SOME OF the research projects presented at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Dublin this week could benefit people living in the developing world.
An example of a project that could deliver health and societal gains for poor regions is that of Róisín Walshe, Zoe Lematy and Haylie O’Dea, three transition-year students from the Dominican College, Wicklow. They worked with a group in Malawi to develop a low-cost rainwater harvesting technology that uses materials readily available in that country.
Their teacher had a contact in Malawi and the students were able to make contact with a local named Dominic Nyirongo, Haylie explained. Nyirongo described to them his town’s difficulties with water supplies.
The locals needed a low-cost storage system to bridge the dry season and to provide water for crops, Zoe said. “They e-mailed us with the type of materials they could get.” This included plastic sheeting and timber.
The students came up with an answer – a series of evaporation domes, or small closed tents of plastic sheeting that could preserve scarce water supplies and also keep the water clean and free of contamination. Their design can cut evaporative water losses and stops the water from becoming stagnant and suited to mosquito infestation.
Grace Rothwell-Kelly and Kiera Mortimer, both 15 and transition-year students from St Andrew’s College, Dublin, also had the developing world in mind when they put together a simple, low-cost kit to test drinking water safety. “The main aim was to be able to use it in developing countries,” Kiera said.
Their test detects dangerous pathogens in drinking water supplies, including E.coli. There are existing tests for E.coli and other organisms but the girls felt all were either too technical or incomplete. Most test kits assumed that those using them had supplies of chemicals and equipment, which was unlikely in poor regions, they said.
They spent time studying what the tests did and how they worked. They found a way to simplify the test, making it cheaper and then ensured that the packs were self-contained with no other materials required. Bearing in mind that some users might have poor literacy, they developed a set of visual instructions to make the kits easier to use. “You don’t need a skilled user, you only need to follow the instructions,” Grace said.
Darina Lynch of St Mary’s Secondary School, Macroom, Co Cork, had her eye on the future in her project. It did not have immediate relevance for the developing world but could become very useful in biotechnology and genetics research. She developed a way to bring the common fresh-water sponge in from the wild and make it grow indoors.
The species has great potential as a laboratory model and is already known to release powerful antimicrobial substances and so is of research interest. “I wanted to try and mimic its fresh-water environment so that it could be moved into a closed environment,” she said.
The 16-year-old transition-year student had to start diving in November for sponges growing in local rivers. She analysed oxygen levels, nitrates and nitrites and temperature to learn how to keep her sponges happy. She found they were prodigious eaters and readily gobbled up any available bacteria. She learned how to provide a nutritious bacterial dinner by culturing yeast and potato peelings.
She had examples of the sponges growing in a cylinder on her stand at the RDS, so it all worked out. The sponge may soon find its way into research labs as an ideal subject for transgenic research.