8 Aug 2006, The Daily Telegraph

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH NAMES BRITAIN'S BEST YOUNG SCIENCE WRITERS AS JUDGED BY BILL BRYSON, SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH AND ADAM HART-DAVIS

The Daily Telegraph has today announced the winners of the 2006 Science Writer Awards.

The prestigious competition, now in its 19th year, aims to find the nation's brightest new science writing talent among 16-28 year olds. It gives successful entrants the chance to inform and entertain the readers of Britain's best-selling quality broadsheet when the winning articles are published in The Daily Telegraph.  

The aim of the competition is to inspire young people to explore the world of science and explain to the general reader how science and technology is shaping our world. The winners will be rewarded with prizes including cash sums of up to £1,000, work placements at either The Daily Telegraph, The Royal Society or Bayer and the chance to see their work in print.

Those assigned the difficult task of choosing the winners included renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough and famed author Bill Bryson. The judges were not only looking for literary style and clarity of thought but also the writers' enthusiasm and passion for their subject.

Sir David Attenborough said,

"There is a great pleasure in understanding. And it is that quality in the writer that I look for."

Judge Bill Bryson said of the winners,

"They are obviously very bright people, very ambitious."

The competition, this year sponsored by Bayer, the global-science based company and supported by The Royal Society, the national academy of science, had two categories   - 15-19 and 20-28 years of age.

The overall winner of the younger age group was Leli Farzenah, 19, of Imperial College London. Leli, who is currently studying at UCLA, chose to look at agrobacterium and how it can be used for genetic engineering. Leli explains that agrobacterium is an opportunist bacterium currently exciting scientists with the way it invades damaged plants by transferring its DNA into the plant's genetic makeup, or genome.

The writer taking second place in the 15-19 age group was Ricki Nabeshima, studying at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Ricki's article considers one possible explanation for the rare phenomenon of ball-lightening. Assumed by some to be a myth, witnesses of ball-lightening have described a small luminous sphere floating above ground, usually during stormy weather.

Other runners up in the younger category came from Leeds, Cambridge, Peebleshire, Oxfordshire, London and Hitchin.

In the older group, the winner was Phillip Broadwith, 25. Phillip is a 2nd year PhD student studying synthetic organic chemistry at Cambridge University. His winning article, "Chemists Choreograph A Nobel Prize-Winning Dance" was described by Sir David Attenborough as "spectacularly good." The piece considers the importance of metathesis, a way of joining molecules together of fundamental importance to the chemical industry and won a Nobel Prize.

Taking the prize of second place in the 20-28 category was Mark Morris. Mark is originally from Birmingham and is now studying Biomedical Engineering in Glasgow. Mark's work explored the possible uses for a type of foam produced by tropical frogs.

Other runners up in this group came from Oxford, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Epsom, London and Kendal.

And for the third year running, The Grange School in Northwich, Cheshire will take home a special schools prize of £500 from Bayer for submitting the highest number of finalist entries. Their teacher Andy Milne will also receive a £200 book token.