Why did they choose to do chemistry and biotechnology at MSA University, instead of having fun like other teenagers? What pushes a 17-year-old girl called Soha el-Sokkari and a 15-year-old boy called Ahmed el-Shinawi to behave like this? The answer is: they love their country, Egypt. Last March, Ahmed and Soha won first and second prizes in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a programme of Society for Science & the Public, the world's largest pre-college science fair competition. Each year, more than 6 million young scientists from around the world vie to attend and 1,500 are selected as finalists to share their ideas, showcase cutting-edge ideas and compete for over $4 million in awards and scholarships. Their self-confidence, knowledge and awareness of what is going on around them are what make us proud of them. "Egypt will face serious water shortages by the year 2025 and there could be a drought," Egypt's Water Research Centre announced in a recent report. In his project, Ahmed used Geobacter sulfur reducens to decontaminate wastewater by absorbing and breaking down the contaminants, transforming them into other, non-toxic compounds, used for generating electricity. Geobacter is a genus of proteobacteria, which comes from soil. Geobacter is an anaerobic respiration bacterial species, useful for bioremediation. It was found to be the first organism with the ability to oxidise organic compounds and metals, including iron, radioactive metals and petroleum compounds, into environmentally benign carbon dioxide, while using iron oxide or other available metals as electron acceptors. "We are facing an energy and electricity crisis. There are many energy sources like hydropower fossil fuels and nuclear power. But they are problematic and hazardous; moreover, they are very expensive and not environment-friendly. "In the meantime, our wastewater and sewage are full of toxic contaminants," explains Ahmed, a pupil at Dar el-Tarbia Language Schools. He spent eight months studying Egypt's problems, concluding that the water problem was the most serious. "I just wanted to help solve this problem," he says. Meanwhile, Soha was concerned about the lack of cultivated land in Egypt. "Only 4 per cent of Egypt's land is cultivated. There are many reasons for this, including salinity, the amount of salt in the soil. Drought makes the soil drier and more saline," Soha, a pupil at the same school, told the Egyptian Mail in an interview. Increasing salinity levels damage the cells of plants, stunting their growth. "In normal plants there is a family of stress fighting genes, the Cab family. One of its members is the Cab8 gene, which works on drought and salinity," she adds. "The Cab8 gene is found in a plant called Vicia Cinera. I manage to isolate it and insert into an E.coli Easy plasmid vector. "After being exposed to electrophoresis, the lane containing the isolated Cab8 gene had produced more base pairs. This confirmed my hypothesis," says Soha. "These projects could make Egypt a better place, which is what we obviously want. We could cultivate the desert and boost the national income," she argues. "Egypt is full of positives and negatives. We have the materials, but we are very lazy. Everyone says 'I'm not concerned' but what if we say 'Yes I can be the change, I can change'?" asks Ahmed.
