56.0°,
Overcast Kennedy senior scores Intel win
Study of aerosols in the atmosphere leads to success in national contest
Kennedy High School senior Josh Cohen spent the summer of 2010 peering into a high-powered microscope at SUNY Stony Brook to study aerosols –– solids and liquids suspended inside gas molecules that were so small they were imperceptible to the human eye.
And these weren’t just any aerosols.
They came from the red and black mangrove forests of Bimini, the westernmost chain of islands in the Bahamas, 53 miles off the eastern coast of Florida. Scientists captured them using vacuum pumps.
The aerosols, measuring just three to 20 microns, were chemically dense mixtures, high in sodium, chlorine, magnesium and oxygen. Unlocking their secrets could one day help scientists foretell the future of the Earth’s changing climate; that is, will it warm, cool or stay the same in the coming decades and centuries?
