“The moment before they called my name, I was really nervous because the other finalists’ presentations are really good and I thought they would win,” Kara Fan, 14, who has won America’s Top Young Scientist, told Yahoo Finance. “When they announced my name, I was really surprised actually.”
To win that claim, Fan’s nano-particle liquid bandage had to surpass the experiments of hundreds of fifth to eighth graders as well as nine other finalists. Fan started developing her liquid bandage in April 2019 to fight the overuse of antibiotics.
According to the CDC, roughly 2 million people every year suffer a bacterial infection in the U.S. and about 23,000 passed away as a result. If left alone, a UN study reported, drug-resistant diseases or the “superbug” could lead to 10 million deaths across the globe by 2050. When Fan’s sprayable bandage dries on a person’s skin, it creates a thin layer that protects the wounded area while breaking the cell wall and killing the bacteria on the skin. After experimenting with copper nitrate to fight bacteria, switching to the silver nitrate ended up being the major catalyst(催化剂) to seeing results for her award-winning project.
“Thousands of years ago, ancient people would use copper and silver to eat with and they would drink water from like copper bowls to kill bacteria,” Fan explained. “I found out that it didn't work. So I used nano silver.” Sir Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin—a type of antibiotic—is Fan’s favorite scientific discovery. That said, she doesn’t think humans should rely too heavily on penicillin.
Following her years at Westview High School, Fan hopes to continue her biology track at Stanford University. Along with the $25,000 cash prize she won on October 29, becoming America’s Top Young Scientist may help get the private university’s attention.
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