11-Year-Old Girl Becomes ‘America’s Top Young Scientist’ For Inventing Sensor to Detect Lead in Water
Gitanjali Rao from Lone Tree, Colorado, won The Discovery Education’s 3M Young Scientist Challenge this year for her sensor that detects lead in water better than current methods. Rao, 11, was proclaimed “America’s Top Young Scientist” on Oct. 17 and will take home $25,000 for her winning invention. “I had been following the Flint, Michigan, issue for about two years,” she told ABC News. “I was appalled by the number of people affected by lead contamination in water.” The Flint crisis has a long history that stemmed from cost-cutting measures which eventually resulted to residents turning to a contaminated river for water supply. They ended up drinking water that contained lead and other toxins, CNN noted. It was after seeing her parents test the water in their own home when Rao decided to do something. She told the Business Insider: “The idea just came to me when I saw my parents testing for lead in our water. I went, ‘Well, this is not a reliable process and I’ve got to do something ...