Sir

Students aged 16–17 have been doing chemistry research at Westminster School for the past five years (see the News feature “Put your lab in a different class”, Nature 420, 12–14; 2002). Our projects all have their origins in the normal curriculum, as many points of quite elementary chemistry have not been investigated for half a century or more. With modern techniques we can amplify (and often correct) what is written in the standard textbooks.

Our first paper, on the addition of hydrogen halides to alkenes, has now been published (J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2, 810–813; 2002), and other work is nearing completion. Students gain by having to think about a problem for a year or more, and experiencing the disappointments as well as the satisfaction inherent in original work.

Too often, bright pupils are put off from studying science because they think they will be asked nothing more demanding than to reproduce received wisdom. I hope that the presence of active research groups in high schools may help to correct this misconception.