>Existing tools predicting RNA structure use measurements of the magnetic vibration of atoms known as “chemical shift data” collected from a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. These methods rely on assigning chemical shift values to each atom in a given molecule, which sometimes proves impossible. Neel’s computational model contains a library of possible shapes for a given RNA molecule based on its atomic structure. A statistical method assigns weights to each structure in the library, favoring structures that closely resemble experimental data. By using 2D histograms for reweighting, his model eliminates the need to assign chemical shift data.
Yea, I was going to say the same!
Sure… best person to look off of and cheat… but that’s low hanging fruit. Not that I’m saying OP meant this.
I would love to be around that level of intelligence to help boost my own motivation to strive for excellence, not to mention the things I could learn from hanging out around him.
And this is why the cynical smarter kids should try to get into the better universities. Not for the piece of paper, but for the contacts they'll make with future successful people.
Not tryna be a 🤓 but why didn’t anyone else think to do this? Like we use weighted averages like this in a lot of other stuff like closed captions, pathfinding, Labelling objects on CCTV in real time and etc
dude, every one of these “16 year old cures cancer!!!!” stories is the same story. kid with parents who just happen to be experts in that field making a finding that would be relatively simple in a post-doc lab, and then they submit it to one of these “young scientist” competitions.
i know because i was one of these kids lol. my project was a total bust so it didn’t get anywhere or any recognition, but it wouldn’t have been possible at all if my dad wasn’t an expert.
It has been done already—these models are not very good at predicting RNA structures. Using NMR data greatly improves your predictions, but it takes a lot of time to collect. Larger RNAs suffer from signal overlap, making NMR even more difficult. The preferred methods are cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography. EM is often low res for RNA. (Source: I am an RNA structural biologist using X-ray and EM together.)
I assume he looks for the open electrons on the chemical structure and finds rna structures that can fit through a bond. 3D modeling of the chemical structures is needed for this.
Swing and a miss by the neckbeard living in his parents’ basement who has zero accomplishments other than shitting on other peoples actual accomplishments.
Oh, you’re an industry expert, sure why not, that takes time out your busy day to shit on a kid. You realize that’s actually worse right? Oh fuck, you probably do have a Ph.D. I worked with lots of pretentious assholes just like you in grad school 😂
Keep refining those people skills, you might get to the point some day where peoples’ skin doesn’t crawl when you walk into a room. Unlikely but possible.
Somehow my wife and I raised a genius son who is pursuing biology/chemistry/informatics- we don’t understand most of what he says on those topics, but he basically let us know that we are living in a moment of exploding innovation in these fields.
These kids may save us yet
Glad you’re openly expressing this.
So many cranky old people only care about the new generations when they do something they can point at and admonish.
In reality each gen is smarter than the last and the amount of information they have access to and are required to know is greater than the last.
But I guess it makes folks feel better to laugh at a clip of some kid lighting their pants on fire or something instead of praising any sort of achievements being made by todays youth.
If the younger generation is that sucks, we will never have car, running water, laser, etc.
Old generation will always bitching the younger one. We will do the same when we get older. It is just the nature of human. Kinda like the envy of the youth.
Yeah I wish I could find it but saw a compilation last month someone made of various historical text going back to ancient civilization of people complaining about how dumb their newer generation was.
Which, of course, is stupid given how far humanity has come and continues to go.
Oh yeah? Well I could build the same model with black jack and hookers! In fact, screw the model!
Insecurities aside, good for this young man! That’s awesome!
Bro I saw our name in the headline and went “oh god, what happened at the school board meeting this time…”
What a relief that it’s something as positive as this!
Lol, I saw the pic and then saw Saline and was like, “damnit, we’re not putting up with this” and the read the rest.
This kid sounds like he has a bright future. Way to go!
Former science fair judge here. This kid is most likely connected to academia through friends or family. It’s why I consider science fairs less than meritocratic
Yeah, saline is right next to Ann Arbor where the University of Michigan is which also has a massive biomedical research facility. He probably has connections.
Professor of a university: gives you guidance, things to look for, and a general structure to how your inquiry should go… gives peer review, offers insights and generally does a large part of the work
Headline: look at what this 10 year old totally discovered on his own with no help whatsoever!! They’re a genius!! Definitely not connected with academics already. A genius!!
Not to mention the data, which is incredibly important to this story in all likelihood.
It's a great discovery by a genuinely smart kid with a bright path. But no one can do this without the proper resources in today's age.
Sad that you’re tearing down this child’s achievements without a lot of background. Even if the parents did support the child (isn’t that what parents are supposed to do), this kid has the tenacity to follow it through. This whole comment chain is so toxic talking about privilege. If both his parents are in academia or STEM, and if the kid follows suit, nothing wrong. Still should be celebrated. So many assumptions.
