Heman Bekele with his mother, Muluemebet Getachew. Andy King/Discovery Education
When I was 14, my afterschool activities included reading comic books and watching scary movies on TV with the volume turned down low so my mom wouldn't find out.
Heman Bekele of Virginia, who's 14, spends his free time calling professors and conducting experiments. He's been working to create a soap that could treat skin cancer -- motivated by his early years in Ethiopia, where he saw people working under the hot sun. "As I grew up I realized how big of an issue [skin cancer] really is," he says.
His soap delivers cancer-fighting drugs via lipid nanoparticles – which work to activate the body's immune cells to fend off cancer. It impressed the 3M Young Scientist's Challenge, which gave Bekele its grand prize. "When I first heard the news, I was so shocked and so happy," he told NPR.
To learn more about Bekele's project -- and his plans for the $25,000 prize -- read the story here.
As for me, I did find great joy in comic books, but I wish I could go back in time and tell my teenage self about this 14-year-old soap inventor. I'm sure I wouldn't have invented anything but maybe I would have been inspired to spend a little more time on my science homework.
In South Sudan, the changing climate has made people desperate for food, The Washington Post reports: They are "eating the unthinkable" -- water lilies.
In African and Buddhist religions and in Mexican tradition, people create ancestral altars to honor departed family members. NPR's Life Kit tells you how to make your own altar.
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