Teenager Wins Top Young Scientist Award for Cancer-Fighting Soap Invention
Heman Bekele, a 14-year-old ninth grader from Virginia, has been named "America's Top Young Scientist" for inventing a bar of soap that treats skin cancer. The soap, costing only $0.50 to make, is designed to treat melanoma. Heman plans to refine his invention and establish a non-profit organization to distribute the soap to communities in need. The competition, organized by 3M and Discovery Education, also awarded second and third place prizes to students who developed a cost-effective medication delivery patch and a glove that detects epileptic seizures, respectively. Skin cancer cases have been on the rise in the US, making Heman's innovation particularly significant.