When a Seventh Grader Solved a Water Crisis
Rea,
I love hearing about your work with The Pulley Association and the sophisticated systems you build for your clients. Your creativity in solving mechanical problems shows how your curiosity. You might think that inventing things that solve serious problems is just for grown-ups, but I want to tell you about a 12-year-old girl who created something that could help thousands of children.
In 2014, the drinking water in Flint, Michigan became contaminated with lead. This was especially dangerous for children because lead can damage developing brains and cause learning disabilities. The existing tests for lead were expensive (up to $2,000), slow (taking days or weeks for results), and required special laboratory equipment.
Gitanjali Rao, a seventh-grader from Colorado, learned about this crisis on the news. Instead of just feeling sad about it, she wondered if she could create a better solution. She began researching and discovered something interesting: carbon nanotubes (tiny tubes made of carbon atoms) change their electrical resistance when they contact lead molecules.
Gitanjali faced a choice: assume that adult experts would solve the problem, or try to create a solution herself despite her young age. She chose to act. She contacted 10 different labs and professors before finding one who would help her test her ideas. Many adults didn’t take her seriously because she was only 12, but she didn’t give up.
Working after school and on weekends, Gitanjali developed a device she named “Tethys” (after the Greek goddess of fresh water). Her invention used carbon nanotubes on a cartridge connected to a processor with Bluetooth. The device could detect lead in just 10 seconds instead of days, cost only about $20 to make, and was 82% more accurate than existing methods.
In 2017, Gitanjali entered her invention in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and won the grand prize of $25,000. Three years later, TIME Magazine named her their first-ever “Kid of the Year.” Her invention could help communities quickly and affordably test their water, potentially protecting thousands of children from lead poisoning.
Gitanjali didn’t stop there. She continued inventing, creating solutions for opioid addiction detection and cyberbullying. When asked about her process, she said, “Don’t try to fix every problem, just focus on one that excites you.”
Your pulley systems and Gitanjali’s water tester have something important in common - they both started with someone young who saw a problem and created a solution. Age doesn’t determine who can make a difference. Sometimes small hands can solve big problems that even adult hands struggle with.
Love, Abba
P.S. Next time you’re working on a pulley system for a client, remember that your creative solutions are practice for solving even bigger problems someday. What problem in the world would you most like to solve?