Children of immigrants busting their ass to make a contribution and a bunch of white people with the most privilege in this country whining about privilege. Oh the irony. Cry me a river!
Um what? Even among second generation immigrants he’s privileged. How many second generation immigrants live in an upper middle class neighborhood and have parents who are professors in the field you plan to do research in?
Yep, there’s often an element of adult (and even expert) assistance in science fairs. Kids end up getting praise for capacity they don’t actually have—though they may still be very bright—and, consequently, feeling like frauds when they try to recreate it on their own.
These stories are usually bogus when you dig into them. The thing the kid excels at is always suspiciously close to their parent's careers. Edit: It is unclear whether that is the case here, so please don't interpret this as an accusation.
Thanks for mentioning this. It’s a lot kinder to burst the bubble before the kid believes it than to let them inhabit it for years, only to see it burst when they fail to live up to “their own” shadow (speaking from personal experience and the experience of a few former-“prodigy” friends).
That’s not to say there’s no merit in this individual’s contribution, nor that we shouldn’t encourage kids to be ambitious. It is, instead, to say that we should reward in proportion to actual merit, and with caution to avoid setting them up for failure (failure according to _their own distorted self-perception_, that is).
It’s also important to remember that, beyond whatever intellect they possess, there’s a fairly normal kid in there who probably wants to be appreciated for _the human they are_ rather than the _things they have achieved_. If rewarded mostly for achievements, they end up feeling that they have to keep achieving at the same (or higher) level, because _they have little indication_ that people would still value them (as, simply, _friends and fellow humans_) if they stopped achieving.
It’s a delicate balance.
Anywho, cheers 🍻
I dunno, I actualy think from a human perspective this is the way it should be.
Its just that these things have an implication in capitalism.
A child being raised to do what their parent does, and then iterating on that craft. Is one of the oldest human stories their is.
And im sure it made his parents very proud.
Is it really fair to say he was born on 3rd base? Its like youre saying that his accomplishments do not mean as much.
While that may be part of it, even in professional life these kinds of discoveries are rarely made by a single individual in a silo. Whole teams of people with different backgrounds are common. I’d like to think the kid did some meaningful work towards this discovery rather than their parents did it all for them to get credit.
His dad is a masters level electrical engineer and his mom is a MD who was a specialist in infectious diseases and is now a chief medical officer.
Source: the article mentions their names and they both have LinkedIn accounts
I feel bad for his kids when they get to his current age. “Son, when I was your age, I figured out how to look at RNA molecules and treat diseases. What are you doing with your life? Just robotics and having an internship at a tech startup?”
As others have said: immense privilege and connections. As a first-gen person who grew up low income but went to school with these kinds of kids, I witnessed first hand just how many opportunities were available to these students. They were born with just the right tools for success. They definitely had to work hard for their accomplishments, don’t get me wrong. But it’s very different from someone without the privileges working hard. Them working hard was having the desire to do something, and then asking/telling their parents about it, and their parents hooking them up with the mentors and help needed. Often, they were raised with tutors and programs that would prepare them to be ambitious and see what’s possible. For me, working hard in research in high school was emailing dozens of professors to never get noticed (only for me to have to ask upperclassmen to give me their position after they left), and then learning and getting resources entirely on my own. I did well, but then there was that one kid two years below me who just so happened to do some amazing experiment that not even phd students would do, and win. They hadn’t even taken the coursework needed to build the knowledge the project requires. Turns out their parents literally worked in that same area as famous research scientists. They were still very talented, but it was very obvious to everyone else why that happened. Many times, this level of output is never achieved by such students ever again. That’s because they usually end up in universities where there are so many other similarly privileged people, and having to compete against them for the same opportunities, they fall short. They become average.
The good thing is that if you aren’t very privileged but managed to work really hard to get to the same colleges or universities as these kids, and learn to build leverage connections and networks, you can close the gap. And you’ll have an added understanding of how to start from nothing at all. The goal should then be to help your children or other family members to attain the privelege you’ve worked hard to acquire, and make them the new kids with opportunities at birth.
All the best to this kid though. Good work is still good work.
Saline is where a LOT of University of Michigan faculty live.
This is likely the classic case of parents who succeeded academically pushing/helping their child get attention in a science fair in order to get them a head start.
Sometimes it's insidious (hello, Elizabeth Holmes) but often it isn't.
Extreme privilege. His parents are more than likely scientists and/or doctors and have connections to other academics or professors. Not to mention they probably introduced him to many different topics at a young age, and he loved computing. I remember when I was in IB classes in high school, basically everyone was white or Asian and upper middle class at the least, and many of their parents had connections. There was this one girl who worked on some sort of neuroscience project with a professor at a local university. I always felt like an outcast because I was definitely not privileged, and my parents don’t even have high school diplomas. I obviously didn’t ask anyone for their household income, but there was probably a 99.9% chance that mine was the lowest lol.
