Meet Henry and Jack Grover, the twins testing wildfire-fighting gels

Representative Image of hydrogels, charcoal briquettes, and the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge logo in a collage (AI Generated Image) Twin eighth-graders from Riverside, California, have tested nine hydrogels in a project exploring whether a sprayable gel could help stop burned areas from reigniting after a wildfire. Brothers Henry and Jack Grover, students at Riverside STEM Academy, are among the 30 finalists in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge. Their project, “Sprayable Hydrogels for Preventing the Rekindling of Wildfires,” compared different hydrogels for drying, adhesion and hydration before testing the leading material on hot charcoal briquettes. Society for Science reports that sodium polyacrylate, their top-performing hydrogel, fully hydrated in 15 minutes. When the twins applied it to hot charcoal, the material-treated briquettes took 27 minutes to reignite, compared with three minutes for briquettes sprayed with water. The brothers also designed a 3D-printed sprayer that could project the gel 18.3 metres.Henry and Jack Grover reach the Thermo Fisher Junior Innovators Challenge top 30The Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Inno...