Research Stuff

After doing a bit of research, I think I can narrow my very large topic of poverty down to possible scientific solutions to poverty/what they’re attempting now. This is still a pretty big topic, but it seems to be one that people would be less familiar with (as opposed to political solutions, such as the One program and Free Rice). It’s very research papery so far, but it’s interesting.

One of the places I found a lot of information was on the BBC News website. A large problem for countries is that they are very hard hit by natural disasters as they typically have very little warning and prevention programs. Another huge problem with poverty is that people are unable to find clean water, much less food. This has caused some new water treatment plans to start.

I was also very surprised to read about the effects of global warming currently affecting poverty and agriculture today. I had realized that this definitely was expected to affect places like Africa in the future, when a few degrees in temperature change could mean significant droughts. But apparently scientists believe that global warming may already be a cause of increased drought and risk of famines in Eastern Africa.

But there’s also the question of how much can scientific discoveries do if the underlying social and population issues are still present and keeping the poverty alive.

Research Topics

The research topic that I am most interested in is probably poverty. I recently attended a Hunger Banquet put on by my school's National Science Honors Society. It was really interesting and shocking at the same time. It isn't as if I didn't understand that poverty was a problem before, but I honestly had no idea that it was as extensive as it is. Poverty just seems like it would be a topic that I could really get into and it would be an easier essay to read. But if that doesn't work out then my second choice is the role of women in Islam (completely random, but I always wondered about this and don't know quite as much as I should about the religion) and Alzheimer's Disease.