The Questions

This year's set of questions were announced at our Launch event on 17th January 2012. Participants may be interested to see the Terms and Conditions of entry.

Entrants choose one question from the following:

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?
Pallab has requested that entrants to his question consider reading here

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?

Entry Guidelines

• Don't ignore the 800 +/- 50 word count.
• Your entry must be in PDF format.
• You should answer the questions set in a manner in which any member of the general public could understand.
• The essay should probably not be approached as if it were a scientific paper - it would be in contradiction to the above point.
• As such, referencing should (perhaps, though not obligatory) be mentioned in passing, as if it were a newspaper article, rather than as citations.
• Do enter on time! Entries close at 5pm on 5th March for School entrants, and 7th March for Imperial students!
• No personal information should appear on the entry - including name, CID, school or login.

How the marking works

Every year we recieve far too many entries for one person to mark, and so, in the spirit of fairness, a mark scheme is adhered to by our PhD Markers. Our PhD Markers, are Doctoral students at Imperial College London who very generously give up their time to read the entries. Once marked, the top five entries in the Imperial students category, and the top five entries in the school & college category are sent to our panel of judges, who, then pick a winner and runners up for their respective questions. Our Lead Judge, Professor Lord Robert Winston will then decide on an overall winner out of the four winners. The runner up of the question category from which the overall winner was selected becomes the winner for that question.