17-Year Old Builds Heart Monitor for the Developing World

17-year-old Catherine Wong from New Jersey found a problem (crucially-needed hear monitoring equipment is often too expensive for people in the developing world) and then created a solution using off-the-shelf electronics.

Not only is this new electrocardiogram machine amazing, but it's also able to send results wirelessly to a cell phone and then to a diagnosing physician, which means that it also solves the problem of physicians not being able to travel to all the patients who need them.

And Catherine isn't done.

"I'm going to keep going on this project, making it smaller, cheaper, more durable," she said. Her dream: to actually get it working for patients in developing countries. "That's who I aimed the project at, and that's who I'm working for."

(original article via GOOD)

Blind swimmer wins gold at the Paralympics

Blind swimmer Brad Snyder wins gold at the Paralympics | Yardbarker.com



Brad Snyder lost his eyesight while serving in Afghanistan, when he stepped on a bomb. However, he didn't let that stop him from being amazing, and has gone on to win a gold medal for swimming in the 2012 London Paralympics.

What an amazing guy. Be sure to click the link to the Paralympics ad campaign, too, but be sure to have some tissues ready.

Amazing 15-Year Old Scientist Improves Pancreatic Cancer Test

Jack Andraka can't vote, and he can't drive. Yet. But what he can do is to invent a cheap, accurate test for pancreatic cancer, which

detects pancreatic cancer 168 times faster than current tests. It’s also 90% accurate, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than today’s methods. 

(Via Fast Company) 

This is Jack, speaking at TED, a global ideas conference:




(Jack Andraka at TED@NewYork talent search. June 7, 2012. New York, NY. Photo: Ryan Lash. Via the TED flickr photostream.)

And here's his talk (it's pretty amazing):

He started his research because a friend's brother was killed by pancreatic cancer, and Jack felt that he wanted to do something to help. Not only that, but after he came up with his idea, he contacted research institutions all over the country, hoping for someone who would help develop and implement it.

What an awesome kid.