While this is not the Westinghouse competition of old (it's now the Intel Science Competition or something), a Stuyvesant senior from Queens, Yin Li, won the $100,000 Siemens Westinghouse Competition for his work in "using yeast to document how a previously discovered protein in mice nerve cells may help strengthen memory." His project was completed at a lab at Columbia University and Li told Newsday, "You'd be surprised at how similar human beings and mice are to yeast, as least on the molecular level." Fantastic.

In the team competition, two brothers won for their work trying to understand how West Nile is transmitted, after their mother's nagging "Put on long pants or you'll get West Nile." Mark and Jeffrey Schneider of South Windsor, CT were inspired by the movie October Sky where a national science competition is won by unknowns from rural Virginia. Happily, Li and the Schneiders are the recepients of huge, oversized foamcore mounted checks.