Blowing Up: the curious parallel between Ahmed Mohamed & Steve Wozniak

Ahmed. Mohamed. Each of those names, whether we like it or not, is enough to draw some racial profiling. Throw in some brown skin and base the story in Texas and you can be almost sure it isn't going to end well. Well, for a change, it did - even if the happy ending came after, and because of, a lot of needless stupidity.

Ahmed Mohamed, a 14-year-old ninth-grade student, was handcuffed and taken away from his school after teachers suspected he'd built a bomb. What he'd actually built, which was impressive enough even if not explosively so, was a digital clock. You see, Ahmed is an aspiring engineer with a penchant for creating things.

However, the combination of his skin colour, his name, the 9/11 anniversary-hangover and Texas meant Ahmed was reported to the police, interrogated and even suspended from school.

Luckily the world rallied behind Ahmed with the done-to-death #IStandWith hashtag. For once, it didn't end at internet outrage though. Ahmed has now been invited to the White House to spend time with the Obama.

In his tweet, Obama rightly pointed out the need to encourage science amongst children. His point was underlined by the fact that Ahmed was reported by an English teacher, further underscoring the need for more science and less of the arts.

However, the tweet that probably won the day came from Omar Ghabra.

Tongue-in-cheek, it highlights the daft nature of social stereotyping by reminding people that Steve Jobs, the celebrated co-founder of Apple was part Syrian.

But the real parallel in the picture is not that of Ahmed and Jobs, but that of Ahmed and Steve Wozniak, the other founder of Apple.

Like Ahmed, Wozniak was also prodigiously talented at science. Unlike Ahmed though, Wozniak was also a prodigious troublemaker. In Steve Jobs' biography, a mention is made of Wozniak's trouble-making streak.

In 12^th grade, Wozniak found a metronome that he realised sounded suspiciously like the ticking bombs from the movies. To add to the effect, he strapped it to a set of batteries and, because what else does one do in school with a fake bomb, he stuck it in a locker. The 'bomb' was even rigged to tick faster when the locker was opened.

After its discovery the principal of the school ran with it to the centre of the football field where he then ripped out the wires. Wozniak was summoned to the principal's office where he was, like Ahmed but more deservingly so, handcuffed and sent to a juvenile-detention centre.

Not content with having made his principal age 20 years in 10 minutes, Wozniak continued his hijinks at the detention facility. He taught the inmates to mess with the wiring of the ceiling fans, connecting them to the bars of the detention centre. Anyone who touched these bars would get a mild shock as a result.

Lord knows that if Ahmed tried something similar in today's world, he'd probably be Guantanamo Bay's youngest ever inmate. Not the sort of achievement the young inventor is looking for.

However, if Wozniak's life has taught us anything, it's the heights one can achieve when scientific talents are channelled properly. Now, with Ahmed on the world's radar, let's hope he's given the avenues to express his scientific skills. The world could always do with one more bright scientist.