For millions of children growing up in the 20th century, a science kit was one of the big gifts hoped for at Christmas, right up there with a Lionel train set or a Red Ryder BB Gun. Kids with a flair for engineering hoped to unwrap an Erector set and begin constructing the next modern marvel. Those of a more experimental nature wished for a chemistry set and dreamed of discovering new elements or a cure for some disease, generating pungent odors and startling explosions as they went.
Manu Prakash was himself a kid who liked to blow up stuff. As a child in Rampur, India, Prakash didn’t have a chemistry set, so he harvested chemicals after the fireworks show during Diwali, the Hindu light festival.
“My brother and I would go out in the early morning, the day after, and collect all of the unexploded fireworks,” he recalls. “We removed all the chemicals and made a giant pile. We actually lit that thing. We didn’t put it in containment; our goal wasn’t to make a large bang. We were curious what happens when there is no coverage. It pretty much produced a mushroom cloud. It was very beautiful.”
Although he burned his hand and still carries a small scar, the Stanford bioengineer says such open-ended play was important in setting his career path. And as the first-prize winner of the Science, Play and Research Kit (SPARK) competition for reimagining scientific toys for the 21st century, he hopes his brainchild device, called the Punchcard Using Microfluidics, will provide the same inspiration and opportunities for future crops of scientists.
