The tool kit allows children to practise basic microbiology with ingredients sourced solely from their environment and surroundings.
Some modern antibiotics and medicines have been sourced from honey, garlic and coconut oil, meaning children can experiment with different materials and log their data and progress on the app, Post-Biotics.
Children scavenge through their environment and then test their samples in a petri dish before uploading their findings to the app.
The project aims to introduce more children into the world of medicine, and, if the children find something which is potentially useful, professional scientists can look into it further.
The designer and entrepreneur behind Post-Biotics, Vidhi Mehta, told the BBC that she wants the next Nobel Prize winner to be a citizen scientist.
“Can the next Nobel Prize winner be a citizen scientist? That is the overarching goal for this project.”
“Post-Biotics is a fun, interactive science tool kit for children to engage into scientific research and it’s looking at crowdsourcing of new antibiotics.”
“There is a little tool kit that has everything kids need to do simple basic microbiology and most antibiotic ingredients come from nature, so what this is doing is asking kids to sample their surroundings for anti-microbial properties.”
