Toastworthy Teen - Eric Delgado

Eric Delgado, Efflux Pump Foiler

We’ve all heard how germs are become more and more resistant to antibiotics. Well, when high school Eric Delgado had the chance to work with Jersey City Medical Center researchers who were investigating one such drug-resistant bug (MRSA), he came away determined to find a solution. 

After learning that some bacteria use a mechanism called an efflux pump (built into their membranes) to expel antibiotics, Eric wanted to find a way to turn off the pumps. 

Luckily, he had a teacher willing to help him make contacts across the country who then supplied him with everything from advice to plant compounds. Over 2 years of experimentation, Eric was able to determine how much antibiotic each pump expelled, and thus how much medicine need be administered to overcome that. 

He has now brought his talents to Yale University, and eventually wants to work in public health, where I’m sure he’ll have a positive impact. :)

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FOODFIC: Please Welcome Guest Chloe Jacobs, Author of Greta and The Goblin King

The heroine of Greta and the Goblin King has had to put up with a lot of changes since she ended up in Mylena: land of ice and snow…not the least of which is the slim-to-none access to food. 

She realizes pretty quick that when the world has been frozen for hundreds of years, there really isn’t a “growing season”. Food is a really expensive commodity, especially fruits and vegetables

However, there are a few things that will grow in even the harshest of environments, and Greta becomes an expert on finding them and making the most of them. Winter berries and tubers. Even some of the different needles and greenery will add some taste to soups and teas.

Mushrooms are one of the things Greta is almost always able to find, especially after a new frost forces them to fruit. Dandelions will also grow pretty much everywhere—that’s why they call it a weed. Granted, they won’t have the bright yellow tops on them during the winter, but the roots are long and the leaves are hearty. They’ll be bitter but still pretty edible and the roots can be ground up and roasted for coffee, or fried up with some oil and other flavours until they soften up. Fennel and horseradish and other winter-growing root vegetables will also do okay in a place like Mylena.

So while it’s never easy and food definitely isn’t plentiful, the harsh environment Greta lives in isn’t exactly a wasteland. There are hidden gems beneath the surface…much like the hidden gems within Greta herself. She’s tough, but worth a chance! 

Thanks so much for having me, I had a great time today!           ~ Chloe Jacobs  

Thanks for stopping by to share your food for thought, Chloe!

You can find Chloe here:

ChloeJacobs.com

Twitter @Jacobs_Chloe

Facebook

Goodreads

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GRETA AND THE GOBLIN KING
While trying to save her brother from the witch three years ago, Greta was thrown into the fire herself, falling through a portal to a dangerous world where humans are the enemy, and every ogre, goblin, and ghoul has a dark side that comes out with the full moon.

To survive, 17-year-old Greta has hidden her humanity and taken the job of bounty hunter—and she’s good at what she does. So good, she’s caught the attention of Mylena’s young Goblin King, the darkly enticing Isaac, who invades her dreams and undermines her determination to escape.

But Greta’s not the only one looking to get out of Mylena. The full moon is mere days away, and an ancient evil being knows she’s the key to opening the portal. If Greta fails, she and the boys she finds stranded in the woods will die. If she succeeds, no world will be safe from what follows her back . . .

Toastworthy Teens - Mallory Kievman

Mallory Kievman, Hiccupops

Some people recommend holding your breath to cure hiccups. Others swear by the scare-the-hiccup-out-of-you method. Connecticut teen Mallory Kievman brings a new solution to the table: the “Hiccupop.”

The 13-year-old inventor sifted through research dating as far back as the 1970s before coming up with a special recipe based on apple cider vinegar, which she says “overstimulates the nerves in your throat responsible for hiccups and cancels out the message to hiccup.” She added sugar to the formula (another common hiccup cure) and Voila! The hiccupop was born. 

But you don’t have to take her word for it; try one yourself:
http://www.hiccupops.com

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FOODFIC: Beautiful Creatures - Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Creatures is narrated by Ethan Wate, a golden boy of Gatlin but perhaps the only person in town who dreams of leaving. Lena Duchannes is the beautiful, mysterious, new-to-town leading lady with a troubled past, present, and future. But the star, the heart, the – yup, I’m saying it – meat and potatoes of the story is Amma, and she’s the one I’m most excited to see come to life on the big screen.*

We all wish we had an Amma watching over us in both the real and mystical senses, doling out wisdom sometimes in cryptic phrases, sometimes in crossword answers delivered one deliberate letter at a time, and often followed by covertly-placed, hand-crafted dolls, charms, or other spiritual tokens.

But you know I love her most because she dishes out meals as fortifying as her advice.

For breakfast she serves Ethan fried eggs, bacon, buttered toast, and grits. And that’s not just for the first day of school; the next day it’s eggs over easy, biscuits and gravy.

For dinner there’s fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans, biscuits, and even buttermilk pie on a regular old weeknight! Then comes pulled pork with Gatlin’s own Carolina Gold mustard barbeque sauce.** 

Hold. The. Phone.  Amma doesn’t make her own sauce? From scratch? I can’t believe it.

Which is ironic, because I blindly accept that the green-eyed girl Ethan’s been dreaming about for months just miraculously showed up in his town, a place where a new girl hasn’t appeared since he was in 3^rd grade. And I don’t flinch when I learn that this new Miss Lena Duchannes not only smells like Ethan’s lemon- and rosemary-scented dream girl, but that she’s been dreaming of him, too. Mystical powers, telepathy, even a secret library – I find myself believing it all because, well, it’s just delicious. ;)

*Of course I timed this review with next week’s premiere of the film adaptation!

**In case you were wondering, Carolina Gold is a real gourmet barbeque sauce made from a recipe passed down since Colonial times.  

Toastworthy Teens - Aidan Dwyer

Aidan Dwyer, Solar Panel Designer

If you’ve read (or seen) The Da Vinci Code, you might know the term “Fibonacci sequence.” If you paid attention, you might also know that it’s a mathematical sequence in which each successive number is equal to the sum of the preceding two (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…). And if you delved even deeper, you know that the pattern is often seen in nature, everywhere from the scales of a pineapple to the seeds of a sunflower.

What you probably don’t know is how to use a Fibonacci sequence to develop an improved, portable solar panel that could revolutionize the energy field. Well, that’s precisely what 14-year-old Aidan Dwyer did to qualify as a finalist in the 2012 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge. From there he went on to speak at the opening ceremony of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, as well as meet with President Obama in Washington, D.C.

His teachers credit Aidan’s self-motivation, creative thinking, and scientific questioning, while also recognizing that kids have the ability to think outside the box in a way that many adults simply cannot.

If you are (or know) such a bright scientific mind, learn how to enter next year’s competition here:
http://www.youngscientistchallenge.com

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