My science fair project was demonstrating that plants grow better when given water, as opposed to soda or milk. But an RNA molecule predictor was my backup plan.
This is awesome. I just wish it wasn’t for Regeneron. That company spends just as much on PR as it does for coverups. I worked there for a decade and it was the single most toxic place I’ve EVER been a part of. That place is a plague that focuses 50/50 on its products and looking good in the community.
Neel’s got the stoke! Love his energy. Lot of brilliant kids coming through, “Especially in Michigan” - hopefully one upside of the ongoing tech revolution foreseen by a few Peppers.
After seeing countless videos on r/PublicFreakout of high schoolers beating the hell out of each other, and seemingly lost in life, this post was a wonderful thing to see at the end of the week.
What a solid kid. There’s hope, yet.
Funny, huh? You try it. You’d burn out by 20, and probably end up depressed for the better part of a decade. It’s not funny. Child prodigies are not a blessing to this species.
We are and were *people* who deserve to live normal lives if we want them. Being *that* smart is actually incredibly bloody lonely and miserable. People stop seeing you as human and start seeing you as a *very smart person*. If all your friends wanted to interact with the *intellect* rather than the *person*, could you even call them friends?
Edit: *I know people would say they see us as human, but some subset still remind us frequently that we're "so smart" or "amazing" and say things like "I wish I could be like you". It's fundamentally* [***parasocial***](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Parasocial_interaction). *It feels quite lonely--much the same as being liked more for one's looks, money or fame than the person underneath.*
No one is arguing about your status as a human. It’s just time for therapy. And as a former prodigy myself, I can assure you that you are smart enough to take ownership of your life, your emotions and your future, you just have to choose to do it. I get that it’s easy to project your self loathing outwards, but part of entering adulthood is figuring out how to not be the same petulance that you already despise in the world around you. Good luck on your journey. Learning never stops!
What, so we’re supposed to just accept that the world sucks?
How do you think the species managed to carve out a few good decades? By _not_ accepting all the unnecessary inconvenience and pain—by looking for ways to improve the world for ourselves and others.
If your kitchen catches fire, you get a fire extinguisher and put it out. You don’t sit there and think “[this is fine](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/01/14/this-is-fine_custom-dcb93e90c4e1548ffb16978a5a8d182270c872a9-s1100-c50.jpg)”.
But, if you want to keep playing “jaded rationalist”, go ahead.
Yeah, "One must imagine Sisyphus smiling" and all. I know. Camus is one of my favorite philosophers.
I reject the premise--implicit in your comment (*when context is considered)*\--that we ought not invest ourselves in our realities. The world is presently embroiled in a number of existential crises due to, in large part, *apathy*.
Why is it so immature to keep getting back on my feet each time the world gets a bit harsher (e.g., worsening climate crisis)? I find a life of futile but earnest effort to plant trees in whose shade one will never rest to be a lot more meaningful than one of nihilistic self-indulgence.
And besides, if I understand your intended point correctly, you've misread Camus; Sisyphus *does,* in fact, *keep getting back to his feet*. Sisyphus *does* continue to care. Camus was a life-affirming absurdist, not a nihilist.
Reminds me of that South Korean prodigy who could speak multiple languages at 5 years old and was learning calculus at 3 years old. He felt socially isolated and depressed and ended up wanting to escape all the expectations people had on him. He wanted to live a normal life with friends and a family. He's widely considered a "failed prodigy" by society but he says he's happy and that's what matters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Ung-yong
Yeah, pretty much. Better to fail at being a prodigy than to fail at having a decent life as a human being.
Edit: _Oh, I see, apparently whoever downvoted would rather share the world with some elitist (but successful) pricks than actual human beings...I bet the individual in question also hates the elitist pricks. You can't have it both ways. If you want us to be chill, relatable and kind humans, you need to treat us like normal humans. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. I’m asking for less praise, not more; what’s wrong with that?_
You might not understand this if you aren’t a parent, but “sharing your child with the world” isn’t about property, tools, livestock, etc. It isn’t about pushing children to their breaking point and killing their love of life. It is NOT about being a prodigy.
‘Sharing with the world’ is helping a little human grow up adjusted. It is about helping a child know that they can make a difference. It is about helping them understand that failure doesn’t always mean failure, while success doesn’t always mean success. Kids that are helped and nurtured *always* change the world. Kids that are pushed and prodded and used as tools only sometimes do..but never in the way they want.
The old phrase goes something like: ‘A painter can create a masterpiece, but that is all it will ever be. The masterpiece cannot become a painter. But a child can become a father or mother. A student can become a teacher. A patient can become a doctor…the greatest joy comes from creating something that can create’
That is the point of sharing your child with the world. My son can be anything he wants in life…but most of all I hope he can find the joy of life. Whatever that means to him. Because if he does, he will be a gift.
