![\"tires\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/discoblog\/files\/2010\/05\/tires.gif\" "\\"tires\\"")
When\u00a0other Albertans saw landfill fodder, 17-year-old Kyle Schole saw electricity. His project, “Microbial Degredation of Vehicle Tires,” which uses a strain of\u00a0bacteria to harness energy from decomposing rubber tires,\u00a0hasn’t yet hit the journal circuit. But it has won\u00a0the farm-raised teenager a gold-prize at his national science fair.<\/p>\n
Schole\u00a0devised\u00a0his\u00a0plan while driving past an Alberta\u00a0tire recycling plant. Though his town was already transforming tires into speed bumps and surfacing, he wanted to pop those wheelies into something more. He decided\u00a0to make a few calls, and chatted up a few microbiologists from Canada, Scotland, and\u00a0Australia. He then had to find the perfect rubber-munching bacteria.<\/p>\n
His farm wasn’t equipped to deal with biohazardous materials so he spent his summer in labs at the Westlock Health Care Centre. He estimates that the project took him over 400 hours, but in the end he successfully created a microbial fuel cell that converts chemical energy released during the tire’s\u00a0microbial decomposition into electricity. For his efforts, he won a $6,000 cash prize and a $10,000 scholarship to the Canadian university of his choice.<\/p>\n
The “science fair manic” told<\/a> the The Edmonton Journal<\/em>:<\/p>\n “I’m a very curious guy–whether it’s tinkering on the farm with my dad or working on science projects,” said Schole. “So I’m often thinking, ‘What would be a neat thing to test and improve on?’”<\/p>\n For more warm-fuzzies, see the\u00a0CTV video<\/a> coverage, with interview.<\/p>\n Related content: <\/em>Image: flickr\/Mykl Roventine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n When\u00a0other Albertans saw landfill fodder, 17-year-old Kyle Schole saw electricity. His project, “Microbial Degredation of Vehicle Tires,” which uses a strain of\u00a0bacteria to harness energy from decomposing rubber tires,\u00a0hasn’t yet hit the journal circuit. But it has won\u00a0the farm-raised teenager a gold-prize at his national science fair. Schole\u00a0devised\u00a0his\u00a0plan while driving past an Alberta\u00a0tire recycling plant. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nDISCOVER: Science Fair for a Better Planet<\/a>
\nDiscoblog: It\u2019s In the Bag! Teenager Wins Science Fair, Solves Massive Environmental Problem<\/a>
\nThe Loom: Microbial Art<\/a>
\nThe Loom: I For One Welcome Our Microbial Overlords<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"