Those Whiz Kids of Science

One way a society defines itself is in its decisions about behavior it will punish and behavior it will reward. More often than not these days, public discussion about reward, punishment and America’s values is focused on making points in political campaigns and not on identifying merit. So it is refreshing to think of values in the same frame of reference as that used by such rituals as the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, whose winners were announced late Monday with appropriate fanfare.

The Westinghouse contest is an annual event of more consequence, if less celebrity, to the American future than the Oscars or any of a dozen other spotlights on achievement. Students who have yet to see their high school diplomas are formally feted for their wizardry in fields from genetics to microbiology. The thrilling accomplishments of these young hotshots inevitably serve to reassure the nation’s almost always-hysterical older folk that the future of the nation is not in such bad hands after all.

This year two Southern Californians stood out. David Ruchien Liu, 16, from Riverside, and Royce Yung-Tze Peng, 17, of Rancho Palos Verdes, finished among the top 10 winners, the first time in four years that state students finished in that stratospheric elite. No doubt the impressive achievements of Liu and Peng say more about the brains and determination of these ambitious teen-agers than anything else and scarcely provides us with the right to crow about California. That would be to trivialize this grand moment. Still, it’s nice to know that such talent is flowering here, among teachers who have not given up and fellow students who cannot but help be inspired by the excellence of the achievement. And among adults who can be moved by recognition of such young talent even after many years and much cynicism have left them generally moved by little else.