2 teens won $50,000 for inventing a device that can filter toxic microplastics from water

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2 teens won $50,000 for inventing a device that can filter toxic microplastics from water

Two teenagers from Woodlands, Texas invented a device that could help address one of the most pervasive and challenging forms of pollution on Earth: microplastics.

These microscopic plastic particles show up in the deepest parts of the ocean, at the top of Mount Everest, and are in everything from the dust in your home to your food and water.

By some estimates, we each inhale and ingest a credit card's worth of plastic per week. Then   it can end up in our lungsblood, breastmilk, and testicles.

Victoria Ou and Justin Huang, both 17, hope to prevent that one day with their award-winning device that removes microplastics from water using ultrasonic — or high-frequency — sound waves.

Ou and Huang presented their work at last week's Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles, where top competitors from science fairs worldwide congregated to share their projects and compete for $9 million in prizes.

The Texas duo received first place in their Google-sponsored category, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and they also snagged the $50,000 prize from the Gordon E. Moore Award for Positive Outcomes for Future Generations.

Victoria Ou and Justin Huang stand with their arms raised wearing giant gold medals around their necks

It's gotta feel good to win two prizes in one day. Society for Science/Lisa Fryklund

Though the ultrasonic technique is in its very early stages, the high schoolers hope that one day it could filter the plastic out of your drinking water and from the industrial and wastewater that humans dump into the environment.

"This is the first year we've done this," Huang told Business Insider backstage after receiving their award. "If we could refine this — maybe use more professional equipment, maybe go to a lab instead of testing from our home — we could really improve our device and get it ready for large-scale manufacturing."

While it's unclear how microplastics affect human health, many common chemicals in plastic have been linked to increased risk of cancer, fertility and development issues, and hormone disruption. And we're still a long way from getting rid of microplastics.

The challenge of filtering microplastics

White microplastic beads inside a black container under a microscope

Microplastics have been found in everything from human blood to snow on Mt. Everest. NurPhoto/Getty Images

Last fall, while brainstorming ideas for their ISEF project, Ou and Huang visited a water treatment plant. They wanted to find out whether this type of facility already had tools that could remove microplastics from wastewater.

Attached link

https://www.businessinsider.com/teens-win-fifty-thousand-for-ultrasound-microplastic-filtration-device-2024-5?fbclid=IwY2xjawLI8n1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBYU3VkWkQwU2tDU01JbzA3AR6xEEes27Oc6gXVhZQYoz5noujGtdDi1-vsHI9UxFd42mkoAVogScJVgTrFcw_aem_ix1_LpHEO3bxa7kjy8ANLg

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