A high school student spent several years studying how mussels in Long Island Sound’s salt marshes protect themselves from predatory crabs. Her work recently won the girl a semifinalist spot in a major national science competition. More importantly, it helped this young scientist — at the time homeless — take her mind off of out-of-school stress.  “I decided that if I keep doing what I love I can make a better life for myself," she says. And Samantha Garvey has.  Her mussel research has even helped her obtain the money for college, the first step toward what sh...