Practical probability:
Horseracing
Convergence and Destiny
Advice to a Day Trader

and finally...
WASHINGTON, March 13, 2000 -- Intel Corporation and Science Service tonight awarded the $100,000 first-place college scholarship for the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) to Viviana Risca, a 17-year-old high school senior at Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School in Port Washington, N.Y. The Intel STS is America's oldest, and most prestigious, pre-college science scholarship competition, often considered the "Junior Nobel Prize." This year, Intel has increased award scholarships and equipment from $330,000 to $1.25 million.

Viviana, who entered a computer science project in molecular computing titled "DNA-based Steganography," is the third youngest woman in the last seven years to win the top prize. Viviana studied steganography, a data encryption technique that embeds secret messages within large amounts of seemingly innocent information. She encrypted the message, "JUNE6_INVASION: NORMANDY," inserted it in the gene sequence of a DNA-strand, and flanked it by two secret "primer" DNA sequences. Then she combined the molecule with many other similar molecules. The hidden message could be retrieved only by someone knowing the two secret primer sequences - the keys to the code. Because the pair of primers provides a trillion trillion options, she concludes that the code is essentially unbreakable. First in her class, Viviana is managing editor of the school's literary magazine, and has won numerous science and writing awards. A native of Romania and a published poet, she enjoys computer programming, painting and badminton, and hopes to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.