Breakthrough: how one teen innovator is changing the world - Softcover

Andraka, Jack

4.08

450 ratings by Goodreads

9781922247926: Breakthrough: how one teen innovator is changing the world

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1922247928 ISBN 13: 9781922247926

Publisher: Scribe UK, 2015

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An inspiring teenage memoir from globally renowned young scientist Jack Andraka. Have you ever had a problem you would give everything to solve a problem so difficult you would spend years searching for a solution? When Jack Andraka was thirteen, he had a whole pile of problems like this. An outsider at school, he knew he didn t fit in and a close family friend was dying of cancer. But instead of giving in to the bullying and the despair, he took another path. Using his passion for science, he decided to try to create a better method of cancer detection. After conducting two years of research and asking hundreds of universities and companies for help, to no avail, Jack was finally able to secure the lab space necessary to test out his ingenious idea. In the end, he did it. Jack s early-detection test for pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers has the potential to be over four hundred times more effective than the medical standard and it costs only three cents per use. Jack was just fifteen at the time he came up with his solution. Jack Andraka s story is not just one of inspiring teenage success; it is a story of overcoming depression and homophobic bullying, and of finding the resilience to persevere. Whatever your age and interests, his book will motivate you to pursue your own dreams in the face of resistance, and to never stop learning. Full of fun, simple experiments you can try at home, Breakthrough is an amazing personal story and a reminder of why young people s ideas deserve to be heard.

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Review:

'Spectacular stuff ... What Jack is doing is better than what I was doing in high school, I promise you.'

– Barack Obama

'This kid is the Edison of our times.'

– Dr Anirban Maitra

‘Inspiring ... Jack’s motivation is to make the world a better place and to encourage other teens to do so too.’

– Weekend Herald

'Funny, brave and super-enthusiastic, with a healthy dose of adolescent egotism and some comic glimpses of the trials of being Jack's parent, Breakthrough is an inspiring story for would-be scientists ... just don't complain when they turn your microwave into a ray gun.'

– Jane Shilling, Daily Mail

'A heartening and inspirational read.'

– Keeley Bolger, Dubbo Weekender

‘Anyone who is feeling despair about bullying, about homophobia, about how to make their great idea come to fruition, would do well to read this incredible story’

– Geelong Advertiser

'High school students would gain immensely from reading Breakthrough, and the rest of us would too, especially to help keep the feeling of hope alive.'

– Kieran Salsone, Queensland Times

‘The book is pitched at young people and Andraka’s geeky charm comes through. So even if he has been over-hyped, in the end what’s not to like about a gay nerd doing his bit to show how exciting braininess can be?’

– Owen Richardson, Sydney Morning Herald

From the Back Cover:

Jack wouldn't give up.

After a dear family friend died of pancreatic cancer, Jack Andraka decided to create a better method of early detection. It took two hundred letters before Jack found lab space to pursue his idea and months of work to make it a reality, but in the end, he did it. Jack's early-detection test for pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers has the potential to be over four hundred times more effective than the medical standard and cost only three cents. Jack was fifteen at the time.

Jack's story is not just one of dizzying international success; it is a story of overcoming depression and homophobic bullying and finding the resilience to persevere and come out. His account inspires young people, who he argues are the most innovative, to fight for the right to be taken seriously and to pursue their own dreams. With hands-on science experiments included, Jack's memoir empowers his generation with the knowledge that we can each change the world if we only have the courage to try.

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