In 18 years of teaching, Mr. Noble’s supervisor at Trent University, Neil Emery, has encountered two types of brilliance. The more common is the kind that soaks up information, understanding and retaining complex ideas almost instantly. The kind that can shape and manipulate that information is more rare. If he’s lucky, Prof. Emery says he might meet a university student with the second kind of brilliance ever year or two. “They’re really running with their own curiosity,” Prof. Emery said. “Adam, he’s like that.” Mr. Noble’s experiments have sent ripples through the water-treatment industry. (During a recent conference at a major research institute in Nanjing, China, Prof. Emery watched scientists report findings that replicated the teen’s work.) Mr. Noble set out initially to find a new way to test the water quality of the lake at the bottom of his parents’ backyard. He started using Euglena to detect contaminants, and eventually discovered that his algae could retrieve tiny particles of silver, known as nanosilver, from wastewater. He has designed and patented a Euglena filter that can retrieve the particles, which are often used as antibacterial agents in sportswear and children’s toys, from water-treatment plants. The results appeal to environmentalists and industrialists alike, as it keeps nanosilver – the effects of which are poorly understood – out of the natural environment, and creates a valuable, marketable by-product – silver. Put plainly, his oddball algae can turn human waste into gold. theglobeandmail/news/national/education/the-boy-the-algae-the-nobels/article6143231/
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 21:45:11 +0000
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