Breakthroughs: Other projects, other wonders

Students find cures to diseases and other everyday problems.

PHOENIX:

Jawaria Nisar, 15, another finalist at the Intel Isef, from Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Singhpura, has found a cure for scabies and psoriasis.

According to Jawaria, in allopathic medicine, only steroids are given to treat psoriasis, which is merely a preventive measure, she says. “The skin disease only settles while you are taking medicine, after which it reappears,” she says.

Jawaria’s research comes from her family’s conventional wisdom. “In hilly areas, such as Haripur, where I come from, medical treatment is not very accessible so people come up with homemade medication. My mother and grandmother would use milkweed as a medicinal plant to treat various skin diseases so I tried using it for psoriasis.”

After several attempts and combining it with other ingredients, it turned out that an ointment prepared by mixing milkweed with mustard oil can be used as a remedy for scabies and psoriasis.

The magic of spinach leaves

Fourteen-year-old Essa bin Qasim, from the Park-Turk International School and College in Peshawar, has plausibly found the best use for spinach leaves. After eight months of experimenting with ways to increase the efficiency of solar panels, he has concluded that if chlorophyll is sprayed on them, it can double power generation.

Heat retention cookers

Necessity is the mother of invention and the students of the Aga Khan Higher Secondary School in Gilgit have proven it by finding a way to preserve precious firewood.

Three students -- Sajid Khan, 15, Ali Yazdan, 15, and Qaisar Ali Shah,17 -- have come up with heat retention boxes. According to Sajid, the only one of the trio who could get a US visa, food only needs to be cooked for 5-10 minutes, after which it can be placed in a heat retention cooker and will cook itself.

“This can up to save up to 70 – 75% energy and is an alternative to using firewood for cooking,” he said. “It will also significantly cut costs. The heat retention box costs Rs3, 000 at most.”

Eco-friendly plastic bags

Haris bin Ashraf, from Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed College in Karachi, decided to put an end to garbage dumps in Karachi. He has made CESDEF (cost-efficient, self-disintegrating and eco-friendly) plastic bags, which are biodegradable and decompose in 9-10 months when buried in soil.

“On average, a plastic bag costs Rs1.95 to produce and my bags will cost a little less than two rupees as well, if produced large-scale,” Haris said. “In Pakistan, almost all garbage is burnt, which is really not sustainable.”

Cleaning industrial waste – one banana peel at a time

Students of Karachi’s Mama Parsi Girls’ Secondary School have found a way to protect marine life and the environment from further depletion – by lining pipes with banana, orange and lemon peels. Industrial waste can be cleansed before it’s thrown in the sea by fruit waste from bananas, lemons and oranges that can absorb metal ions, the girls say. The project has been developed by Fatima Moin Veera, 14, Hania Hasan,16, and seventeen-year-old Umme Salma Shabbir Gadriwala.

“Besides being environment-friendly, it is cost efficient and the extracted metal can be reused,” says Moin.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2013.