A fifth-year student at St Joseph of Cluny Secondary School, Killiney, Co Dublin, has won the 1999 Royal Irish Academy Chemistry Essay Prize.
Alison Squire examined the relationship between molecules, which has a major bearing on whether drugs operate successfully. Two molecules may be closely related as object and mirror image, but have different biological properties.
She was presented with £250 and a John Coen bronze sculpture last night by Prof Brian McMurry of the RIA National Committee for Chemistry. Her interest in chirality followed a summer course in pharmacology completed last year at the Centre for Talented Youth at DCU.
The competition, which requires second-level students to write a paper suitable for the non-scientific reader, is sponsored by The Irish Times, AGB Scientific, the Society of the Chemical Industry and the Royal Society for Chemistry.
The winning entry will be published in The Irish Times Science Today section next Monday.
Runner-up prizes were awarded to Mary Glennon, a sixth-year student at Rathdown School, Glenageary, Co Dublin, whose essay focused on research by chemists on dental health and the benefits of chewing gum; and to Alan Hanley, who was a student at Colaiste Einde, Galway, and is now studying medicine at NUI Galway.
He outlined how aspirin operates as a near-perfect painkiller but also inquired whether it could be improved.