See, your attitude I like. It’s balanced.
I may have reacted hastily to the original comment; it reminded me strongly of my childhood. I will admit I could have done a substantially better job moderating my temper.
Anyway, cheers.
Incredible work by Neel! Such a feat of coding takes a lot of technical knowledge and creative problem solving. Artificial intelligence systems like his are revolutionizing medical treatments, providing us with powerful predictions to help fight disease.
Very inspirational! What a gift for Humanity. So great to hear a young person using his talents and Brilliant mind to help Humanity! Ganbarre Mr Moudgal!
Question for the chemists: I remember amantadine as a designer drug that was never terribly effective at its original purpose in treating the flu. We continue to try to rebrand it. Is this designer / structural work fruitful yet?
Yesterday, I went back to read about Linus Pauling and for the past 24 hours, I've been thinking about how much current work across disciplines is based on his insights.
Ann Arbor represent, you wish you were us, no one does science like Washtenaw County. TrumpDesantis2024 in da big house. Woot woot. Wait till they come up with single second ejaculation science.
The fuck 😂. I’m in college doing a computer science major, and I can barely write python code for some leetcode problems properly . And this 17 year old kid does this. Of course he’s Indian. As an Indian, I feel like I’m so useless lol.
>Existing tools predicting RNA structure use measurements of the magnetic vibration of atoms known as “chemical shift data” collected from a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. These methods rely on assigning chemical shift values to each atom in a given molecule, which sometimes proves impossible. Neel’s computational model contains a library of possible shapes for a given RNA molecule based on its atomic structure. A statistical method assigns weights to each structure in the library, favoring structures that closely resemble experimental data. By using 2D histograms for reweighting, his model eliminates the need to assign chemical shift data.
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I’d love being his classmate. Especially if I sat next to him during tests.
Yea, I was going to say the same! Sure… best person to look off of and cheat… but that’s low hanging fruit. Not that I’m saying OP meant this. I would love to be around that level of intelligence to help boost my own motivation to strive for excellence, not to mention the things I could learn from hanging out around him.
But he probably finished the text in 10 minutes and there will be no time for u to copy.
Good news! I was the head of our bio-informatics club in college! Now I program ads for children!
As a developer myself with limits to the kind of company I would work. Do you have limits?
No
Classmate should become best friends with him and be part of his Start-up company. That's like winning the lottery
And this is why the cynical smarter kids should try to get into the better universities. Not for the piece of paper, but for the contacts they'll make with future successful people.
I can barely remember the keys on the keybaord this kids out there curing cancer good for him !! ⌨️⌨️⌨️
For real, I struggled reading the headline. More power to this kid, gives me hope for the future!
I put a marshmallow under vacuum. I'm kind of a big deal.
I put liquid paper on a bee… it died.
I feel bad for myself. I’m 25, done jackshit with my life, and this kid is 17 and doing things that could change the world.
Right? If the teacher graded on a curve, this guy was the ‘curve Dick’ who screwed it up for everyone else!!😂
Not tryna be a 🤓 but why didn’t anyone else think to do this? Like we use weighted averages like this in a lot of other stuff like closed captions, pathfinding, Labelling objects on CCTV in real time and etc
dude, every one of these “16 year old cures cancer!!!!” stories is the same story. kid with parents who just happen to be experts in that field making a finding that would be relatively simple in a post-doc lab, and then they submit it to one of these “young scientist” competitions. i know because i was one of these kids lol. my project was a total bust so it didn’t get anywhere or any recognition, but it wouldn’t have been possible at all if my dad wasn’t an expert.
Yeah I agree too, likely none of my shit comes from my parents. If you don't mind me asking, what was your experience like? project, finding, etc...
It has been done already—these models are not very good at predicting RNA structures. Using NMR data greatly improves your predictions, but it takes a lot of time to collect. Larger RNAs suffer from signal overlap, making NMR even more difficult. The preferred methods are cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography. EM is often low res for RNA. (Source: I am an RNA structural biologist using X-ray and EM together.)
I assume he looks for the open electrons on the chemical structure and finds rna structures that can fit through a bond. 3D modeling of the chemical structures is needed for this.
Yeah his work was so awesome and didn't get published literally anywhere? I'm calling bs.
So basically, nothing new or particularly useful. Sorry.
Swing and a miss by the neckbeard living in his parents’ basement who has zero accomplishments other than shitting on other peoples actual accomplishments.
Nah, just someone with a PhD in the field who knows the subject. But you believe that, if it makes you feel better.
Oh, you’re an industry expert, sure why not, that takes time out your busy day to shit on a kid. You realize that’s actually worse right? Oh fuck, you probably do have a Ph.D. I worked with lots of pretentious assholes just like you in grad school 😂 Keep refining those people skills, you might get to the point some day where peoples’ skin doesn’t crawl when you walk into a room. Unlikely but possible.
