A 17-year-old from The Villages recently found a potential cure for cancer while doing a science project for school. Seriously.
The Editorial Board has never claimed to be a group of science whizzes. In fact, we have often reiterated just how one-dimensional we are when it comes to school. Give us words, limited space and a deadline - add any other variables and we're screwed.
We are in absolute awe that a teenager has happened upon a specific amino acid able to kill a significant amount of colon cancer cells (it killed up to 90 percent of the cancerous cells in the sample).
This 21st-century Doogie Howser puts our old science projects to shame, but we are absolutely not embarrassed.
We were always the unenthusiastic kids with the lamest science projects. We didn't actually care which brand of paper towel absorbed the most liquid; we just didn't care enough to come up with a project idea that might actually serve a purpose.
We think what this young man did is incredible. During the summer, he worked with a UF professor on a project concerning stem cells - they were searching for alternatives to using the cells, and no embryos were involved.
The amino acid used in the project is being studied by the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando to determine how effective it could be as a cancer therapeutic, but it may take years to obtain significant findings.
In the meantime, we hope this kid's research is as groundbreaking as it seems to be, and we wish him the best of luck.
