By A Thread

What makes a good science fair project is a science problem in need of a science solution, and that's what Dasia Taylor has come up with.

Dasia was attending Iowa City West High School in Iowa City when her science teacher told the class about a state-wide science fair. She came up with an idea about how to tell when a surgical wound was infected: surgical suture thread that changes color (from bright red to dark purple) to indicate infection. 

And the solution she came up with was dyeing the thread with beet juice.

Ms Taylor had heard about a type of thread that was coated with a conductive material, which sensed changes in wound status because of changes in electrical resistance. Those changes caused the conductive thread to send a signal to the smartphone or computer of the doctor or patient.

Those "smart" sutures might work well in the United States, but think of the many developing countries around the world, where there is less internet access and fewer cellphones, be they smart or not. 

The World Health Organization says that in low and middle-income countries, 11% of surgical wounds become infected, as compared to 2 to 4% of such wounds in the US.

And in some African countries, as many as 20% of women who give birth by Cesarean section face the complication of a surgical site infection.

So the need is there and the young woman from Iowa found an answer for it. 

She knew that the pH (the "potential of hydrogen" that measures how acidic or basic a solution is) goes up when skin is infected, and that beet juice changes color at just the perfect pH point.

Apparently, one is able to learn these things by attending science classes, which I made a point of avoiding after a scandal in biology that saw some wiseguy arrange the frog specimens in an amusing coital position.

And with that information in hand, all Ms Taylor had to do was to find the perfect thread to dye with beet juice. She tried ten different types, to find the one best at holding the dye and signalling the pH change, and she credits asynchronous learning, which I see more and more schools are going to with the COVID-19 flourishing again, with giving her the time to conduct her experiments.

Asynchronous learning gives a student flexibility to learn on their own time and pace, without meeting a rigid daily schedule. She could spend hours at a time working with her thread and beet juice, and achieved great results.

(I wish to point out that during my high school days, I presented a dissertation in defense of my "Off-Site Autodidactism" concept, which posited that I could learn a lot on my own by not being there all day, every day. I see now, my mistake was not involving beet juice in my proposal.)

She decided that a cotton-polyester blend was perfect for her thread, after her experiments showed that being around an infection causes such thread to change in color from bright red to dark purple.

 Look for her invention to go worldwide someday; she is going to patent it even before she starts attending college!

She wants to attend Howard University as a political science major, and eventually become a lawyer.

“I have so much school pride because when somebody in our school does something great, they're celebrated to its fullest extent,” she says. “And being able to be one of those kids has been so amazing.”

I was never one of those kids, but I salute her proudly!