Courtesy of Lisa Fryklund/Society for Science (Shanya Gill); Courtesy of Dean Lomax (Ruby Reynolds); ©David MacDonald/Team BlueScuti (Willis Gibson)

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Making Their Mark

What do a fossil hunter, an inventor, and a gamer have in common? They have all shown that you can do great things if you put your mind to it! Read on to find out how these three kids are making their mark on the world.

January 6, 2025
By Alicia Green, Jasmine Ting, and Rebecca Zissou

The Inventor: Shanya Gill

Courtesy of Lisa Fryklund/Society for Science

Shanya Gill hopes to get Early Fire Alert out to the public soon.

Age: 13 

Lives in: San Jose, California 

When a restaurant near her home burned down in July 2022, Shanya Gill got to thinking. Smoke detectors alert people to fires. But what if there were a device that could prevent fires from starting in the first place? 

Shanya spent the next year making one. It’s called Early Fire Alert. It has a computer and thermal camera. It can identify a heat source, like a lit candle. If the heat source is left unattended for 10 minutes or longer, the device sends a text message alert.

In 2023, Shanya won $25,000 from the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge for her invention. She encourages kids to bring their ideas to life.

“Kids should keep their eyes open to notice problems in the world,” Shanya says. “And they should believe they can solve them.”

The Fossil Hunter: Ruby Reynolds

Courtesy of Dean Lomax 

This illustration shows what an ichthyosaur might have looked like.

Age: 15 

Lives in: Braunton, England 

Ruby Reynolds was about to make a big discovery. It was May 2020. Ruby and her dad were fossil hunting on a beach near their home. They saw a 4-inch-long fossil. Then another piece of hardened bone caught Ruby’s eye. It was twice as long. 

The fossils were from the jawbone of an ichthyosaur (IK-thee-uh-sor). Like other prehistoric creatures, the bodies of ichthyosaurs rotted away over time. Some of their bones became fossils.

Ruby and her dad later returned to the beach with a paleontologist and another fossil expert. The group found even more pieces of jawbone. 

The remains were from a type of ichthyosaur no one had known about before. It lived about 202 million years ago and was more than 80 feet long. It’s the largest ocean reptile ever found!

Today the fossils are on display at a museum in England. Ruby hopes to inspire more kids to explore.

“You never know where a discovery may take you,” she told reporters.

The Gamer: Willis Gibson

©David MacDonald/Team BlueScuti (Willis Gibson); Tetris (game screen)

Age: 14

Lives in: Stillwater, Oklahoma

The blocks on Willis Gibson’s screen fell faster and faster. He tapped the buttons on his controller as quickly as he could. Suddenly, the screen froze. That might sound like bad news. But Willis had just become the first person to beat Tetris. 

In Tetris, players stack blocks as they fall, forming rows that get cleared from the board. At higher levels, the blocks fall so fast that it’s difficult to keep up. If the stack reaches the top of the screen, it’s game over. 

Most people thought it was impossible to beat Tetris. But Willis proved them wrong on December 21, 2023. At level 157, he reached the kill screen. That’s the point where the game crashes because it can’t compute a player’s score fast enough. It’s considered beating the game. Willis had accomplished what gamers had been trying to do for nearly 40 years. 

“Normally I can’t sit still for more than 10 minutes,” he says. “But when I’m playing Tetris, it’s the one thing I can really focus on.”

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