Three schoolgirls in Kinsale pulled up a pea plant covered in warts and, instead of binning it, spent three years testing 13,000 seeds in a spare bedroom — the bacteria living in those warts made barley germinate 50% faster, and the adults who said it wouldn't work on cereals watched them take Google's grand prize

Three schoolgirls in Kinsale pulled up a pea plant covered in warts and, instead of binning it, spent three years testing 13,000 seeds in a spare bedroom — the bacteria living in those warts made barley germinate 50% faster, and the adults who said it wouldn't work on cereals watched them take Google's grand prize

When three teenagers glimpsed what others dismissed as plant disease, they saw a path to solving agriculture's nitrogen problem—and the scientific establishment's skepticism only made them dig deeper.