By Invitation | International Women’s Day

Kiara Nirghin on the gender divide in science, technology, engineering and mathematics

The inventor writes at the invitation of Malala Yousafzai

WHEN I WAS 16 years old I had an idea to help South Africa’s drought-plagued crops: a new material created from orange peels and avocado skins that could hold up to 300 times its weight in water. Inspired by waste products from the juice-manufacturing industry, I developed this new superabsorbent polymer after seeing how the water crisis was affecting my country on a month-long road trip with my family. In 2016 I won the Google Science Fair with it.

This article appeared in the By Invitation section of the print edition under the headline “Kiara Nirghin on the gender divide in science, technology, engineering and mathematics”

The Stalinisation of Russia

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