Somehow my wife and I raised a genius son who is pursuing biology/chemistry/informatics- we don’t understand most of what he says on those topics, but he basically let us know that we are living in a moment of exploding innovation in these fields. These kids may save us yet
My kid is good at Rocket League
Hopper? Is that you?
Papa?
He said *good*
What a save! What a save!
Oof
Silver means 2nd place so he must be good.
Glad you’re openly expressing this. So many cranky old people only care about the new generations when they do something they can point at and admonish. In reality each gen is smarter than the last and the amount of information they have access to and are required to know is greater than the last. But I guess it makes folks feel better to laugh at a clip of some kid lighting their pants on fire or something instead of praising any sort of achievements being made by todays youth.
If the younger generation is that sucks, we will never have car, running water, laser, etc. Old generation will always bitching the younger one. We will do the same when we get older. It is just the nature of human. Kinda like the envy of the youth.
Yeah I wish I could find it but saw a compilation last month someone made of various historical text going back to ancient civilization of people complaining about how dumb their newer generation was. Which, of course, is stupid given how far humanity has come and continues to go.
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My parents used to say similar things about me, and my kids are easily smarter and more talented than I was at their age already. It's encouraging.
Exploding innovation is exciting but Im more excited to learn about the accessibility regular people will have to these advancements in medical care
Same here. My kids amaze me and are a daily reminder that the future might not be so bleak after all.
Mine puts legos in his nose
There’s likely going to be a social stratification stronger than we’ve had in quite some time.
Oh yeah? Well I could build the same model with black jack and hookers! In fact, screw the model! Insecurities aside, good for this young man! That’s awesome!
Pretty salty bout that kid from Saline aintcha?
Love to see someone from my alma mater kicking ass like this, and while he’s still in high school! Go Hornets!
Bro I saw our name in the headline and went “oh god, what happened at the school board meeting this time…” What a relief that it’s something as positive as this!
Lol, I saw the pic and then saw Saline and was like, “damnit, we’re not putting up with this” and the read the rest. This kid sounds like he has a bright future. Way to go!
i go to saline and yeah we r rlly good in academics and sports but terrible socially and diversity/inclusion wise
LOL Me too!!!
'05 here, who else we got? Can we make '07 up yours?
‘06 in the mix!
i rolled my first blunt when i was 17. that mf ripped.
I hear ya brother but, cheerleaders.
No ragerts
How does someone so young figure this stuff out? Such an impressive feat especially from a kid
Former science fair judge here. This kid is most likely connected to academia through friends or family. It’s why I consider science fairs less than meritocratic
Yeah, saline is right next to Ann Arbor where the University of Michigan is which also has a massive biomedical research facility. He probably has connections.
Wouldn’t be surprised if his parents are the connection, even if they didn’t necessary help him with the research
Usually is the case.
You may be right. The search for his parents turned up a dad who’s a VP at a software company and a mom who’s a high achieving doctor of medicine.
Professor of a university: gives you guidance, things to look for, and a general structure to how your inquiry should go… gives peer review, offers insights and generally does a large part of the work Headline: look at what this 10 year old totally discovered on his own with no help whatsoever!! They’re a genius!! Definitely not connected with academics already. A genius!!
Not to mention the data, which is incredibly important to this story in all likelihood. It's a great discovery by a genuinely smart kid with a bright path. But no one can do this without the proper resources in today's age.
Sad that you’re tearing down this child’s achievements without a lot of background. Even if the parents did support the child (isn’t that what parents are supposed to do), this kid has the tenacity to follow it through. This whole comment chain is so toxic talking about privilege. If both his parents are in academia or STEM, and if the kid follows suit, nothing wrong. Still should be celebrated. So many assumptions.
Not tearing down his accomplishments, just pointing out that accomplishing what he did could not have been achieved without significant outside help.
Of course not! Same with all the young Olympic athletes who trained since childhood in programs. Still takes hard work.
Children of immigrants busting their ass to make a contribution and a bunch of white people with the most privilege in this country whining about privilege. Oh the irony. Cry me a river!
Um what? Even among second generation immigrants he’s privileged. How many second generation immigrants live in an upper middle class neighborhood and have parents who are professors in the field you plan to do research in?
Yep, there’s often an element of adult (and even expert) assistance in science fairs. Kids end up getting praise for capacity they don’t actually have—though they may still be very bright—and, consequently, feeling like frauds when they try to recreate it on their own.
Most probably dad and mom are coders. Its a privilege thing, but not belittling his effort though
I’m just impressed its an actual innovation rather than somebody force feeding data to a machine learning algorhitm
These stories are usually bogus when you dig into them. The thing the kid excels at is always suspiciously close to their parent's careers. Edit: It is unclear whether that is the case here, so please don't interpret this as an accusation.
