![Poster of Inventor Daniel Asturias](https://www.popsci.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/18/JBQU7DJUORVG47GZA2QJRTBAHA.jpg?quality=85&w=640)
SAT Score: 2200 (out of 2400)
Patents: One pending
College: He's been offered full tuition to the University of Texas. Jon Arvizu
Posted on Aug 24, 2009 9:06 PM EDT
Every year, instead of prepping for prom or hanging out at the mall, thousands of high-school students are busy in labs, basements and classrooms finding fresh solutions to age-old problems. We’ve scoured the country to find the brightest among them, settling on eight teen talents who make Thomas Edison (whose first patented invention didn’t come until the ripe old age of 21) look like a late bloomer.
Take 18-year-old Philip Streich. His method for untangling carbon nanotubes may well pave the way to the creation of a space elevator. Daniel Asturius’s geothermal energy generator could produce three times as much power as a nuclear plant. Samantha Hopkins? After she built her own log cabin at the age of nine, she went on to design a lunar chamber that can grow food without soil, self-heal punctures, and shrink to the size of a backpack for easy portability.
Anne Swift, the founder of Young Inventors International, an organization that helps inventors develop, patent, and license their inventions, says that youth, far from being a handicap, often works to inventors’ advantage. “Young innovators might not realize what is possible, so they tend to dream big,” she says. “They look at it and say, Wow, we can do this.”
Here, meet some of the most promising youth to hit the invention scene, and find out which institutions of higher learning will lay claim to their genius.