Budding young scientists from Launceston have been praised for their ingenuity in the latest round of competition.

Since 2017 CaféSci, Launceston has been holding its “Young Scientist of the Year” competition when it invites students from local schools to give a 10 minute illustrated talk on a science or engineering topic of their choice. This continued throughout the Covid pandemic when it moved online.

The end of the summer term is a very busy time for students and so last year CaféSci initiated a “Young Scientist of the Year Poster Competition” for young people who were not able to enter the main competition which is now held live again.

CaféSci members who came to the recent competition held at Eagle House Hotel were treated to six talks on a variety of topics including “Hydrogen Energy” by Artur Zakrzewski, “Unveiling the enigmatic identity of e to the power of iπ” by Charlie Gardner, “What is music?” by Xavier Martin-Williams, “Tay Sachs Disease” by Jezryle Amoy, “Sex and Autism: unravelling the complex relationship” by Caidy Price and “Exploring COX-2 enzymes and their role in inflammation and pain” by Oliver Sheldrake who are all studying at Launceston College.

The poster competition drew entries from Bideford College: Millie May Britt with “James Young Simpson and the Development of Anaesthesia”, George Brown with “MRIs, AIs and Reading Minds”, Matilda Lee with “Contraception”, Abigail Ley with “Medical Advancement regarding Hysteria” and Caitlin Pett with “Treating Motor Neurone Disease.” Charlotte Lancaster from Launceston College submitted “To what extent can genetically modified mosquitoes prevent transmissions of malaria?” and Avril Cole from Liskeard School and Community College’s poster “The Information Paradox” was unusual in that it was entirely hand drawn and illustrated with no computer input in sight. All the original posters were displayed so that members attending could choose their favourite for the Members’ Choice competitions for poster and talk.

The judges for the two main competitions were CaféSci chair, Professor Steve Rowland FRSC C Chem, Professor Michael Moore BSc (Hons) PhD FRMS, Dr Alan Malvern MA D Phil M Inst P C Phys AFHEA, Meg Walker BSc Microbiology and Genetics London PGCE and Marion McCullough MVB MRCVS.

The results were as follows:

2023 Young Scientist of the Year Competition — winner, Jezryle Amoy, Tay Sachs disease; Joint runner up, Charlie Gardner, ‘Unveiling the enigmatic identity of e to the power of iπ’; joint runner up, Caidy Price, ‘Sex and Autism: Unravelling the complex relationship’,

2023 Young Scientist of the Year Poster Competition — winner, Matilda Lee, contraception; runner up, George Brown, ‘MRIs, AIs and Reading Minds’.

2023 Young Scientist of the Year Competition, members’ choice — winner, Jezryle Amoy, Tay Sachs disease; joint runner up, Caidy Price, ‘Sex and Autism: unravelling the complex relationship’; joint runner up, Charlie Gardner, ‘Unveiling the enigmatic identity of e to the power of iπ’.

2023 Young Scientist of the Year Poster Competition, members’ choice — winner, Millie May Britt, ‘James Young Simpson and the Development of Anaesthesia’; runner up, Avril Cole, ‘The Information Paradox’.

All prize winners received a monetary prize and a certificate. All competitors who did not win a prize were awarded a CaféScientifique Launceston Certificate of Appreciation with their name and title of their project in acknowledgment of all the hard work they had done to take part in the competitions.

The money prizes were generously sponsored, as they have been in past competitions, by Launceston & District Rotary Club and thanks were expressed to Cornwall councillor for Launceston North and North Petherwin, Adam Paynter a grant of £200 was received to help offset the cost of staging the competitions for which CaféSci is very grateful.

A spokesperson said: “As they departed after a really splendid and informative evening, many members admitted they could not have done what all the entrants had done when they were their age. The future of science is in safe hands.”

CaféSci, Launceston’s next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 12, when Dr Scott Davidson of the University of Plymouth will be giving a talk entitled “Superheroes in the fight against climate change: the role of peatlands as natural climate solutions.”

For more information visit the website www.cafescilaunceston.org and Facebook page www.facebook.com/cafescilanson