School students win top awards for bee research

Two high school students from San Antonio, Texas, have won top awards for their research involving bees. Russell Burrows and Richard Romeo were placed first in their categories at this year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Oregon, USA, which featured 1,400 of the best young scientists from around the world.

Russell, a Health Careers High School student, determined the effects of alcohol and nicotine on the small insects by dissecting their brains and studying their tissue... Ultimately, Russell... concluded that bees could be used instead of mammals in pharmaceutical trials.

Richard, who attends MacArthur High School, tested propolis, the resinous material that seals beehives against bacteria... Richard found that the propolis did inhibit the bacteria [E. coli and staphylococcus aureus, which causes staph infections], and he used an algebraic formula to determine the substance's ideal concentration.

I especially liked the comment from Richard's mother: “He didn't touch a Nintendo or anything like that for a year and a half”.