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BRAINY WRITERS WANTED
2006 National Brain Science Writing Prize calls for entries
28 September 2006 - Do you have a passion for discovering how the brain
works? Have you been exploring brain science at school or university or
are you doing your own research and want to share the excitement, intrigue
and possibilities of your work with other people?
Here’s your chance!
At-Bristol, the award-winning science centre, The European Dana Alliance
for the Brain and The British Neuroscience Association have joined forces
again to celebrate the amazing world of brain science in the 2006 National
Brain Science Writing Prize.
Together we are offering people the opportunity to write a newspaper style
science article of around 650 words on the subject of brain science. The
winners will have their articles published and receive a cash prize.
‘We’re delighted to be running this competition for the second year to
celebrate the astounding and fast-moving field of brain science. We want
people intrigue their readers with the wonders of our amazing brains,”
says Dr. Penny Fidler, who pioneered the launch of this Prize.
The judges of last year’s competition found the entries to be of extremely
high quality, with many from young scientists demonstrating a real writing
talent. The winners were Vikki Burns, who wrote about ‘monkeys and the
minds of athletes’ and Dr William Davies who described how genes from your
mum and dad fight it out for superiority in creating your brain.
‘This competition gives scientists the opportunity to present the latest
findings in the dynamic field of neuroscience to a general audience, and
to promote the importance and relevance of our work to the public. I was
delighted to win the Researcher section of the competition last year, with
my entry about the neurobiological role of an intriguing set of genes
known as ‘imprinted genes’. As a struggling post-doctorate, the financial
reward I received was especially welcome!’ says Dr. William Davies, who
currently works for Babraham Institute.
“One of the aims of the competition is to encourage young scientists to
think of their research in a way that will be meaningful to people who
don’t work in a lab. We want to get people questioning how the three
pounds of flesh inside our heads can be responsible for how we think,
feel, move, see, speak and fall in love,” adds Dr. Fidler.
The competition has two categories:
1. The General Prize, which is opened to everyone from school students to
professors, to write an engaging article on any area of brain science.
2. The Researcher’s Prize, which is opened to everyone engaged in brain
science research at any level, to write an article conveying the
excitement, intrigue and possibilities of their research.
All details of the competition are on
www.youramazingbrain.org/writingprize.htm
and the closing date is 5pm on 31 October 2006.
For press enquiries please contact Mavis Choong, At-Bristol Press Office
0117 915 7152 / 0796 733 4152 /
mavis.choong@at-bristol.org.uk
Note to Editors:
1. At-Bristol is a leading science centre in the UK and a
major player in the worldwide science centre movement. It aims to be a
world-class science and natural history centre that makes distinctive,
valued and recognised contributions to informal science learning and
public engagement with science locally, regionally, nationally and
internationally. A registered charity, At-Bristol has hosted more than 3
million visits and continually strives towards making science accessible
to all.
2. The European Dana Alliance for the Brain (EDAB) is an organisation of
more than 155 eminent brain scientists, including five nobel laureates,
from 27 countries. Launched in 1997, and modelled on the US-based Dana
Alliance for Brain Initiatives, EDAB is committed to enhancing the
public’s understanding of why brain research is so important. EDAB brings
the excitement of scientific progress to the general public and
opinion-formers by working in partnership with charities, universities,
schools, hospitals, the arts, the media and professional organisations.
www.dana.org/edab
3. The British Neuroscience Association is a learned society with over
2000 members, mostly based in the UK, that represents the interests of
academics, scientists, clinicians and students working in the
neurosciences and related disciplines. It hosts meetings and symposia to
disseminate the latest findings in brain research to a wider audience
including the public.
www.bna.org.uk
4. Supported by the Wellcome Trust, with content and design created by
At-Bristol,
www.youramazingbrain.org is a hugely popular website and has recently
won Yahoo! Search’s best education website in the UK.
5. The judging panel for the National Brain Science Writing Prize includes
Dr. Penny Fidler - neuroscientist and creator of the Your Amazing Brain
website; Elaine Snell - Senior PR consultant for the European Dana
alliance for the Brain (EDAB) and Dr. Yvonne Allen - Executive Secretary
of The British Neuroscience Association.
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