Some morning in May you will bid your parents farewell, walk up the steps of an airliner, and touch down a few hours later in a distant city. For the next five days you will be caught up in the excitement and fascination of the National Science Fair-International! The full impact of your nation’s science fair hits you the morning you set up your exhibit in the auditorium. You knew that you had a good exhibit when you entered the district fair back home in March. (Since this is your second year of serious competition, and you have improved both your science project and your exhibit, you weren’t too surprised to win there.) But regional and statewide competition is even tougher, so you were holding your breath until they finally called your name! Now here you are, and as you appraise the 400 other exhibits going up besides yours, you realize this is the “big league”. These guys and gals are really good. But some of your awe evaporates as you talk with your neighbors, and while you help the pretty blonde with the guppies position her heavy aquaria. Win or not, this is going to be fun! And so it is—during the tension of the judging the next day, when you show your exhibit to the public the day after that, and throughout the tours of research laboratories and industrial processing plants that follow. In conversations with the judges, in the varied social contacts with more than 400 fellow exhibitors from the United States and several foreign countries, you get a fresh look at the rewards of serious scientific endeavor. One evening you listen enthralled by the startling concept being explained by one of the “big men” in science. You’ve seen his name and picture in newspapers, textbooks, and technical journals, and there he stands, talking seriously to you and your fellow exhibitors. As he explains a problem that has puzzled you, you begin to see science as a community of kindred minds where every serious truth-seeker is welcome, where there is no rank other than that bestowed on active intellects, sound procedures, and reasoned, honest conclusions. All too soon, the week is almost over. At the Awards Banquet they are calling the names of the winners and you sit unsurprised when the early prizes pass you by. You’ve studied those winning exhibits, and you must acknowledge that they have the edge on yours—one because of the very unusual hypothesis posed and proved, the other because of the masterful clarity with which it explains the area of investigation. But next they name the winners of special awards, presented by the American Chemical Society, The American Institute of Biological Sciences, the military departments, and similar organizations, for outstanding exhibits related to the programs of the sponsors. And here you are on the stage, having your photograph taken with the nine other winners of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission’s Special Awards!