CONGRATULATIONS to the 2011 winners!

The 2011 Molecular Frontiers Inquiry Prize winners were announced at the Molecular Frontiers Symposium & Forum LIVE! on May 24th 2011, at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

Girls:

Are self-awareness and consciousness the results of various physical processes or brain states or are they disconnected from our material bodies?

Elizabeth Naameh, Girl, 16, USA

What elements are imagination and thoughts made of?

Raeann Heng,Girl, 15, Singapore

How is intelligence acquired or inherited?

Donna Kwon, Girl, 15, USA

Does the brain have a limit to the information it can memorize?

Augustina Petrulyte, Girl, 17, Lithuania

Why is it that older memories are sometimes easier to recall than more recent ones?

Faazilah Mohamed, Girl, 13, USA

Boys:

What is the origin of self-sacrifice? (it seems to contradict the instinct of self-preservation)

Sergei Khegai, Boy 15, Russia

Why do most living organisms sleep?

George Agoranos, Boy 17, Greece

What are dreams made of and why is that than when you wake up you don’t remember what you dreamt?

Žilvinas Graužys, Boy 12, Lithuania

Does a thought have a specific biochemical signature?For instance, does a question-shaped thought have a specific type of molecular signature?

Shivaramakrishna Srinivasan, Boy ,11, India

Why is symmetry such a common and pervasive feature in Nature?

Srihari Chandrasekhar, Boy 10, United Kingdom