Sweet eyes, long blonde hair and cute freckles on her face. This is how Sara Volz, a 17-year-old teenager from Colorado Springs, United States, introduces herself, a cheeky face and big dreams for the future, such as that of getting to understand the universe. For now, however, the very young scientist has to "settle" for having won the Intel Science Talent Search, winning a $ 100.000 scholarship. How? By managing to develop algae that create biofuels more efficiently.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
A seaweed lab under the bed was worth $ 100.000. È Sarah Volz, young 17-year-old adolescent prodigy, from Colorado Springs, United States, a cheeky face and big dreams for the future, such as understanding the universe. For now, however, the very young scientist must "be satisfied" with having won theIntel Science Talent Search, winning a $ 100.000 scholarship. How? Succeeding in developing algae that create biofuels more efficiently.
In his home workshop, set up under his loft bed, has artificially selected algae that produce a higher fuel content, with the idea that this will lead to cheap and efficient biofuels. “I was trying to use guided evolution, artificial selection, to isolate algae cell populations with too high fuel content, ”he told NBC News. The result is an algae population that produces so much fuel, and so efficiently, that it outperforms all other award nominees.
Sea plants are an ideal source of biomass, but so far it has been difficult and expensive to exploit its full potential, especially if we consider the major critical issues related to this energy source, including the large amount of water and nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, necessary for cultivation, and greenhouse gas emissions in the life cycle. A big problem, at least until now, has been getting low-cost plants to compete with fossil fuels.
Other researchers have addressed the problem by modifying the algae genome or by selecting the main environmental conditions for algae growth. But the little Volz's approach is different from everything else and has a far lower cost, at least according to the creator: it is based on a herbicide that kills algae cells that contain low levels of the enzyme necessary to produce the fuel. “The idea is that if you introduce this chemical, you kill all the plants all with very low fuel production, while the cell population remains with very high production,” Sara concludes.
Roberta Ragni
