by any measure, it could have been worse if it hadn' t been for a virginia tech professor who felt compelled to fight for the children of flint. i spoke with citizen scientist marc edwards via skype about why he took up the their cause. professor, welcome to the program. professor edwards: thank you for having me. tragedy in flint, you seem to be the one hope of a hero, maybe, if i' m not overstating it. how did you get involved? professor edwards: well, there' s actually so many heroes involved , and we were just helping them, frankly. the flint residents figured out on their own that their water had high lead in it because their children got lead poisoned and their growth was essentially stunted. so a mother did this all on her own, and also figured out that the state was not following federal law in terms of corrosion control, and so we got involved just to help them in terms of monitoring their water for safety. fernando: but you also, sir, i understand, you put a tremendous amount of your own resources into play. why did you do that? professor edwards: once we realized that no one would