11-year-old girl who was chosen as "the best young scientist in the USA" developed a kit that can easily detect lead contamination of water

Lead belonging to heavy metals is known to have negative effects on health if it is taken in and accumulated in the human body. In the United States, the incident that the tap water will be polluted with lead as a result of deterioration of the water supply facilities in the financial collapse city occurred around 2015, which is also becoming big news, Eleven-year-old girl who developed a device which can easily detect lead contamination of water easilyThe best young scientist in America"Was chosen.

11-year-old girl inspired by Flint water crisis creates cheap kit to test lead - ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/11-year-girl-inspired-flint-water-crisis-creates/story?id=50559884

The 11-year old girl living in Colorado, Gitanjali and Lao, was chosen for this award. Gitanjari chan saw the parents have to check not always contain lead in water, because it was thought that there should be a way to check more easily, and I thought trying to develop a new device Thing. Gitanjali who won the prize brilliantly has a prize of 25,000 dollars (about 2.8 million yen).


The fact that I had great influence on Gitanjari was that it was water pollution in Flint city that shook the whole country. According to the change in the supply method of the water for the reason of the financial collapse of the city, lead concentration has melted away from old aqueduct pipes and this contamination has occurred at high concentration, President Obama of that time Developed by declaring the situation. People's strong interest as it can happen elsewhere as it is caused by the city's finances and aging facilities as it is said that "racial discrimination" has occurred in the city where lots of minorities live I called.

Water pollution of Flint city that declared emergency is "structural human error" | Akihiko Kuroizumi | Column & Blog | Newsweek Japan Official Site
http://www.newsweekjapan.jp/reizei/2016/01/post-805_1.php

Gitanjari said in an interview with ABC TV in the United States, "I am up to the many people affected by this one case, so I thought that I wanted to do something to change this situation" I am talking. Apparently, Gitanjari seems to have inherited the influence from parents who are both engineers, and regularly checks "There is something new" at Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Department of Materials Science and Engineering UndergraduatewebsiteWhen I was watching, I found a way to solve the problem. What was written there is an article about a new technology to detect harmful substances, Gitanjari seems to think that it can be applied to detection of lead contamination.

So Gitanjari first asked parents for advice to school teachers and experts from local universities. Mr. Lam Lao, father of Gitanjali, said, "Since my daughter asked me questions, we also had to study, what we first confirmed to my daughter is" Do you really want to do this? It was a thing that would be a big problem, "he said of the size of the problem the daughter tried to handle.

Gitanjari persuaded the local high school and the university over a few months and succeeded in having the experiment space provided. In addition, there was a "science room" that was made at my house when I moved, and I continued developing experiments and equipment there.


Early in 2017, Gitanjali was elected to the finalists of the science contest "2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge" and continued the development for final selection with cooperation from 3M scientists. The result is that "TethysA compact device named for. The method of detecting lead contamination by utilizing carbon nanotubes is one applying the method found at the above-mentioned MIT site. In addition, it seems to have a function to inform the smartphone what the result is.


Brian Bernhardt, the education chief of Illinois state and one of the judges of the contest, said about Gitanjal, "It is not an exaggeration to say that she defeated us, the other nine children are also very It was wonderful, but what went out of it was a surprising surprise that she showed. "

Gitanjari says that he will use some of the prize money he pays for commercialization of Tethys and leave the remainder as funds for going on to college. And to children of the same generation, "Do not be afraid to challenge. I failed many times when I tried, which was very frustrating at the beginning, but as the end approached, all events I got into one, various things became experiences and made my experiment better. "