By Ben Harder
Twenty young women and 20 young men last week aced an early challenge in their scientific careers. They entered the high school science play-offs—the finals of the annual Intel Science Talent Search.
This year marks the first time in the competition’s 66-year history that female finalists have achieved numerical parity with male ones. Young women accounted for nearly 52 percent of this year’s 1,705 entrants, each of whom submitted a research project in science, math, or engineering.