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South Tangerang student finds use for hair waste
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Genius Olympiad gold medalist Samuel Benedict, 17, student of SMA Santa Laurensia high school in South Tangerang, poses for photograph on Tuesday. (kompas.com/Andri Donnal Putera)
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amuel Benedict,17, a senior high school student from South Tangerang, won a gold medal at the 2017 Genius Olympiad held in Oswego, New York, USA, in June for finding a hidden use for hair waste.
The idea came to him while having his haircut when he saw how much hair waste was accumulated in a barbershop and began wondering what could be done with it all.
“In a barbershop, the hair is just put in cardboard boxes and thrown away. So, I tried to find out the content of our hair,” Samuel said Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com. Samuel is as student in SMA Santa Laurensia high school.
Samuel searched for the answer on the internet and discovered that the keratin found in hair could be used to improve paint quality. He learned that paints that are mixed with 15 percent extracted keratin are of a better quality than those without.
Keratin-mixed paint is more resistant to acid and iron coated with this paint will not corrode as easily.
The school, who knew about his research, supported Samuel and with help from his friend Christopher Richard, they were registered into the Genius Olympiad.
The high school’s headmaster Theja Kurniawan said he appreciated his students’ achievement at the international event.
He added that the school always taught its students to remember to do things that are beneficial for people, and not just to focus on academic matters. (wnd)
