RCSU Science Challenge 2012
Monday 23 Jan 2012
The RCSU Science Challenge is an annual competition run by the Royal College of Science Faculty Union. The challenge is an essay competition that aims to encourage scientific debate, reasoning and the communication of science in a public-friendly context. Entries in this two-category competition are open to all students of Imperial College (not Faculty specific) and (in a separately judged category) students at secondary-school or colleges in the United Kingdom.
The Launch event for this year's competition was held in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building at Imperial College London's South Kensington Campus on Tuesday 17th January 2012. At this event we revealed the Questions, the Prizes and more information about the venue for this year's exclusive Final: The House of Lords.
At the launch, out guest speakers, Professor Maggie Dallman (Principal of the Faculty), Dr Jad Marrouche (CERN Researcher), Peter Lacy (Managing Director of Accenture for Sustainability), Pallab Ghosh (the BBC Science Correspondent) and Lord Robert Winston all gave their unique side to science communication, each recalling a different tale - be it from the CERN detector breaking under it's own power, to the rather extreme delivery methods Lord Winston invoked when taking his obstetric examinations. The judges questions were revealed as:
Question One - set by Lord Robert Winston
What are the five main ethical issues that face modern science and how do we tackle them?
Question Two - set by Pallab Ghosh
What is the role of science journalism in the 21st Century?
Question Three - set by Peter Lacy
What scientific breakthrough should we focus on to provide sustainable food, energy and water for nine billion people on a planet of apparently finite natural resources, and why?
Question Four - set by Mark Henderson
How should politicians best make use of science?
Participants have until 5th March, 5pm to submit their entry.
The top prize for this year's competition was also confirmed as £2,000 for a top Imperial entry, plus a tour of CERN (on top of the invitation to the competition's Final in the House of Lords). For full listings of the prizes, and any other information, please see the competition website: rcsu.org.uk/sciencechallenge.
If you have any questions, please email Paul Beaumont at science.challenge@imperial.ac.uk