Grammar boys in space race to beat Nasa
Science students at a Kent school sixth form are taking on Nasa with their latest project.
Pupils at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury are attempting to create a chip that can detect cosmic radiation while in space.
Their project prompted the US space agency to try the same work, and now the two are racing to be first to get chips into space. The school's science department has had success under the leadership of Dr Becky Parker, head of physics, and at one point provided one per cent of all British physics undergraduates.
In astronomy, pupils have discovered several near-earth objects. The school is also believed to be the only one to have a licence to modify the human genome and is investigating a particular protein's role in multiple sclerosis.
The latest project, named Lucid (Langton Ultimate Cosmic Ray Detector), was inspired by a trip to CERN in Geneva where pupils looked at a chip used to detect cosmic radiation in the particle accelerator. One pupil had the idea of using the chip in space.
Professor Larry Pinsky, of the University of Houston, mentioned the project at a conference and said the news embarrassed Nasa into trying to beat the school.
Matthew Baxter, Langton's headmaster, has criticised how science is taught, saying children were being "sold down the river".