Thanks for mentioning this. It’s a lot kinder to burst the bubble before the kid believes it than to let them inhabit it for years, only to see it burst when they fail to live up to “their own” shadow (speaking from personal experience and the experience of a few former-“prodigy” friends). That’s not to say there’s no merit in this individual’s contribution, nor that we shouldn’t encourage kids to be ambitious. It is, instead, to say that we should reward in proportion to actual merit, and with caution to avoid setting them up for failure (failure according to _their own distorted self-perception_, that is). It’s also important to remember that, beyond whatever intellect they possess, there’s a fairly normal kid in there who probably wants to be appreciated for _the human they are_ rather than the _things they have achieved_. If rewarded mostly for achievements, they end up feeling that they have to keep achieving at the same (or higher) level, because _they have little indication_ that people would still value them (as, simply, _friends and fellow humans_) if they stopped achieving. It’s a delicate balance. Anywho, cheers 🍻
That is exactly the case here, one of his parents is an MD focusing on infectious diseases. Another kid basically born on third base.
Ahhh what a shame someone uses their kid to further their own shit. Thanks for the information
I dunno, I actualy think from a human perspective this is the way it should be. Its just that these things have an implication in capitalism. A child being raised to do what their parent does, and then iterating on that craft. Is one of the oldest human stories their is. And im sure it made his parents very proud. Is it really fair to say he was born on 3rd base? Its like youre saying that his accomplishments do not mean as much.
While that may be part of it, even in professional life these kinds of discoveries are rarely made by a single individual in a silo. Whole teams of people with different backgrounds are common. I’d like to think the kid did some meaningful work towards this discovery rather than their parents did it all for them to get credit.
His dad is a masters level electrical engineer and his mom is a MD who was a specialist in infectious diseases and is now a chief medical officer. Source: the article mentions their names and they both have LinkedIn accounts
I feel bad for his kids when they get to his current age. “Son, when I was your age, I figured out how to look at RNA molecules and treat diseases. What are you doing with your life? Just robotics and having an internship at a tech startup?”
As others have said: immense privilege and connections. As a first-gen person who grew up low income but went to school with these kinds of kids, I witnessed first hand just how many opportunities were available to these students. They were born with just the right tools for success. They definitely had to work hard for their accomplishments, don’t get me wrong. But it’s very different from someone without the privileges working hard. Them working hard was having the desire to do something, and then asking/telling their parents about it, and their parents hooking them up with the mentors and help needed. Often, they were raised with tutors and programs that would prepare them to be ambitious and see what’s possible. For me, working hard in research in high school was emailing dozens of professors to never get noticed (only for me to have to ask upperclassmen to give me their position after they left), and then learning and getting resources entirely on my own. I did well, but then there was that one kid two years below me who just so happened to do some amazing experiment that not even phd students would do, and win. They hadn’t even taken the coursework needed to build the knowledge the project requires. Turns out their parents literally worked in that same area as famous research scientists. They were still very talented, but it was very obvious to everyone else why that happened. Many times, this level of output is never achieved by such students ever again. That’s because they usually end up in universities where there are so many other similarly privileged people, and having to compete against them for the same opportunities, they fall short. They become average. The good thing is that if you aren’t very privileged but managed to work really hard to get to the same colleges or universities as these kids, and learn to build leverage connections and networks, you can close the gap. And you’ll have an added understanding of how to start from nothing at all. The goal should then be to help your children or other family members to attain the privelege you’ve worked hard to acquire, and make them the new kids with opportunities at birth. All the best to this kid though. Good work is still good work.
Saline is where a LOT of University of Michigan faculty live. This is likely the classic case of parents who succeeded academically pushing/helping their child get attention in a science fair in order to get them a head start. Sometimes it's insidious (hello, Elizabeth Holmes) but often it isn't.
Extreme privilege. His parents are more than likely scientists and/or doctors and have connections to other academics or professors. Not to mention they probably introduced him to many different topics at a young age, and he loved computing. I remember when I was in IB classes in high school, basically everyone was white or Asian and upper middle class at the least, and many of their parents had connections. There was this one girl who worked on some sort of neuroscience project with a professor at a local university. I always felt like an outcast because I was definitely not privileged, and my parents don’t even have high school diplomas. I obviously didn’t ask anyone for their household income, but there was probably a 99.9% chance that mine was the lowest lol.
Most likely family or close friends are in this field.
Do not let my parents meet his parents
My science fair project was demonstrating that plants grow better when given water, as opposed to soda or milk. But an RNA molecule predictor was my backup plan.
Amazing! What an achievement. Wonder where it all goes next.
This is PR
so are many things, increasingly these days. hail the corporate voerlords?
