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| When 27-year-old doctoral candidate Ayushi Chauhan first heard of the Falling Walls Science Summit held in the vicinity of the old Berlin Wall, she knew she had to participate. Held annually since the 20th anniversary of the wall's historic fall, the summit aims to identify the current “walls to fall” in science and society, and to help devise transformative answers. This year, Chauhan was one of around 80 students and early-career professionals from 54 countries who presented their ideas in three-minute pitches before an audience and jury, which then declared three “Breakthrough of the Year” winners. Chauhan was one of them. | | Chauhaun and other young scientists came together in a show of optimism — with remarkably sharp ideas for transforming business-as-usual in an increasingly beleaguered world.  | | As Europe grapples with an energy crisis and war in Ukraine, as well as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the specter of climate change, Chauhaun and other young scientists came together in a show of optimism — with remarkably sharp ideas for transforming business-as-usual in an increasingly beleaguered world. |
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| The Falling Walls summit was held on the banks of the River Spree in a historic Brick Gothic building with a waterside terrace. It was a fitting background for a presentation by Johannesburg resident Tamlyn Sasha Naidu, a chemical engineer and doctoral candidate at the University of Witwatersrand, who was one of the conference’s three big winners for her plan to mitigate the effects of what’s known as acid mine drainage. | | Harming water quality, plants and wildlife, and introducing toxins into the human food chain, acid mine drainage causes the buildup of toxic metallic sediment in waterways near mining sites. | | Harming water quality, plants and wildlife, and introducing toxins into the human food chain, acid mine drainage causes the buildup of toxic metallic sediment in waterways near mining sites. Naidu says it doesn’t have to be this way. She has devised a process for remediating acid mine drainage in an ion exchange that recovers precious metals from the runoff. She then uses a waste product known as steel slag to neutralize the acidity, before adding sugarcane bagasse — or other agricultural waste — as a substrate for a biological process. If that sounds confusing, the result is easy to understand. Through this process, what was previously acidic waste is restored “to near-drinking water standards,” Naidu told the Falling Walls jurors. Notably, this process also creates a valuable byproduct: a nutrient-rich sludge that can be used as a fertilizer in hydroponic farming. Naidu envisions a future in which mining communities use this technology and reap the benefits for farming and a healthier environment. Yet she is also aware of the challenges she will face in attempting to implement such a novel process into industrial routines. She will need to conduct more testing, and will have to pilot the idea at a large scale. Still more daunting to Naidu, however, is the prospect of convincing communities to take up the idea. “In many of the afflicted communities, there is a huge loyalty towards the mining plants, as they provide the community with jobs,” she explained. |
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| Emma Horn, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cape Town, presented on a topic that would seem to be especially unsexy: the manufacture of construction supplies. The production of tiles, bricks and anti-decomposition materials known as refractories, results in 19 megatonnes of CO2 emissions in the European Union annually, while bricks alone account for 20% of the world’s black carbon emissions, according to the Climate & Clean Air Coalition. The ceramic tile industry, meanwhile, carries a heavy environmental toll and is growing worldwide. “Tiles are high-value products,” said Horn, noting that in South Africa, the process to make the tiles is powered by coal. She sees another way. “To achieve sustainable cities and communities, we need to revolutionize this industry. The solution? Organic tiles,” she told the Falling Walls crowd. | | Organic tiles help create a “circular economy” — an alternative model of production and consumption that emphasizes reusing existing materials to the greatest extent possible. - Emma Horn, a doctoral candidate at the University of Cape Town | | Horn utilizes natural bacteria to catalyze a reaction that forms a “bio-cement.” The bacteria are fed minerals, leading to the creation of calcium carbonate, the same organic matter that composes the hard exterior of mussels and other shellfish, which can then be made into organic tile. Additionally, instead of the commonly used sand or clay, Horn makes use of waste products, such as plastics or even mine tailings, to produce tile base. She has even developed a 3D printer to automate the production process and make it scalable. In addition to curbing carbon emissions and helping the construction-supply industry to reduce waste, Horn told OZY that such organic tiles help create a “circular economy” — an alternative model of production and consumption that emphasizes reusing existing materials to the greatest extent possible. For now, Horn's biggest challenge is optimizing the manufacturing process with the 3D printer. Then she will face a hurdle familiar to many entrepreneurs and changemakers worldwide. “The usual grand challenge will be finding partners and capital to get a business up and running,” Horn said, adding, “because sourcing large quantities of unrecyclable plastics won’t be an issue.” |
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| For more than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has stolen the spotlight from nearly all other infectious diseases — which continue to ravage vulnerable populations. According to the World Health Organization, 10 million people fall ill with tuberculosis (TB) each year and, though TB is a preventable and curable disease, 1.5 million people die from it every year — making it the current runner-up for the world’s most infectious killer, after COVID. A doctoral candidate at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, Ayushi Chauhan came to Falling Walls to present on a grave problem: the lack of an accessible tool for TB testing, and in particular for identifying drug-resistant mutations of the disease. Chauhan, however, has devised a solution. Presenting what she called “a new generation of portable devices that will enable the rapid detection” of TB, Chauhan has designed a test to simplify diagnosing TB in a process similar to at-home COVID testing. Since her invention is portable and designed for easy usage, it has the potential to be particularly effective across India, and especially in rural areas where gaining access to medical facilities is difficult. | | Optimism was in the air at Falling Walls, perhaps because Chauhan and other participants were not only envisioning a different world, but were working toward it. | | “TB is present in all countries and age groups. The disease is curable and preventable, but where do we fall short? Testing,” she said in her presentation. Chauhan’s next frontier is to make this innovation affordable for those in need — which means using inexpensive inputs. Currently she must import many of the required ingredients; she seeks to reduce her laboratory costs by finding ways to source them domestically. She has already figured out how to synthesize some components in-house, she told OZY, but more work remains. Amid all the world’s upheaval, optimism was in the air at Falling Walls, perhaps because Chauhan and other participants were not only envisioning a different world, but were working toward it. |
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What other challenges do you wish these young scientists were working on? | | |
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EPISODE 3 NOW STREAMING! Featuring Genevieve Channelle & Keia Kodama | | |
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