html A 319-year-old Chinese girl has developed a natural method of degrading plastics , which was valued at 10 million Canadian dollars (approximately RMB 551.73 million ) by Canada's senior scientific judges. This Chinese girl was also invited by TED TALK to give Microsoft President Bill Gates , Google founder Riley Page and others shared their experiences and experimental processes.
You must know that those who can speak at TED TALK gatherings are some of the most outstanding people in the world. The audience of TED TALK is also as outstanding as the speakers. TED is composed of the first letters of three English words: technology, entertainment, and design. Those attending the rally are some of the world’s thought leaders and doers.
After listening to the girl’s speech, Bill Gates praised the girl and took the lead in applauding.
Because plastic degradation has always been a world problem, this Chinese girl proposed new possibilities to solve this world problem, so she won the championship of the Canadian Biochemical Technology Challenge. After , this Chinese girl participated in the Wharton Business Plan Competition while doing research, and won first place in and .
At that time, the 19-year-old Chinese girl was the youngest woman to take the TED Talk stage. After the speech, many famous technology companies in the world contacted the Chinese girl, hoping to purchase the technology she developed. technology.
This outstanding Chinese girl was named "Top 20 Teenagers Under 20 in the Country" by a Canadian charity.
It can be said that this Chinese girl has opened up a golden avenue for herself by relying on her own interests and hobbies. This girl's achievements in the future may be limitless.
After this Chinese girl successfully entered University of Toronto to study biochemistry and environmental science . I believe that this Chinese girl will definitely make more outstanding achievements in the near future. She is the Chinese girl Yao Jiayun .
So, how did she achieve such impressive results? What is her growth path like? What is the story of her research on ?
Immigrated to Canada and fell in love with scientific experiments
Yao Jiayun lived in Panyang City, Jiangxi Province, China before she was 11 years old. She immigrated to Canada with her parents when she was 11 years old. Yao Jiayun was in the fourth grade of elementary school at the time.
After Yao Jiayun immigrated to Canada with her parents, she entered a completely unfamiliar environment. People around her were strangers and they didn’t understand the language. So Yao Jiayun had no friends at that time, so Yao Jiayun spent more time at school. in the laboratory.
When Yao Jiayun was in eighth grade, teacher led the class to do a very interesting little experiment , soaking eggs in white vinegar to let the students see what changes would happen after soaking.
Yao Jiayun was very serious about the experiment. She carefully wiped the egg shell clean, and then carefully put the egg into the white vinegar. She saw a lot of small bubbles on the egg shell, so Yao Jiayun reported what she saw. Write it down in detail.
After class, Yao Jiayun put this little experiment behind her and went to do other things. However, when Yao Jiayun went to the laboratory to see the experimental results the next day, she found that the egg had turned into transparent . When eggs are placed in white vinegar, the egg white and yolk inside the egg can be clearly seen through the transparent egg shell.
Yao Jiayun was attracted by this experiment. Although the other children were also amazed when they saw this scene, they did not think too much and quickly forgot about the experiment.
But Yao Jiayun was attracted by the experiment. She ran to ask the teacher what the principle was. The teacher did not directly tell Yao Jiayun what was going on, but told her that if wanted to know why, she should look up the information herself. Bar.
Yao Jiayun knew that the teacher wanted to exercise her ability to collect information, so she hurriedly searched the Internet for the principles of this experiment.
She finally understood that the eggshells of eggs are mainly composed of calcium carbonate and some organic substances. When the eggs are soaked in white vinegar, the eggshells will react with the acetic acid in the white vinegar, thus forming a substance that can be dissolved in The calcium acetate in the vinegar solution makes the egg shell transparent. After
, Yao Jiayun also found on the Internet that many people like to drink vinegar-soaked egg liquid, thinking that such vinegar-soaked egg liquid can supplement calcium.
But Yao Jiayun discovered that although the vinegar-soaked egg liquid actually contains calcium, the calcium is not easily absorbed and utilized by the human body, and eggs often contain Salmonella , so drinking vinegar-soaked egg liquid actually has many dangers. , which is not conducive to human health.
So, Yao Jiayun wrote the process and results of the experiment, as well as the effects of drinking egg liquid soaked in vinegar on the human body in her own article.
Teacher was very pleased to see that Yao Jiayun was so dedicated to experiments and could draw inferences from one example. Yao Jiayun became obsessed with scientific experiments from then on. She spent more of her time in the school laboratory conducting Many interesting experiments not only increased my scientific knowledge, but also made effective use of my spare time.
Yao Jiayun was actually an expert in experiments when she was in junior high school. Her loneliness did not bother her. She integrated all this loneliness into scientific experiments. She especially liked to do some weird experiments. She Already conquered by the wonders of science, parents see that their children like scientific experiments, and they support her in all aspects and create better experimental conditions for her.
As a result, Yao Jiayun quickly became a "scientist" in the minds of her classmates. Yao Jiayun was also immersed in the fun of scientific exploration and couldn't extricate herself.
Scientific and environmentally friendly camping, establishing the dream of degrading plastics
Yao Jiayun has a great interest in science, and is obsessed with various scientific experiments. This is well known to teachers and classmates.
