Arizona eighth-grader’s drone study finds rural areas have more ground-level CO2

Luca McGillPhoto: Society for ScienceWhen 13-year-old Luca McGill set out to measure carbon dioxide in Arizona, he assumed the busiest city streets would naturally produce the highest levels. However, his custom drone experiments revealed a completely different reality. As documented by the Society for Science, which highlights young researchers through its Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, Luca’s breakthrough project earned him a spot as a 2025 finalist. By flying sensor equipment 120 meters into the air, he discovered that rural landscapes often contained higher ground-level carbon dioxide concentrations than nearby urban areas. This surprising finding directly challenged long-held assumptions about local air pollution, proving that greenhouse gas behaviour is far mor