaper at P1 per bead." Their research found that ectomycorrhizal, a certain type of fungi, mobilizes the plant’s water and nutrient uptake and increases its resistance to environmental stresses. And they need apply the bio fertilizer only once. "In our nursery trials, compared to uninoculated treatment or control, they grew faster by at least 50 percent despite the fact that we used highly nutrient-deficient soil."

The girls say that ironically you can only find dipterocarp now in places that are inaccessible to loggers. This tree is not like gemelina, which is a popular wood for furniture and can be harvested in a couple of years — the growth period for dipterocarp is 100 years.

The girls were inspired by Jenny’s mother, Nelly Aggangan, who specializes in plant pathology and is a university researcher at UPLB, where they also did their research. JC is taking up BS Biology and Jenny is taking up Applied Physics, both at UP Diliman starting June, while Cheryll is enrolling at Ateneo for her Math degree.

For Mc Allen Reonel Sales Cacacho of Cagayan National High School, it was his bad experience with hospitals when he was young and afflicted with asthma that inspired him to invent a remote biological thermometer and sensor. His device can measure environmental temperature within 10 seconds and up to a three-kilometer radius, it can also measure human temperature from as far as 30 meters away if the human is inside the building and up to 50 meters if he’s in an open area.

Mars’ device is very timely and practical in a world troubled by SARS, where health workers contract the disease and airport security is not only concerned about terrorists but also SARS carriers. With his remote thermometer, you can be walking from the arrival gate and airport personnel can already be checking your temperature with the use of a radar that is focused directly on you (if you’re moving the radar’s aim should follow you).

"It’s able to measure the body heat of living things basing on the ticks or clicks transmitted over the FM radio band," explains Mars.

He started working on the remote thermometer and sensor when he was in grade five. Back then, the device’s percentage of error was 14.47 percent and could measure only until three feet. If one needs proof that continuous research eventually pays off, one need only to look at Mars’ project. Today, his device could measure human temperature up to 50 meters away and with just a 0.02 percentage of error.

Mars is going to take up Applied Physics at UP Los Baños. After that, he plans to take up ECE and then robotics. "Matagal-tagal pa bago ako maka-graduate," he grins.

Like Mars, Roy Vincent Canseco started taking appliances apart to see how they worked when he was young. Also from Philippine Science High School-Diliman, Roy’s project is all about what Filipinos love best: SMS. His project, SMS Link-Interactive, is a "system that facilitates the exchange of information between a central computer server and a remote cellular phone user, and allows remote modification of data in the computer through SMS."

It means that you only not use SMS for texting, but also to send data and to change data through a secure system. "Teachers can change grades and for doctors it’s much more useful because they can get data such as blood pressure and pulse rate and they can give instructions and the nurse gets the information from the computer para pagdating ng doktor sa hospital meron na silang nasimulan," says Roy.

How different is it from sending an ordinary message to and from a cell phone? "You have to have a person at the other end to return the message. With this, you save on overhead, it’s fully automatic and it sends feedback. The computer updates any data modification automatically and it’s really quick. Processing time of the system is 1.3 seconds on the average."

Roy says, "Doctors can change medicine dosages from a remote location by sending a request through SMS to the cell phone connected to the server."

Eigen Israel Rara, from the Integrated Developmental School of Mindanao State University, got his idea for his project from the local folk of Iligan City. "They’ve been using extracts from the sibukau tree (Caesalpinia sappan Linn.) to treat infectious diseases like colds and cough. They’ve been using the leaves or trunk of the tree by boiling or soaking it. I wanted to do a laboratory study instead of relying on old wives’ tales."

Crude extracts from different parts of the tree were found to have an antibiotic and Eigen hopes to do future research to further identify the antibiotic properties of the tree.

His biggest inspiration is his brother Prem, who won second place in the individual microbiology category last year. Eigen is going to take up Computer Science at UP Los Baños. Why does he want to be a scientist? "Because I want to relate to my community, discover something that would help them especially with their medical problems. It’s nice to be helpful to your community."

The youngest finalist at Intel ISEF was Andrew David Hsu from Issaquah, Washington. He was probably the most interviewed kid on the floor, too, because he looked like should be playing outside instead of explaining his tons of documentations.

His project: "Identification, Characterization and DNA Sequencing of the Homo Sapiens and Mus Muculus COL20A1 Gene (XX collagen) with Bioformatics and PCR." Andrew examined the genetic makeup of humans and mice and isolated the COL20A1, a building-block protein found in both. "Collagens are proteins found primarily in the kin, cartilage, tendons and connective tissue. They are the proteins that bind an organism together. They are the reason why the body heals itself, and why the body even exists," he says. "The DNA and protein sequence of this collagen can be used further to understand the biology of this collagen and the diseases that arise form the mutations of this protein."

The son of software engineer David Hsu and homemaker Joyce Hsu, Andrew is a sophomore high school and has been home-schooled for the past three years – since fourth grade, which tells you just how many grades he skipped.

"I teach myself, my parents also teach me, and tutors come to teach me," he says. He also makes film documentaries. For one class, he made a documentary on Picasso and for a lit class he made one on Shakespeare.

David Hsu says they home-schooled Andrew "out of reluctance" because when he was in first grade, the teacher moved him to second grade after two weeks. "He was really bored in school and not learning much. In a year-and-a-half, he was in fourth grade. The school put him in a different room by himself to study advanced math and sciences because he was way over elementary school. We didn’t think that was very good. The school has a program for special children with disabilities, but they don’t have any kind of program for kids like him."

"So I talked to the principal and we kind of hoped he could stay in school for half a day just to have some fun, and then half the day he can come home and do the things he likes to do. But the school said he needed to stay there for the whole day or we had to take him home, so we decided to take him home. We didn’t want him to stay there the whole day and be bored all the time. After we took him home, he excelled because he was able to read what he wanted to read and do what he wanted to do."

David describes trips to the bookstores with Andrew leading the way. How did his son get to be so smart? "He’s just like this. I think my only job is to provide him whatever he needs in terms of intellectual learning. If he is limited by himself, that’s okay, but if he’s limited by the policy or the school system, then we want to change that because I don’t want to hinder his learning in any way."

Andrew says that several years ago, when the rough draft of the human genome was completed, he realized it was "one of the greatest discoveries of the century." Since then Andrew has been interested in human genetics.

His father says he hopes Andrew will some day cure some disease. Andrew wants to be a medical researcher and a doctor. He’s thinking of going to medical school next year. He’ll be 13 by then.

You wonder what he’ll be like when he’s 20.

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Next week: What makes a great science teacher.