Jack Andraka is on a mission to make science cool

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1. This young man was on the radio this afternoon, he is a truly inspirations Human being

   I've copied this article from http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/stories/s4303370.htm

   Jack Andraka was only 13 years old when he began pondering how to save lives.

   He’d lost a close family friend to pancreatic cancer, and was determined to develop a way to detect it early.

   At 15, after late nights camping out in the lab - “I could take blankets in and watch Disney movies it was fun!” - he had a breakthrough.

   He says he submitted his initial findings to 200 academics and was rejected 199 times.

   His desire to prevent what had happened to his friend made him determined to persevere despite rejections.

   “That’s what science really is for me – improving the lives of others.”

   “What I have created is this paper strip which cost 3 cents and takes 5 minutes to run and you just put a single drop of blood or urine on it and in five minutes it will instantly tell you if you have the cancer,” he told Hack.

   “It can detect the cancer in its earliest stage when someone has close to 100% chance of survival and so far it has over 95% accuracy at detecting those cancers. It can be widely adapted to pretty much any disease, ranging from Alzheimer’s, other forms of cancers and even HIV/AIDS and heart disease.”

   In 2012, at 15 years old, he won the top $75,000 prize at Intel’s annual high school science fair.

2. His reaction was adorable – and the win propelled him to prodigy status.

   1. His TED talk has racked up almost 4 million views and according to Forbes, he was “honoured as a ‘Champion of Change’ at the White House and was Michelle Obama’s guest during the 2013 State of the Union Address.”

      (Despite that, Forbes journalist Matthew Herper didn’t include Jack in Forbes’ annual 30 Under 30 list after questioning the veracity of some of his scientific claims.)

   2. “I was just some random high schooler from Baltimore Maryland and now I get to meet the President and the Clintons,” he told Hack.
   3. “It’s so cool to be able to work with all these different organisations and work with cool people and do all these things.”

      But the road to success was not easy.

      In his book Breakthrough - How One Teen Innovator Is Changing the World, Jack describes an adolescence scarred by homophobic bullying.

      He says his teachers were highly conservative and publicly shamed him for being gay.

      “I turned to cutting my wrists at that time,” he told Hack.

      But it was Jack’s love of science that got him through.

      He says he wants other young people to feel proud of their interest in science and says the way it is taught needs to change.

      “You learn science by doing, not from a textbook,” he told Hack.

      “Science is all about curiosity and creativity and using that to explore and change the world around you, not memorising facts.”

      “I’m not that smart you just have to be creatively combine ideas.”

      If you are being bullied or having a tough time you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

[DiscoStu]

the popular media certainly loves a "kid genius" story don't they

[Heretic]

Change , :

I would certainly like to learn of Jack"s progress and future activities - [ seems to be quite a learned and wise young person ] -..... perhaps you might keep this thread updated ???