You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Maddie Sivaya here with a question.

Do you have a first memory of science?

Are you in a classroom or maybe you were on a field trip in grade school?

It was the festival of Diwali.

It was a afternoon time when you sell it all.

For Munoz Prakash, that moment was very far away from school,

far away from the prying eyes of his parents as well.

Everybody buys fireworks and I realized that there were a lot of fireworks

that were unexploded that were lying on the street.

He wondered what would happen if all those explosives

and all of those fireworks went off at once.

Just out of, you know, some blowing things up curiosity, we can all relate.

So he decided to do an experiment of sorts.

He grabbed a bunch of them, pulled all the gunpowder inside them into a pile.

And I actually lit that on fire.

And I burned my hand and I was actually in the ER for my Diwali that night.

But on the other hand, I have a scar to go for it.

And that's the day you learned about PPE.

That's correct.

That's correct.

That's an old protective equipment, it's so important.

...