It must be something in the water. Three youngsters who live within a stone's throw of each other along the Columbia River are among only 40 from the entire country competing for a top science prize. Washington's entrant in the Intel Science Talent Search is 16-year old ReesabPathak, a senior at Camas High School on the banks of the Columbia.
Just across the river in Portland, two young women - Valerie Ding and Anika Raghuvanshi - will also be in Washington DC next week competing with some of the brightest young scientists in the nation for more than a million dollars in prize money.
This year's finalists hail from 36 schools in 18 states. They were chosen from more than 18-hundred entrants, based on their originality and creativity and their overall school performance.
Top prizes in the competition are Medal of Distinction awards which include $150,000 to each of three winners. All three Columbia River young scientists have done research which boggles the lay mind.
For example - Reesab Pathak's projects involves experimenting with simian immunodeficiency virus in an effort to design a vaccine against HIV. And don't forget - all three national finalists are 16 years old.
