5) Charged In 30 Seconds: High school student Eesha Khare created a new kind of super-capacitor energy-storing device that could eventually lead to superfast battery charging for phones and other devices (including car batteries). Khare’s device (which netted her a $50,000 scholarship from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair) has a special nanostructure that makes it last longer than the average battery and charge up quicker -- though at present, it stores less energy than a comparable battery. But the Harvard-bound teen will have plenty of time to perfect her invention in the years ahead.
