24 - yr - old Ph.D. candidate Camille Schrier has been crowned Miss America after she impressed the judges with a chemistry experiment for the talent dowery of the competition . She had already won Miss Virginia with this advance , and it seems her skill in skill communicating have paid off .

Schrier won a $ 50,000 encyclopaedism and   will be advocating for Mind Your Meds   –   a drug safety and prevention program   – as part of her   one - twelvemonth tenure as Miss America .

“ Every daylight , more than 130 Americans break down of an opioid overdose and every eight minutes a caregiver makes a medicine error that touch on a kid . It ’s time to do more about drug guard and contumely bar , ” Schrier said   in an e-mail toIFLScienceafter getting crown Miss Virginia .

The Miss America competition has changed over the last few age , overleap the outdated swimwear segment and focalise on the passion , intelligence information , and talent of the contestants .

“ The phylogeny of the Miss America competition , which reflects greater inclusiveness , and an chance to make a difference and profits learnedness inhale me to step frontwards this yr and compete , ” Schrier told IFLScience after getting crowned Miss Virginia .

“ I am more than Miss Virginia . I am Miss Biochemist , Miss Systems Biologist , Miss Future PharmD seem toward a pharmaceutical industry calling . Now was the meter for me to create a mind shift about the conception of talent by bring my passion for STEM to the stage . To me , talent is not a passion alone , but also a accomplishment which is hone over years of learning . ”

Her experimentation is the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide . When hydrogen hydrogen peroxide is used with catalase , foam forms as atomic number 1 peroxide breaks   down into its fundamental components : oxygen and water .

The reaction can be made even more spectacular with a little help of K iodide as the accelerator ( which makes the reaction faster ) , dishwasher soap to entrap the oxygen , and a more concentrated solvent of atomic number 1 peroxide than what ’s commercially uncommitted in world-wide stores .

When those are mix in a conelike flask , what we get is a outstanding eructation of colourful foam , a petty bit of passion , and in the case of Camille Schrier , the crown of Miss America .

[ H / T : BBC News ]