Kids, dollars, & science

Camped out in folding chairs in the gloom of MIT's Johnson Athletic Center in early May, the 300-odd finalists in this year's Massachusetts State Science Fair were a less-than-perky bunch by the sixth hour of judging. The top finishers of schoolwide and regional science fairs were hungry, tired, and withdrawn.

"We've been here since 6:30 a.m.," said an unhopeful Ryan Donovan, who sat slumped in a folding chair next to his miniature wind turbine, its blades spinning intermittently. "I'm beginning to wonder if this will ever end."

Delirium had set in among some of the rookies. They were fading fast. Some were fighting to finish their calculus homework between meeting judges, others were limp, listening to personal CD players, or using their agar-plated bacteria samples as pillows for a short nap.

But not everyone dozed. Safa Alzaim, a junior at Braintree High School, jumped at the chance to practice her presentation before meeting her next judge. "So you see, using Poiseuille's Law, I was able to indirectly measure the flow of air through the airway using these peak-flow meters," she concluded confidently, explaining later that her project on the respiratory capacity of high school athletes was inspired by her sister's asthma.

If Safa was practiced, Herbert Hedberg, a junior at North Attleboro High School, was polished. A small crowd of students and judges had been milling around his exhibit, an 8-foot-tall presentation board that dwarfed the others in the immediate vicinity.

Throughout his explanation of the experiments for "Telomerase unTRAPed," it became clear that Herbert was in a league of his own. His project involved redesigning a method for detecting the activity of telomerase, an enzyme known to be overactive in cancer cells. "It would be great to get a patent.... It's so much more efficient and reliable than the current assay [biological procedure]." A patent - just what every high school junior needs.

There was an astounding range of projects - everything from cute comparisons of the effectiveness of various laundry detergents to a project on peanut-color preference in squirrels and a demonstration of the antifungal properties of cranberries.

"With some of the kids, you wonder how they got here," says Dr. Elliot Lach, a judge at this year's fair and an MIT alumnus. "With the others, you just try to imagine to what great heights they're going."

If the competition at the state level was exhausting for these kids, imagine how intense things are in Cleveland this week at the annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). A far cry from the blue ribbon affairs that pop up in middle-school gymnasiums in early spring, the Intel ISEF is the grandaddy of all science fairs - the Science Olympics, if you will - and annually gathers the best and the brainiest among high school-aged kids from more than 40 countries.

This year, more than 1,200 students will compete individually or in teams in 14 different categories representing the sciences from botany to physics to zoology. And they're not competing for recognition alone.

The Intel Corporation, which took over sponsorship of the event in 1996, will award an estimated $3 million in scholarships, tuition grants, scientific equipment, and field trips to winners at this year's competition. The top three finalists are awarded the Intel Young Scientist Scholarship of $50,000, in addition to a high- performance computer and a trip to the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm.

The stakes can be huge, but it wasn't always this way. "Back when I was in high school, there was no money to be won, really," says Paul Lubin, a judge and MIT alumnus at the Massachusetts State Fair.

"In my day, the science fair was a tournament for geeks, mainly guys, who wanted to showcase their brains. We did it for the fun of it, the competition. These days, you can bring home a check to cover your college tuition."

The times have changed, not to mention the quality of science projects. Judges at elite competitions such as the Intel ISEF and the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science, and Technology often review PhD-quality work that has been packaged into scientific abstracts.

"Our judges go in thinking they're experts in their field and soon find themselves engaged in an enlightening scientific discourse with a pair of 17-year-olds," says Albert Hoser, chairman of the Siemens Foundation.

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