Maui student
wins trip to D.C. for
science fair

By Pete Pichaske

Phillips News Service

WASHINGTON -- Emi Malia Eno's love for swimming and sunny Hawaii have netted the 17-year-old Maui high-school senior a free trip to the nation's capital and a chance to win the country's oldest and most prestigious high school science contest.

It is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Captain of the swim team at Kahului's H.P. Baldwin High School, Eno has long been concerned about the long-term effects of ultraviolet rays on those, like herself, who are frequently exposed to the sun.

But since using humans as guinea pigs is frowned upon, she decided to study the impact of the radiation on plants. She studied maize and how it is protected by differing levels of an ultraviolet-absorbing pigment called anthocyanin.

The result: a science experiment picked as one of 40 semifinalists (from 1,400 entries) in the Intel Science Talent Search, a 58-year-old science contest formerly sponsored by Westinghouse.

The 40 experiments are on display here this weekend at the National Academy of Sciences, and the top prizes -- the grand prize is a $50,000 college scholarship -- will be announced Monday. But Eno figures she already is a winner.

"I got this trip to Washington," she said. "It's really different here. I wouldn't say I want to live here, but it's been a good experience. There are a lot of really, really good projects over here. It's really tough competition."

Eno's mother tells her she gets the science bug from her aunt, a dental hygienist.

"She always pushed science, science, science," said Eno. "And my teachers have been good, and made it interesting."

Her experiment suggests that photosynthesis is inhibited by ultraviolet radiation in plants lacking high levels of the radiation-absorbing pigment. But further study is needed to come up with conclusive proof, Eno said.

She is hoping the University of Hawaii graduate student who helped her with her project will continue the study.

"It's important," she said. "With increased pollution levels, the ozone hole is going to get bigger, and thus more ultraviolet radiation will reach the Earth. And with population increasing, we need to find new ways to give crops better protection."

Eno herself will not be taking the ultraviolet study any further. She has been accepted at the University of the Pacific in California. And there, with a bow to her science-minded aunt, she expects to study dentistry.