And since we are talking about how bad things are and could get how about an example of when it works.
Teen Science Whizzes Show 'Incredible' DiscoveriesTeen Science Whizzes Show 'Incredible' DiscoveriesBy Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Farmers could grow more rice and shaky Internet communications could work better some day, thanks to prize-winning discoveries by teen-age scientists showcased at a national science fair on Monday.
High-school scientists from across the United States showed off work in genetics, molecular biology, mathematics and other fields that judges said rose to the professional level.
"It just blows me away. They're all just incredible," said Joel Spencer, a New York University professor who served as a judge at the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology.
Research done by finalists in the nationwide competition could lead to faster Internet speeds, more effective antibacterial drugs and better energy conservation. One team researched black holes in outer space, while another examined more than 700 fossils to better understand why dinosaurs died out.
Several said they planned to publish their findings in prestigious professional journals.
MORE FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY Juliet Girard and Roshan Prabhu won a $100,000 scholarship for their work identifying genes that help some strains of wild rice flower earlier than their cultivated counterparts.
Drawing on a database that described the genetic makeup of rice, the two Jersey City, New Jersey, students identified two genetic segments that directed wild rice to blossom an average of 10 days earlier than the conventional short-grain rice that feeds much of the world.
Their discovery could allow genetic engineers to develop a new strain that would take less time to reach maturity, allowing farmers to produce more and extending the growing region into colder climates.
"People consider us real scientists, and that's great because we worked so hard," Girard said.
Steven Byrnes of Lexington, Massachusetts, took the top individual prize for his theory describing outcomes in a two-player game called Chomp.
PAD AND PENCIL Using a pad and pencil, Byrnes was able to detect patterns among the millions of possible outcomes in the game, an accomplishment that judge Spencer described as "real progress."
Mathematical study of Chomp and other similar games has proven handy in computer communications, potentially allowing cell telephones or other devices to fill in the gaps when a less-than-perfect signal is received.
But Byrnes said any practical application of his work was years away.
"It's forming the basis of a new field of math, and in math you build the theory first," he said of his work. "I'm just really excited about this stuff, because it fits together so beautifully."
Craig Venter, who helped to develop a map of the human genetic code as chief scientist at Celera Genomics (news - web sites) Group, told the finalists that advances in computing power and more teamwork between scientists in different disciplines has led to a climate in which innovation is almost constant.
That sense of discovery and excitement is a marked contrast to the early 1970s, when graduate-school professors told him that nearly everything had been discovered, he said.
"Now it's almost impossible not to discover something," Venter said.