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New York teen takes top science award
Computer chip advance made in his bedroom
March 11, 1997
Web posted at: 11:25 p.m. ESTNEW YORK (CNN) -- Adam Cohen doesn't like TV. He says it just makes his head hurt. But that doesn't mean this 17-year-old is a Luddite.
Far from it. With an invention concocted in his bedroom laboratory that can cram 50 words into a space the size of a human hair, Cohen recently captured first prize in the prestigious Westinghouse Science Talent Search. With the honor comes a $40,000 scholarship.
The most prestigious award for a U.S. high school science student also comes with a certain amount of fame, ironically much of it on TV. Growing up, though, there wasn't a TV in the Cohen home.
And that left the science prodigy plenty of time for, well, his own brand of fishing.
Curious science prodigy dissected dinner
Adam's mother, Audrey Cohen, recalls that as a child, he would take the fish she brought home from the market for dinner and dissect it, trying to fathom fish anatomy. That was when she first began to see the scientist in her son.
He scored a perfect 1,600 score on his SATs and plans to go to either Harvard or MIT. One of his teachers, Laurence Borten, describes Cohen as "the kind of student who, almost every day, asks me a question I've never been asked before by a student."
The invention that won Cohen the Westinghouse prize is called a "scanning tunneling microscope." It further perfects the art of putting tiny bits of information onto computer chips. Cohen hasn't yet patented the device, but the trusting teen doesn't think anyone will steal it.
"With all the publicity, it's pretty obvious this is my idea," he says.
Correspondent Gary Tuchman contributed to this report.Related sites:
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