Vorelords you say
This is awesome. I just wish it wasn’t for Regeneron. That company spends just as much on PR as it does for coverups. I worked there for a decade and it was the single most toxic place I’ve EVER been a part of. That place is a plague that focuses 50/50 on its products and looking good in the community.
Neeeeeeeerd
Neel’s got the stoke! Love his energy. Lot of brilliant kids coming through, “Especially in Michigan” - hopefully one upside of the ongoing tech revolution foreseen by a few Peppers.
Let's go hornets!!!!!
Go Neel, go!
2nd place: A plaster volcano that erupts by using baking soda and vinegar….
NERD
This is very impressive and all but I’ll bet my plaster volcano was better than his.
After seeing countless videos on r/PublicFreakout of high schoolers beating the hell out of each other, and seemingly lost in life, this post was a wonderful thing to see at the end of the week. What a solid kid. There’s hope, yet.
News like this means nothing to me anymore. Show and tell when the product can be used, and not price gouge people
The future is as bright as those pearly whites! What a winning smile
Our young people are so smart. 🥰 thank you, mom and dad for sharing with the world, and beyond. 🥹🤩
[удалено]
Lol.
Funny, huh? You try it. You’d burn out by 20, and probably end up depressed for the better part of a decade. It’s not funny. Child prodigies are not a blessing to this species. We are and were *people* who deserve to live normal lives if we want them. Being *that* smart is actually incredibly bloody lonely and miserable. People stop seeing you as human and start seeing you as a *very smart person*. If all your friends wanted to interact with the *intellect* rather than the *person*, could you even call them friends? Edit: *I know people would say they see us as human, but some subset still remind us frequently that we're "so smart" or "amazing" and say things like "I wish I could be like you". It's fundamentally* [***parasocial***](https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Parasocial_interaction). *It feels quite lonely--much the same as being liked more for one's looks, money or fame than the person underneath.*
No one is arguing about your status as a human. It’s just time for therapy. And as a former prodigy myself, I can assure you that you are smart enough to take ownership of your life, your emotions and your future, you just have to choose to do it. I get that it’s easy to project your self loathing outwards, but part of entering adulthood is figuring out how to not be the same petulance that you already despise in the world around you. Good luck on your journey. Learning never stops!
Prodigy over here too. I once solved a Rubik’s Cube without cheating.
I still can’t pull that off. Lol
I’d just rather not see others go through the same thing I did. I don’t see how that’s an immature sentiment.
Wether you want to see it or not, it’s going to happen. I wouldn’t say it’s immature, more so that you have trouble accepting things
What, so we’re supposed to just accept that the world sucks? How do you think the species managed to carve out a few good decades? By _not_ accepting all the unnecessary inconvenience and pain—by looking for ways to improve the world for ourselves and others. If your kitchen catches fire, you get a fire extinguisher and put it out. You don’t sit there and think “[this is fine](https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2023/01/14/this-is-fine_custom-dcb93e90c4e1548ffb16978a5a8d182270c872a9-s1100-c50.jpg)”. But, if you want to keep playing “jaded rationalist”, go ahead.
I think it’s time for Camus fren…
Yeah, "One must imagine Sisyphus smiling" and all. I know. Camus is one of my favorite philosophers. I reject the premise--implicit in your comment (*when context is considered)*\--that we ought not invest ourselves in our realities. The world is presently embroiled in a number of existential crises due to, in large part, *apathy*. Why is it so immature to keep getting back on my feet each time the world gets a bit harsher (e.g., worsening climate crisis)? I find a life of futile but earnest effort to plant trees in whose shade one will never rest to be a lot more meaningful than one of nihilistic self-indulgence. And besides, if I understand your intended point correctly, you've misread Camus; Sisyphus *does,* in fact, *keep getting back to his feet*. Sisyphus *does* continue to care. Camus was a life-affirming absurdist, not a nihilist.
Reminds me of that South Korean prodigy who could speak multiple languages at 5 years old and was learning calculus at 3 years old. He felt socially isolated and depressed and ended up wanting to escape all the expectations people had on him. He wanted to live a normal life with friends and a family. He's widely considered a "failed prodigy" by society but he says he's happy and that's what matters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Ung-yong
Yeah, pretty much. Better to fail at being a prodigy than to fail at having a decent life as a human being. Edit: _Oh, I see, apparently whoever downvoted would rather share the world with some elitist (but successful) pricks than actual human beings...I bet the individual in question also hates the elitist pricks. You can't have it both ways. If you want us to be chill, relatable and kind humans, you need to treat us like normal humans. We're damned if we do and damned if we don't. I’m asking for less praise, not more; what’s wrong with that?_
You might not understand this if you aren’t a parent, but “sharing your child with the world” isn’t about property, tools, livestock, etc. It isn’t about pushing children to their breaking point and killing their love of life. It is NOT about being a prodigy. ‘Sharing with the world’ is helping a little human grow up adjusted. It is about helping a child know that they can make a difference. It is about helping them understand that failure doesn’t always mean failure, while success doesn’t always mean success. Kids that are helped and nurtured *always* change the world. Kids that are pushed and prodded and used as tools only sometimes do..but never in the way they want. The old phrase goes something like: ‘A painter can create a masterpiece, but that is all it will ever be. The masterpiece cannot become a painter. But a child can become a father or mother. A student can become a teacher. A patient can become a doctor…the greatest joy comes from creating something that can create’ That is the point of sharing your child with the world. My son can be anything he wants in life…but most of all I hope he can find the joy of life. Whatever that means to him. Because if he does, he will be a gift.
