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Posted on 10/20/2023 5:27:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (Gray News) – A 14-year-old from Virginia was crowned America’s Top Young Scientist for inventing a soap that treats skin cancer.
According to a news release, Heman Bekele, a ninth grader at W.T. Woodson High School in Annandale, won the 2023 3M Young Scientist Challenge last week.
Heman developed Melanoma Treating Soap, a compound-based bar of soap designed to treat skin cancer. Over the next five years, he hopes to refine his innovation and create a nonprofit organization that will distribute this low-cost solution to communities in need.
The final product came out to a shockingly cheap $0.50 per bar of soap – a far more affordable and accessible treatment than traditional skin cancer treatments.
You can watch a short clip of Heman’s presentation here.
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Finalists are paired with a 3M scientist who mentors them over the summer to take their idea from concept to prototype. Heman is seen here with his mentor, Deborah Isabelle, who works on developing new products in 3M’s Automotive Aftermarket Division.(ACK | 3M/PR Newswire) Heman said in 15 years, he hopes to be a successful electrical engineer who has contributed significantly to the industry, with a fulfilling personal life with a loving family and a strong network of friends.
Heman spent the last four months competing against nine other finalists, winning the competition at 3M global headquarters in St. Paul, Minn., on Oct. 9 and 10.
As the grand prize winner, he will receive a $25,000 cash prize and the title of America’s Top Young Scientist.
This year’s second-place winner is Shripriya Kalbhavi, a ninth grader at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., who developed EasyBZ, a cost-effective microneedle patch that allows for self-automated drug delivery without pills or needles.
This year’s third-place winner is Sarah Wang, a seventh grader at The Pike School in Andover, Mass. She developed the Spring Epilepsy Detection Glove, a glove that can detect tonic-clonic and myoclonic epileptic seizures with common hand movements and tracks seizure statistics through a smartphone application.
The second and third-place winners will each receive $2,000.
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The top 10 finalists of this year's America’s Top Young Scientist competition spent the last four months competing against other.(ACK | 3M/PR Newswire) Finalists are paired with a 3M scientist who mentors them over the summer to take their idea from concept to prototype. During the competition, students are evaluated on their ingenuity and innovative thinking, application of STEM principles, demonstration of passion and research, presentation skills and ability to inspire others.
This was the 16th year of the competition. 3M said previous winners have gone on to give TED Talks, file patents, found nonprofits, make the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and exhibit at the White House Science Fair.
Winners have also been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Forbes, and Business Insider, and have appeared on TV shows like “Good Morning America” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
PING!......................
The message is loud and clear. It’s not your skin color, it’s the content of your character.
I’m proud of all those kids. They are our future.
Nerds have always been our future!...................
Kid in plaid pants needs to pee.
There seems to be a shortage of caucasian kids.....
“White Boys” need not apply!
This is wonderful to read about. Thanks for brightening up my day.
This doesn’t sound right...*at all*! The nastiest thing about melanoma is that it metastasizes, that is, it sends cancer cells from its original site to distant parts of the body.That’s exactly what happened to a top surgeon who worked at the hospital where I worked. His melanoma spread to his brain and *that’s* what killed him.
3M is a Minnesota corporation
A lot of things about this smell “off”. We are being asked to swallow a false targeted narrative.
Yeah, I’m more than a bit skeptical about this melanoma soap. I want to know what “compounds” go into it and the mechanisms by which they treat melanoma.
In 1976, I worked with a woman who had had a small melanoma removed from her upper arm. The surgeon had apparently removed a chunk about the size of a pool ball in hopes of getting it all. At that time there was no recurrence, some two years after the surgery.
I doubt that a 50-cent bar of soap can do that.
Good for these kids.
That said, it really makes me wonder about the medical industry when a 14 year old comes up with something like this. ..unless it doesn’t really have the merit we’re being sold on.
Probably a soap that can detect it early, cool but obviously not cheap with microscopic cameras or scanners that could map the entire surface of the body.
wow an impressive young man!
but it is sort of sad that only one person on that stage is white.
this was a high school in Northern VA... and not a single white person.
they’ll keep dumbing down whites until college admission of white males is zero
keep in mind, only those that ‘qualify’ are allowed to advance
that’s how the left does it
“… Over the next five years, he hopes to refine his innovation and create a nonprofit organization that will distribute this low-cost solution to communities in need….”
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Two things. First many “non-profits” are money making scams. Just sayin’.
Second, the plan is to send “community in need” patients diagnosed with skin cancer home with a supply of his soap while communities NOT in need will get standard-of-care cancer treatments.
Yep, good plan kid. Enjoy that $25,000 and get that non-profit set up to receive a steady stream of “charitable” tax-deductible donations.
Yea, you know what I meant
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