Rohit is a Boy Scout who finds that camping has helped him to become more responsible and learn valuable lessons about leadership and time management. In the future, he would like to pursue a career as a neuroscientist with the hope of "finding a cure for neurodegenerative diseases."
The hormone DHEA is infamous because athletes have used it as a nutritional supplement despite the risk of serious side effects. After reading that California had banned high school students from using DHEA, Rohit researched the compound and found that natural DHEA is beneficial to the body and plays a role in brain function. But natural DHEA production in the body falls with age, coinciding with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Suspecting that DHEA could have a neuroprotective effect, Rohit hypothesized that DHEA would enable a simple organism to regenerate its nervous system when injured or severed.
Rohit chose the tiny freshwater hydra (Hydra littoralis) for his experiment, maintaining a hydra colony in his home. He dissected individual hydra and exposed some to three different safe concentrations of DHEA in their water. After 24 hours, 44 percent of the hydra exposed to the highest DHEA concentration had regenerated, compared with only 6 percent of hydra kept in plain water as a control. Over four days, DHEA improved hydra regeneration at the two higher concentrations tested.
