The finalists and Regional Champions of Yuri Milner’s 2024 Breakthrough Junior Challenge have now been announced. The standard of entries is exceptionally high, with the videos impressing both judges and viewers around the globe.
One of the finalists will win three prizes: a $250,000 college scholarship, a $150,000 science lab for their school, and $50,000 for a teacher who inspired them. They will follow in the footsteps of Sia Godika, the 17-year-old champion who won the contest last year with her video on pluripotent cells.
This year’s finalists are now waiting for the Selection Committee to choose the top five videos to go through for final consideration. These videos will be judged alongside the Popular Vote’s winning video — the one with the most social media reactions.
Here are three of this year’s finalists, along with one of the Regional Champions (a runner-up in the Popular Vote).
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1. 18-Year-Old Yipu Wang From Australia
In his video, Yipu combines a paper demonstration with computer graphics to demonstrate the structure of the Möbius strip. He works through different paper shapes before completing the strip, explaining that it falls under the branch of math called topology.
This branch of math refers to shapes that can stretch and contract but can’t break. Yipu explores why the Möbius strip works this way and exists in a permanent transformation. He considers the strip to have endless potential for curiosity and discovery, a parallel for math itself.
2. 18-Year-Old Mathew Ruggieri From the U.S.
In Mathew’s video, he explains Einstein’s theory that large-mass objects like stars and planets warp the fabric of space. He places a ball in a curved sheet to illustrate this.
He then explains that as light doesn’t have any mass, it always takes the quickest path relative to time. This path isn’t always flat. He shows that when light encounters a curved gravitational field, it follows this curve, much like water in a creek.
This banding of light is called gravitational lensing, which creates complex images like the Einstein Ring and Einstein Cross. Thousands of gravitational lenses containing dark matter, exoplanets, and stars can affect light travel.
3. 16-Year-Old Alessandra Storm Mauricio From the U.S.
In her superhero animation, Alessandra explains how antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) destroy cancer cells. She explores the three components of ADCs that have the power to combat cancer.
Alessandra goes on to explain how ADCs have revolutionized cancer treatment, fighting the disease without triggering side effects because they don’t damage healthy cells.
Aside from being a finalist, Alessandra also accumulated more social media reactions on her video than any other entrant in North America. She is the Regional Champion of this continent.
4. 16-Year-Old Qudsiya Badri From the United Arab Emirates
Like Alessandra, Qudsiya is also a Regional Champion, this time in the Middle East and Africa. Her video received more reactions than any other in this region.
In her video, Qudsiya explains that epigenetics control genome regulation. She compares an individual’s DNA to a cookbook where each recipe is a gene that determines how the body functions. Each gene has a protein sequence that tells the body how to operate.
Qudsiya positions epigenetics as notes written in the margins of the cookbook, giving extra context on how a recipe (a gene) can be read or interpreted. This analogy explains how cells can control gene activity without changing the DNA sequence.
She goes on to explore the two main types of DNA genetic modification — DNA methylation and histone modification — and the factors that can influence epigenetic changes, like diet, stress, and exposure to nature.
Introducing Breakthrough Junior Challenge Co-Creator Yuri Milner
Giving Pledge signatory Yuri Milner co-created the Breakthrough Junior Challenge to inspire young people globally to develop and share their interest in science. Yuri Milner is also the co-founder of the world’s biggest science award, the Breakthrough Prize; five space science programs, the Breakthrough Initiatives; and the non-profit Tech For Refugees. In addition to this, he is the author of Eureka Manifesto: The Mission for Our Civilization.
