Duke University

Picture this—an edible tortoise-shaped syringe, spring-loaded with a needle to automatically inject a payload of medicine through the wall of your stomach. Horror movie material? Good guess, but no. It’s actually from a study by the University of Toronto. I was exposed to this wacky, creative side of science through the Summer Youth Intensive Program (currently known as the Science for Youth Intensive Program). This program, hosted by UC Berkeley College of Chemistry, consisted of 9 months of weekly virtual mentoring meetings with a Berkeley grad student. While the 4 week on-campus portion…