Heman Bekele was inspired by Ethiopian workers laboring under the sun, and wanted to help ‘as many people as possible’

Heman Bekele was inspired by Ethiopian workers laboring under the sun, and wanted to help ‘as many people as possible’

A middle-school teen has been named “America’s top young scientist” after developing a bar of soap that could be useful in the treatment of melanoma, a skin cancer that is diagnosed in about 100,000 people in the US each year and kills approximately 8,000.

  • PatFustyEnglish
    29•1 year ago

    I stayed at a holiday inn last night thats how I know. Do you really need proof that a 12 year old in middle school figured something out that people with PhDs have not done?

    If this kid did anything other than throw shit at the wall then ill deliver a video of me eating my entire stack of textbooks from college.

    • @moonpiedumplings@programming.devEnglish
      5•1 year ago

      Considering I know someone, personally, who also made a scientific advancement at a young age, yes, it is possible.

      They taught themselves python, then how to inference and train machine learning models, then used image recognition models to detect their sister’s illness, which had visual signs.

      They had to get help from someone with a phd to test this on a larger scale, cuz resources, but I absolutely believe a middle/high schooler could do it.

      https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/del-norte-high-school-seniors-invention-could-save-thousands-of-lives/3159354/

      It’s not that phd’s are incapable of doing it, it’s simply that they never bothered taking a crack at this problem, using this method.

    • El BartoEnglish
      1•1 year ago

      If you read the article, you’ll realize that he didn’t invent the active components that fight cancer. He invented a new vehicle to deliver such components - the soap.

      For all intents and purposes, the headline is accurate. He invented the soap to treat skin cancer.

      Little Bobby invents a robot that can peel potatoes. Will you say that little Bobby didn’t really do anything because he didn’t invent robots, blades or potatoes?

      • @Rodeo@lemmy.caEnglish
        5•1 year ago

        Little Bobby had an idea for a potato peeling robot and then somebody else took his idea and actually made it while Bobby is still daydreaming about it.

        Will you say little Bobby invented a new kind of robot?

        • El BartoEnglish
          1•1 year ago

          No, I wouldn’t say that. But this is not what happened here.