While lots of teenagers augment their university applications with part-time jobs, volunteer work, and varied clubs, others go above and beyond. Eva Vertes is researching cancer and stem cells, testing the theory that cancer may be a healthy response to damaged stem cells. Lauren Hodge examines cooking chicken and the carcinogens formed from the process, while Shree Bose is looking at ovarian cancer and chemotherapy resistance. (Lauren, Shree, and Naomi Shah also swept the 2011 Google Science Fair, while Brittany Wenger won the grand prize in 2012.). Brittany Wenger spent 600 hours to write a a computer program and took 7.6 million trials to create a 99.1% accurate breast cancer test–using the least accuate form of testing for breast cancer (but the least invasive). Watch their TEDTalks below, and for more on awesome teens in cancer research, check out the TEDBlog.
-Katie Weidmann, Social Media Manager
and
Tiffany Rhodes, Program Director
Girl Museum Inc.