My earthworm research got me a meeting with Obama
He had impressively soft hands
While you were spending your junior year of high school cramming for AP tests, current Forbes sophomore Anne Merrill was creating the future.
The 19-year-old eco-warrior was perfecting a soon-to-be-patented procedure that would make her $10,000 and get her invited to the White House. Twice.
Anne, who plans to major in French, worked with dozens of worms in her basement to invent a new way of getting biochar nutrients deep into soil without using harmful chemicals or disruptive plowing.
We sat down with Anne to ask her about her research, her prize money and meeting Obama.
In the lab
What do your earthworms do?
They burrow horizontally down, so they get biochar nutrients to the roots of the plant system. They’re native to the United States – you can find them in the ground where I’m from in Connecticut – but they’re not usually used in farming.
Where did you get the worms and the biochar?
I got my worms at bait shops. Some of the biochar was made by a hurricane a few years ago, but I also got a random batch that some Yale undergraduates made in a garage for fun. That actually didn’t do well at all. I didn’t end up using it for the final project.
And you’re in the process of getting the procedure patented, right?
I’m slacking on that right now – no one steal this idea, please! It’s just so much paperwork.
Where did you do the experimenting itself? Where did you keep the worms?
Literally in two giant buckets in my basement. And in my refrigerator – I had back-up worms in the fridge. Worms get really sluggish in cold temperatures, but some of them would still get loose, and slowly inch their way across the fridge. My sister came home for a weekend and screamed.
This project got you shortlisted as an Intel Science Talent Search finalist, and you were invited to spend a week in DC. What was that like?
I was the only finalist from Connecticut. Which is not horribly shocking, to be honest. I flew down with my science fair poster. The big event was a gala – they gave us pro makeup artists, and there was a professional camera crew following us around.
We also met Obama, and he gave a lovely speech and went around and shook our hands. He had, like, really soft hands. Actually really soft hands. Impressively soft hands. I was really impressed. Soft enough to be notable.
What did you do with the prize money?
I got ten grand, but of course Princeton takes it immediately. They’re like, oh, you have money now? We will take that, thank you. I never saw a penny of it. But I’m fine, because it was a lovely week.
You went back to DC later that year for another science fair at the White House.
All this time I had wanted to get a mohawk, but I had all this science fair stuff to go to, and I had to look professional. Two weeks after I cut my hair, I got another phone call. They said they wanted me to come down to the White House science fair. I started growing out my mohawk immediately, which I’m still sad about. But I got to meet Bill Nye, so that was pretty cool.
Anne with Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and the Mythbusters team
And then you got into Princeton, and now you’re majoring in French.
Or maybe Comparative Literature. I haven’t decided. I guess I felt too limited when I was just doing science.
And after Princeton?
At the moment I’m thinking of doing environmental policy and activism.
So what advice for people using your biochar-spreading procedure in their own gardens?
Make sure you get worms from your local area. And biochar that isn’t made by Yale students. Obviously. Because Yale sucks.