You don't have to be a genius to do world-changing experiments -- and that's according to a pair of teenagers who have done.
Their success comes from one moment, the acorn that grew into their oak tree, says Hickey. She and Judge were growing peas "for some random reason" and noticed an "ugly wart like root thing" on their plants. That turned out to be the Rhizobium bacteria, which their science teacher told them was beneficial to the plant.
After learning about the global food crisis, they and friend Sophie Healy-Thow had a thought -- their acorn: what if this bacteria could help grow crops more quickly? "We decided that because of this bacteria we had just found out about, we were going to end world hunger," said Hickey. "That's what we decided at 14."
While it may seem obvious to encourage eager students to take up such work, that's not the case: many people told them it wouldn't work. "We ignored those people, and did it anyway," said Judge. "If anything, we wanted to prove them wrong... if it didn't work, we would know for sure, and the rest of the world would know for sure. We would have proved something even if we hadn't proved what we expected." That would add to global knowledge, she said, and is "something to be proud of."
Adults may assume younger students don't know enough to do serious research, but the pair pointed out that it's easy to ask academics for advice and help. "People think you have to be some sort of genius to carry this out -- you don't at all," said Hickey. She charmingly proved her point by sharing a message of her own in which she asked if dead snails had "come back to life."
Judge asked the adults in the audience to encourage young people with ideas. "If a young person comes to you with an idea, don't shoot them down...encourage them to break outside the box with that idea."
While genius -- or reaching the age of majority -- isn't required, hard work is. "The fun part was every six hours we had to look at these seeds individually for a tiny root," said Hickey. "We might look at a thousand seeds at midnight, that might take two hours." They'd start again four hours later -- unless someone tripped and spilled the seeds, Judge noted.
Indeed, Hickey once got so little sleep she fell asleep on a horse and gave herself a concussion. But finding a 74% boost to crop productivity "made it all worth it", Judge said. "We were absolutely over the moon."
Judge added: "We definitely reaped the seeds we had sown. I had to put in one pun..."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
