A BRILLIANT boffin from Appleton has beaten science writers from across the country to win a prestigious national award.
Claire Bithell, aged 26, of Rosemore Gardens, scooped first prize in the Daily Telegraph BASF Science Writers Award and will now win a trip to the US for next year's American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
The Manchester University PHD science student also picked up £500 and a year's subscription to Nature and New Scientist magazine.
She said that her victory had come as a big surprise.
"I was very excited to win. I would like to get into science writing, which is very hard, so this should give me a chance," Claire explained.
Claire, who is in the final year of her studies, wrote an article entitled 'The Mystery of a Very Sleepy Sultan', which discusses how Sultan Djata of the Kingdom of Melli is thought to have been the first person to contract African sleeping sickness.
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