22 Aug 2001, The Daily Telegraph

So good we gave out more prizes

Colourful styles and subjects impress our judges in The Daily Telegraph BASF Young Science Writer Awards.

Roger Highfield reports.

BOOSTING brain power with herbal remedies, engineering "super bras'' and helping the blind to see with music were among the subjects tackled by the latest entries to the nation's most prestigious science writing competition. This year, The Daily Telegraph BASF young science writer competition notched up several impressive milestones: the first school's prize and, fighting for that honour, the biggest entry ever received from a single school, with more than 50 entries submitted by Wellington College.

The competition saw the best crop of senior entries for years, marked by a discussion of whether the top prize should be shared, as was the case for the school prize (Awarded to both Folkestone School for Girls and Southend High School for boys). And the competition witnessed the first example of "virtual judging'' as Dr Mary Archer submitted notes to be read out to her fellow judges when they gathered at The Daily Telegraph's offices in Canary Wharf.

Long before they met to make the final selection, I had sifted the initial entry and divided the survivors among pairs of judges. They in turn voted for their favourites, while taking account of factors such as age, style, the difficulty of the subject and how much it had been marred by poor grammar and impenetrable jargon. Above all else, were the entries good enough to appear on this page?

On the day that the final shortlist was judged, there was the usual tactical voting. There was the inevitable wrangling over issues as diverse as the way cancer spreads through the body, marketing dirt for babies to boost their lifetime immunity, and whether a gushing entry on a "science-lite'' subject rates higher than a diligent-but-worthy dig into an arcane field.

There were a few surreal moments, for instance when Prof Lewis Wolpert gave his rundown of favourites in the younger category: "I liked the breasts, the laughing and the Lyme disease.''

There were also surprises, notably when Meera Ladwa scooped the junior prize after galloping past two other, initially higher rated entries: her article on narcolepsy proved anything but soporific and drew high praise from experts Prof Jerry Siegel and Dr Emmanuel Mignot.

This year the competition was again backed by the chemical company BASF, represented by its chairman, Barry Stickings. What did he think of this year's crop? "The writing was super.'' Barry was so impressed by the top two contenders in the older category that he offered an extra consolation prize to Joseph Barber, who had been pushed into second place by Stephen Simpson's superb story of Solo the damselfish. While Stephen will join Meera on a trip to the United States next year, Joseph will be offered a trip to BASF's labs in Germany.

As ever, Barry gave his vote more gravitas by reminding us that he had tried out the finalists on his daughter Ali. And she, in turn, had raised perhaps the best kind of objection to one of the entries: it was too readable to be true. "There was no way she wrote that,'' she told her father.

Alas, some entries were indeed too good to be true. Jerry Webb, editor of 'New Scientist', a primary research source, found several examples of plagiarism, a constant worry given how many people download information from the web for their articles.

During the post-mortem on this year's entries, Prof Heinz Wolff said he was "largely struck by the much more colourful language being used,'' perhaps as a result of the influence of television or efforts to popularise science.

The overall verdict of Heinz and the other judges: traditionally the junior entry is less inhibited and more jolly than the senior. Not this year. The senior category was "extraordinarily better than usual,'' said 'Nature''s Dr Laura Garwin. The reason? Not just the style of writing of the seniors, but how they selected topics, said Jerry Webb. "I was intrigued by how the articles were about exciting new science, rather than reviews.''

Perhaps years of initiatives to encourage young scientists to become more media friendly are paying off, said Peter Briggs of the British Association, which has backed the competition since it was launched in the mid-1980s and will invite the top four to its meeting next month in Glasgow. However, Peter also felt that the new demands of the AS levels could be to blame for the relative weakness of the younger category.

The winners are printed here and will each receive £500. Those in second place will receive £250 and will be published in weeks to come. Runners-up will also receive subscriptions to 'Nature' and 'New Scientist', and each receive £100. The Daily Telegraph, BASF and the British Association would like to thank the hundreds of young people across the country who made the effort to take part.