{"id":29928,"date":"2018-05-10T11:45:52","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T16:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=29928"},"modified":"2018-05-17T10:48:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T15:48:08","slug":"oklahoma-high-school-student-makes-scientific-discovery-by-questioning-common-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/05\/10\/oklahoma-high-school-student-makes-scientific-discovery-by-questioning-common-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"Oklahoma High School Student Makes Scientific Discovery By Questioning Common Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_29932\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29932\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/180503_GeorgeWang_WEB.jpg\" alt=\"George Wang (left) and his chemistry teacher Fazlur Rahman (right). Wang discovered Carbon atoms can make more bonds than ever thought.\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/180503_GeorgeWang_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/180503_GeorgeWang_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/180503_GeorgeWang_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/05\/180503_GeorgeWang_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Wang (left) and his chemistry teacher Fazlur Rahman (right). Wang discovered Carbon atoms can make more bonds than ever thought.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>George Wang, a senior at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, recently made a discovery that disrupts a fundamental theory in chemistry.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/442146606&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more--><\/p><p>He\u2019s modest, and little shy about his finding, but Fazlur Rahman, his chemistry teacher at the high school in Oklahoma City, is ecstatic.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s a wonderful feeling, isn\u2019t it?\u201d Rahman said. \u201cThat\u2019s cool!\u201d<\/p><p>George\u2019s discovery came about because his teacher asked him to think outside the box.<\/p><p>Rahman was teaching about the Carbon atom, and its natural tendency to form four bonds, which he says is basic chemistry.<\/p><p>\u201cIf a student makes five bonds in a classroom we\u2019ll think something is wrong with this kid because it cannot make five bonds,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p><p>But then Rahman introduced a <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1002\/anie.201608795\">scientific paper<\/a> \u2014 published in 2016 by a German scientist \u2014 that says in exceptional circumstances, the element can form six bonds.<\/p><p>\u201cAnd I talked to my students. I said it sounds pretty interesting and intriguing. Can you do some calculations on it?\u201d<\/p><p>Rahman says it was kind of a sarcastic question. He didn\u2019t expect a high school student to one-up a German scientist from one of the country\u2019s best universities.<\/p><p>George, however, was motivated by the challenge. He was in his junior year at the time and had just learned to use a supercomputer lab in Norman. He figured, why not use it to tackle the carbon bonding question.<\/p><p>First, though, he checked the German scientist\u2019s work. He wanted to know: could Carbon really form six bonds?<\/p><p>George says it checked out: \u201cIt turned out that it was in agreement with the paper,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>So, next, he tried for seven bonds.<\/p><p>\u201cI tried multiple compounds and one of them turned out to work,\u201d he said. \u201cI was very surprised.\u201d<\/p><p>As far as Rahman can tell, this is the first time anyone \u2014 anywhere \u2014 has ever discovered a stable, seven-bonded Carbon atom. The teacher admits he was skeptical at first and asked to see George\u2019s calculations.<\/p><p>But Rahman says he\u2019s not an expert on this kind of chemistry, so he asked Bin Wang, a chemical engineer at the University of Oklahoma, to guide George through the rest of his discovery.<\/p><p>Wang helped George check and interpret his calculations, and publish a <a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s00894-018-3640-9\">peer-reviewed paper<\/a> about the discovery in a scientific journal.<\/p><p>Since they published the paper just two and a half weeks ago, Wang says he\u2019s gotten many calls and emails about it \u2014 including one from that German scientist who discovered Carbon could form six bonds.<\/p><p>Wang says the scientist wants to try and make this seven-bonded-Carbon-atom in a lab. If that happens, it might find use in a plastic-making process \u2014 or storing Hydrogen.<\/p><p>But according to Wang, there\u2019s another reason the paper is getting so much attention: Its lead author, George, is a high school student. Rahman, George\u2019s chemistry teacher, agrees.<\/p><p>\u201cI think people will think that this kind of idea should come out of Harvard, MIT, Caltech. And it came from George Wang who is literally 18 years old,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>Rahman says George is exceptionally smart and self-motivated, but he also says young people, in general, are often naturally more curious, and fearless in their pursuit of science.<\/p><p>\u201cWhat normally as an adult, I think not possible, not doable,\u201d he said, \u201cThey take the task in a na\u00efve way. It\u2019s kind of a serendipity in my view.\u201d<\/p><p>He says there are probably lots of other kids in Oklahoma, and across the country, teeming with the ability to do great things \u2014 they just need the right support and learning environment.<\/p><p>George is about to graduate from the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics. He\u2019s headed to Stanford University in the fall but says he\u2019s not quite sure what he wants to study. He\u2019s considering chemistry, math, physics and computer science.<\/p><p>Whatever he ends up pursuing, he says he already has ideas about inventing technology that could streamline teachers\u2019 daily workload \u2014 giving educators more free time to tackle big questions with their students.<\/p><p>And if he does develop it, George says he\u2019ll bring the teaching tech back to Oklahoma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George Wang, a senior at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, recently made a discovery that disrupts a fundamental theory in chemistry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":29996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[842],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29928"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29987,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29928\/revisions\/29987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}