This one deserves to be shared for the right reasons. Destany "Sky" Pete, a Duck Valley high school student, watched cancer and diabetes rise among her Shoshone and Paiute people, and saw a link others were missing: as her community lost its traditional foods, its modern health crises grew.So she brought her ancestral knowledge into the laboratories of Boise State University to study the chokecherry, a berry long central to her people's diet. The detail that mattered was the method, she prepared the traditional chokecherry pudding, "toishabui," exactly as her ancestors did, carefully crushing the berry seeds, where modern shortcut versions fell short. In the lab, her authentic preparation slowed and halted the growth of aggressive uterine cancer cells within 24 hours, surprising the researchers and earning her First Grand Prize over hundreds of competitors.Here's the honest context, because it matters: this is an early lab finding, cancer cells in a dish, not a treatment tested in people. It's the exciting first step that opens the door to further research, not a cure. But that is exactly how science begins, with a great question and a surprising result. And that's what makes her achievement so remarkable: a teenager honored her heritage, pointed science toward something worth studying, and earned her place in a university lab.Follow us for the science, and the people, quietly changing what we know.Source:Manning, S. S. (2017, June 12). Bringing science and culture together with chokecherry pudding. Indian Country Today.
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