Later, Yao Jiayun participated in a scientific and environmentally friendly camping activity. During this camping activity, Yao Jiayun and her classmates went outdoors to pick up plastic garbage , and then visited a plastic garbage dump.
When she saw the mountains of gray-white plastic bags, Yao Jiayun realized for the first time how much damage plastic has done to the earth's environment.
During the camping process, the teacher also explained to the students the seriousness of plastic pollution currently around the world.
The degradation time of plastic waste is very long , about a thousand years. The current treatment of plastic waste in the world is mainly incineration and landfilling. However, burning plastic waste will pollute the air, and landfilling plastic waste will pollute the soil.
And plastic waste is everywhere now. Many marine animals are also harmed by plastic waste. Many marine animals have plastic waste in their stomachs, which greatly affects the health of marine animals.
and plastic garbage contains plasticizer . plasticizer is very harmful . It is not only extremely harmful to marine life, but also harmful to human health.
Many of the foods that people eat now contain extremely small plastic particles . Under the influence of plastic waste, people's living environment is now worrying. When plastic particles enter the human body, will cause many diseases to the human body and cause serious harm. Human health.
However, there is currently no good way to degrade plastic waste. We can only wait for further development of science and technology. I hope that future scientists can solve the problem of plastic degradation.
After listening to the teacher's story, Yao Jiayun felt that the harm of plastic waste was too great and it was urgent to solve the problem of degradation of plastic waste.
When she learned that it takes thousands of years for plastic waste to decompose in nature, Yao Jiayun was really shocked. She wondered if the degradation time of plastic waste could be shortened, and then shortened some more. would allow plastic waste to eventually become non-toxic and harmless. Stuff is recycled by the world.
Many students participated in the camp. No one took the degradation of plastic waste seriously. They just thought it was a good time to do some activities with classmates and friends around them and relax physically and mentally.
But Yao Jiayun took the problem of plastic waste degradation to her heart . She was really worried that she could not find a good way to degrade plastic waste.
Yao Jiayun was, after all, just a middle school student. With her knowledge base at that time, she was completely unable to solve the problem of plastic waste degradation.
So she ran to the teacher for help, but when the teacher saw Yao Jiayun, she smiled: "There is no good solution yet, and scientists are actively researching it."
After that, the teacher began to encourage Yao Jiayun again:
"Maybe you can solve it in the future The problem of plastic waste degradation, since you are already interested in this issue, then collect more information and do more research. Plastic waste degradation is a problem and an opportunity. There are many scientists studying this field now. With some research foundation, you might as well go and find out, maybe you can come up with a good way to degrade plastics." Teacher
's words lit a fire in Yao Jiayun's heart, and Yao Jiayun began to collect relevant information and check related information. In her literature work, she combines her love for science with the concept of environmental protection. hopes that she can make a contribution to environmental protection with the help of science.
The teacher also gave Yao Jiayun strong support, and parents gave Yao Jiayun more support. supported Yao Jiayun to move towards her dream. Although she cannot solve the problem of plastic degradation now, she is willing to explore and is willing to Working hard to degrade plastics is a good dream that deserves encouragement from parents and teachers.
Yao Jiayun then decided to solve the problem of plastic waste degradation from the moment she went camping. Once the dream was formed, it radiated infinite power. Yao Jiayun went full throttle for the dream and headed towards the paradise of science.
How did Yao Jiayun succeed?
Yao Jiayun transferred from China to Canada. At the beginning, the language barrier made her very sad. Later, Yao Jiayun broke through the language barrier, and her academic performance and sports performance did not fall behind. After participating in the camp Yao Jiayun became obsessed with plastic degradation, and she became even busier.
Whenever she has time, Yao Jiayun will spend time in the laboratory and go to the school library more frequently to look up information. She has become the busiest student in the world.
When her family saw how busy Yao Jiayun was, they felt sorry for her and told her that there was no need to strive for first place in anything. However, Yao Jiayun was very happy when she told her family about her dream, the information she had consulted and her ideas. It made her family feel the power of dreams, so ’s family decided to give her the greatest support, and they would help her as long as she needed it.
Yao Jiayun’s dream was affirmed and supported by her parents and teachers. Yao Jiayun’s idea attracted her classmate Wang Yuwen. Wang Yuwen later joined in Yao Jiayun’s research.
Wang Yuwen and Yao Jiayun did experiments together, searched for information together, discussed together, and walked side by side on the road to degrading plastics. With their common hobbies and common dreams, made Yao Jiayun feel the tremendous power brought to her by her comrades.
After that, Yao Jiayun thought that everything in the world is reduced by one thing. If we can find the nemesis of plastic , then degrading plastic may not be a difficult thing.
Later, Yao Jiayun thought about whether could microorganisms be used to degrade plastic waste. When this idea appeared in her brain, Yao Jiayun excitedly told her comrades about her idea, and was affirmed by her comrades. The two of them worked for Excited to find a way to degrade plastics.
But there are so many microorganisms in the world, which microorganism can degrade plastic waste? Finding this microorganism may be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
Now that has a direction, the next thing to do is to work hard according to the direction you have determined. is always better than having no direction. But they were only middle school students at the time, and their knowledge reserves were not enough for them to complete such a huge project.
