The Future for Cancer Detection!?

Never mind that Jack Andraka is 15 years-old, and likes cracking jokes about “sneaking research papers into my high-school biology class.”

Using nothing but Wikipedia, Google, and spare parts he bought at a Home Depot, the winner of Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair created a paper test strip that can detect harmful viruses and antigens based on changes in conductivity—a method that’s way more efficient than current models.

“Compared with the 60-year-old diagnostic technique called enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (or ELISA),” Forbes reported earlier this year, “Andraka’s sensor is 168 times faster, 26,667 times less expensive, and 400 times more sensitive…

This could save the lives of thousands of pancreatic cancer victims each year.”