Wednesday, March 20, 2013
This 17 Year-Old Built an Algae Biofuel Lab under Her Bed
Every year, the Intel Science Talent Search honors brilliant high school students for their contributions to the worlds of math and science. Last year, Jack Andraka took the prize for his cheap, accurate cancer sensor. This time around, 17-year-old Sara Volz won for her research on algae biofuels. Algae fuel has long been the holy grail for biofuel enthusiasts, mainly because it doesn't require the land mass of other crops. But so far, companies have found it challenging to make algae biofuel economically feasible--combine all the labor and operational costs of scaling up production, and it can't compete with petroleum. Volz attempted in her project to find a way to make algae fuel work.
"I used artificial selection to isolate populations of algae cells with high oil content with the idea that they can make these different cell lines to keep on producing lots of oil," she explains. Volz added a chemical to her algae cells that that would kill all those with low oil production, leaving only the algae that pumps out oil efficiently. "I'm finding that the population that seems to be producing lots of oils seem to be resistant to the chemical I added," she says. Volz did some of her work in labs, but much of the research was done in her bedroom, where she keeps a home lab under her loft bed (and sleeps on the algae's cycle). "I have equipment and I keep hazardous chemicals downstairs," she says, "It's pretty functional."
The high school student will use her $100,000 in Intel prize money to help fund her college education. She plans on attending MIT in the fall. Volz isn't yet thinking about commercializing her research--it's still in the very early stages--but she does plan on doing more exploratory work on algae cell lines.
Thanks to scientificamerican
Sara Volz won the Intel Science Fair for her work on growing algae that's more efficient at making biofuels--and she does all her work in her bedroom.
Every year, the Intel Science Talent Search honors brilliant high school students for their contributions to the worlds of math and science. Last year, Jack Andraka took the prize for his cheap, accurate cancer sensor. This time around, 17-year-old Sara Volz won for her research on algae biofuels. Algae fuel has long been the holy grail for biofuel enthusiasts, mainly because it doesn't require the land mass of other crops. But so far, companies have found it challenging to make algae biofuel economically feasible--combine all the labor and operational costs of scaling up production, and it can't compete with petroleum. Volz attempted in her project to find a way to make algae fuel work.
Thanks to scientificamerican
Check The Pulse
Popular Posts
-
AUSTRALIA: University Cancels Booking of Islamic Organisation Promoting Hijab as a Solution for RapeAnd for those who launch a charge against their wives, accusing them, but have no witnesses or evidence, except themselves; let the testimo...
-
Get Married for a Quicky with a Virgin ... Islam style And how do these fun loving Islamists get their jollies. Karaoke? Nightclubbing? ...
-
Religion is man-made. Even the men who made it cannot agree on what their prophets or redeemers or gurus actually said or did. Hitchens ...
-
Here we go again from the misunderstood misogynous religion of peace. OK! But how will I support my fourth wife...? MUSLIM groups have... -
Child 'bombers', aged between 10 and 17, detained by police in Pakistan What would a clusterfuck of fresh faced Muslim Pakistani ...
-
When it's time to pray and you have just used the toilet or touched a woman, be sure to wash up. If you can't find any water, just ...
-
So enjoy what you took as booty; the spoils are lawful and good. Qur'an 8:69 A British man has been arrested by police in Florida who ...
-
And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses, and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented (before). And Allah has pow...
-
Thrashing wildly, 5-year-old Reta wails as she is hoisted onto a bed during a circumcision ceremony in a school hall-turned-clinic on Indone...
-
The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may...