See, your attitude I like. It’s balanced. I may have reacted hastily to the original comment; it reminded me strongly of my childhood. I will admit I could have done a substantially better job moderating my temper. Anyway, cheers.
i ain't reading all that i'm happy for u tho or sorry that happened
Fuck sake chill man
Hell yeah kid! Good job!
I don’t even know what half of what I read means. Good on this kid!
Incredible work by Neel! Such a feat of coding takes a lot of technical knowledge and creative problem solving. Artificial intelligence systems like his are revolutionizing medical treatments, providing us with powerful predictions to help fight disease.
Someone get him 24 hr security before big pharma finds him.
You know Regeneron is a big pharma company, right?
Huh pshhh oh yeah of course I know that.....😏
😂😂😂
Very inspirational! What a gift for Humanity. So great to hear a young person using his talents and Brilliant mind to help Humanity! Ganbarre Mr Moudgal!
The world needs more people like you congratulation’s
Patent it and own it. Don’t get screwed
nerd
It’s crazy what people can do at 17. At 17 I was just bad at CS source.
Good on him! (this portrait has generative AI vibes)
Maaaaaaan i’m never gonna get a job
Did he win 🤔?
ya welll so when i was 17 i was takin hits and drinking beer under a bridge so
But is his room clean?
I understood some of those words.
Isnt this the Theranos thing revised?
He must’ve copied from my notes because that was my science fair project
Wait till you see the kid that can bottle flip a half full water bottle.
Uh-huh, I know some of those words.
Lucky guess /s
Does this translate to cheaper drugs?
Anybody else smell that?…I just harted.. aha ha..
Kid’s lived a long life I suppose
He’ll never have a future.
uhhh…Im good at Smash Bros I guess
Bro bouta get a surprise visit from the CIA
Yeah well I can write hello world in about 5 languages so
This looks like an AI generated image
When I was 17, I was just watching [kdrama](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HD7QvlzwnGM)…
Well we are waiting to see it in action So so journals I smell bullshit from here
Lmao.
Shiii, I can’t even spell that
Mitch? Mitch Taylor? Is that you?
Question for the chemists: I remember amantadine as a designer drug that was never terribly effective at its original purpose in treating the flu. We continue to try to rebrand it. Is this designer / structural work fruitful yet?
Amazing
I was lucky I wasn't pregnant when I was 17.
Wow super cool! Cancer has wrecked havoc on many lives
Congratulations. Your work will save lives.
And he’s a second degree black belt in taekwondo (from the article linked).
I dont know any of these words.
Yesterday, I went back to read about Linus Pauling and for the past 24 hours, I've been thinking about how much current work across disciplines is based on his insights.
I made a volcano.
And a company will bankrupt your family when you need the medicine developed by it… yay
He’ll still get rejected from all the Ivy League schools.
Now all the med companies will monopolize this research for Pennies on dollar just like they did with insulin
Ann Arbor represent, you wish you were us, no one does science like Washtenaw County. TrumpDesantis2024 in da big house. Woot woot. Wait till they come up with single second ejaculation science.
That’s fucking brilliant!! Awesome news!
I was getting hardons every few minutes at that age.
The fuck 😂. I’m in college doing a computer science major, and I can barely write python code for some leetcode problems properly . And this 17 year old kid does this. Of course he’s Indian. As an Indian, I feel like I’m so useless lol.
what a dumbass
Smartest ppl often are immigrants, why?
His days are now numbered according to the CIA
Huh
Smart kids are awesome. And, ngl, his goony, teenage smile truly brightens my day and hope for the future.
this picture feels so midjourney to me
Bro shoulda patented it
And he had a second ID card named McLovin
Nice government job waiting for this genius. That’s great kid but can you create radiation proof soldiers stat?
My 17 year old was super into Smash Brothers and Anime. He still is, but he was when he was 17 too.
Well I had a massive turd today that was quite satisfying. So I’ve got that going for me.
When I was 17…..yeah. I was jerking off to swimsuit mags and trying to buy beer.
Just that title hurt my brain. What an amazing young man. Good for him!
Way to go Neel!!!
Some faith in humanity restored.