So they wrote a report about their ideas and the information they reviewed, and sent it to experts in related fields at Columbia University. They hope that more professional people can turn their ideas into reality.
At that time, they had no ambition to do their own experiments to solve this problem. They wrote their current research status into information , which is rigorous and scientific. For them with only junior high school education, they have achieved the ultimate.
Dr. Lindsay from Columbia University carefully read the information written by Yao Jiayun and Wang Yuwen . He was very curious and surprised. His many years of experience in scientific research in related fields told him that these two little girls had very interesting ideas. The future is completely feasible.
As for , what he didn't expect was that this idea was actually proposed by two high school students, so he was very surprised.
So Dr. Lindsay wrote back to the two people, and spoke highly of their ideas, saying that is an interesting research . For this reason, the Columbia laboratory can provide it to them and will provide them with appropriate help. .
Yao Jiayun and Wang Yuwen jumped for joy when they saw the reply. They immediately decided that must seize this hard-won opportunity.
So two high school students had the right to use Columbia's top laboratory , and Dr. Lindsay and two graduate students also provided them with appropriate assistance.
From then on, the two girls plunged into the laboratory of Columbia University and devoted all their energy except attending classes to research. While other children are obsessed with games, love, and travel, two girls who are only 17 or 18 years old are obsessed with doing experiments in the laboratory. late at night.
Many people have asked two people: "Do you feel very bored when you spend time in the laboratory every day?"
Yao Jiayun always said: "Doing experiments is the most interesting thing, and our research will be Changing the whole world has not succeeded yet, but you will know in the future."
Yao Jiayun's obsession with science has made many people hope for her. Yao Jiayun also has sufficient confidence that her research will be successful, and her future prospects will be It will be very beautiful.
But just like any great undertaking, it needs to go through all kinds of hardships before it can succeed. The same is true for the research of Yao Jiayun and Wang Yuwen. After frequently experienced countless failures, although the two people felt very tired, sometimes You will feel confused.
But every time Yao Jiayun thinks about the mountains of plastic garbage, and the health of so many marine creatures that are in danger of losing their lives because of ingesting plastic garbage, especially when she thinks about her own dreams. They will get up from the shadow of failure time and time again and continue the next experiment.
After countless failures, their research has two directions: One is to use bacteria to directly break down synthetic plastics, and the other is to break down all plastics through edited bacteria.
They wrote their research results into papers, and their papers caused shock in a certain range.
In 2013, Yao Jiayun took her research to participate in the Canadian Sanofi Biological Genius Challenge and won the championship, and their research was considered to have the most commercial potential.
As a result, many wealthy businessmen reached out to them, hoping to buy their technology. But after careful consideration, Yao Jiayun rejected all business cooperation.
She believes that current research is only successful in the laboratory, and plastic degradation can be completed under many harsh conditions. If placed in nature, plastic waste may not be successfully degraded.
They will conduct further follow-up research. hope that in the future, microorganisms can decompose plastic waste into water, carbon dioxide and inorganic salts in nature.
They are moving forward with their dreams. It is not easy for to be able to make such great scientific achievements when they are less than twenty years old, and to be able to calm down and continue research and give up commercial interests.
Yao Jiayun is also a top student academically. After that, Yao Jiayun was successfully admitted to the University of Toronto, where she studied biochemistry and environmental science. I believe that with the blessing of more professional knowledge in the future, Yao Jiayun's research path will go smoother, her dream One day it can come true.
The thinking behind Yao Jiayun’s success
Yao Jiayun was able to combine dreams with practice and finally achieved a breakthrough in the world’s difficult problem of plastic degradation. It is really amazing.
has a clear mind and the concentration to stay in the laboratory at a young age, which is amazing.
Yao Jiayun's success is inseparable from the guidance and support of teachers and parents, as well as Yao Jiayun's own hobbies.
No matter how much you pay for the thing you like, you will never regret it even if your belt becomes wider.
The reason why Yao Jiayun is obsessed with scientific experiments is inseparable from her strong curiosity and the blessing of a good learning environment.
If every child can fall in love with science and be immersed in science under the guidance of parents and teachers, and if parents and teachers can provide enough good soil, I believe that more scientific and technological geniuses will emerge.
Every dream deserves respect, and those who laugh at other people's dreams are the most ridiculous.
Everything in the world must be dared to think first, and then done. People who dare not even think about it do not have the courage to do things. The reason why dreams are beautiful is because they are beautiful to think about. Having dreams is the first step towards success.
If children’s dreams are the seeds of genius, then the support, encouragement and help of parents and teachers are the incubators of genius.
The so-called genius is hard work and dedication in places that others cannot see, and at the same time, a little bit of luck.
References:
1, People's Daily Online: "A 19-year-old Chinese girl was invited to give a speech to a wealthy businessman"
2. Political participation news: "A 19-year-old Chinese girl with a market value of over 10 million was invited to give a speech to Bill Gates"
3, People's Daily: "Research A 19-year-old Chinese girl with a market value of over 10 million was invited to give a speech to Gates》
