RCSU launches Science Challenge 2012
Overall winner to receive tour of CERN, House of Lords reception and £2,000
The Royal College of Science Union (RCSU) launched the Science Challenge 2012 on Tuesday 18 January after holding an event that saw students turn out in force. The launch event, held in the Sir Alexander Fleming building, revealed the questions which this year's Science Challenge revolve around, with Paul Beaumont, RCSU Vice President (Operations) and Science Challenge Chair hosting the night.
The Science Challenge is an essay writing competition that aims to encourage scientific debate, reasoning and the communication of science in a public friendly context. Paul Beaumont emphasised the need for entrants to write a "compelling scientific argument that any member of the public, with only a basic grounding in science could read, understand and be swayed by".
Guest speakers included Managing Director of Sustainability Services at Accenture Peter Lacy, BBC's Science Editor, Imperial alumnus and former Felix Editor Pallab Ghosh and Professor Lord Robert Winston, who each set a question along with Mark Henderson, head of communications at the Wellcome Trust, who was unable to attend.
Entrants select one topic question and must write 800 words by 5 March, when the competition closes. Tuesday's launch event saw the speakers tell stories of their experiences with science communication, which were preceded by speeches from the Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences Professor Maggie Dallman on communication as a valuable asset and former RCSU President Jad Marrouche.
The event was modernised with an interactive live twitter stream being displayed on one screen for the attendees to post collectively as they experienced the event. The tweets were aggregated under the hashtag #SciChal but the screen was shortly switched off as there was no moderation mechanism in place.
The questions for this year's Science Challenge this year are as follows: Lord Robert Winston: "What are the five main ethical issues that face modern science and how do we tackle them?" Pallab Ghosh: "What is the role of science journalism in the 21st Century?" Peter Lacy: "What scientific breakthrough should we focus on to provide sustainable food, energy and water for nine billion on a planet of apparently finite natural resources, and why?" Mark Henderson: "How should politicians best make use of science?"
The competition allows both Imperial students to enter as well as students from secondary schools and colleges, with a separate prize branch for external students. Two unallocated tickets to the House of Lords dinner, where the final is expected to be held, were handed out during the launch to Annina Sartor, who successfully answered the arithmetic riddle given with 131, the number of years since the RCSU's founding.
RCSU President Luke Kanczes praised the launch, telling Felix that he's "really excited that [they've] launched this year's Science Challenge", adding "hopefully, the questions will generate some fantastic responses to some of the biggest questions facing today's Scientists."
The event makes a change from last year's scaled down version, where the RCSU were unable to secure sponsorship for the awards. The budget this year is substantially larger and is reflected in the prizes.
The overall winner of this year's Science Challenge will receive a tour of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN as well as a cash prize of £2,000. The category winners will receive a cash prize of £500, with the finalists all also receiving a tour and dinner reception at the House of Lords.
