In search of scientific inspiration, Robbie Bing traveled farther from home than he had ever been last August, flying 4,350 miles to Budapest, Hungary. There he spent a month testing a theory....

What does it mean to be a scientist? In the most basic of terms, a scientist is someone who does scientific research. But what personal qualities does it take to do scientific research?

Sarah Fankhauser spent years judging middle school and high school science fairs before she realized the major disconnect. From her seat at the judge's table, she saw students who'd spent a year or more adapting the scientific method for competition. After months of designing and tweaking experiments to test hypotheses, she saw young, budding scientific minds put their work to the test, just to have the life cycle of that work come to a halt after judging was complete.

As a Harvard graduate student, Sarah Fankhauser judged a science fair at a local high school. She was thrilled to see the students’ work, but when she walked outside, she noticed that many of the projects ended up in the dumpster. Disheartened by the less-than-grande finale, Fankhauser came up with a novel idea :  what if middle and high school students could share their work beyond the school auditorium?

Noteworthy: Recently published a scientific manuscript in the Journal of Emerging Investigators titled “Comparative Gamma Radiation Analysis by Geographic Region.” The article explores the level of background gamma radiation, a type of high-energy radiation associated with serious health risks, in various areas of Pittsburgh as well as throughout North America and Europe.