RSC receives an incredible response to its Mpemba Effect competition

There has been, and still is, worldwide interest in an RSC competition in which we offered £1000 to the person submitting the most imaginative, scientifically sound explanation of why hot water freezes faster than cold water.

Everyone involved in the project at the RSC is thrilled by the thousands of emails and letters sent from people of all ages and all walks of life in response to the competition. We would like to thank the 22 000 people who got in touch for showing such a keen interest and for all their hard  work - including those who telephoned in the middle of their nights in Arizona and New Zealand.

The judging process will begin soon, but due to the fantastic response we have had to the competition and because we want to ensure every submission gets the attention it deserves, we expect it to be a few months before we can announce the winner.

So, although it may be the case that we don't announce the winner until after the New Year, between now and January we will feature some of our favourite submissions on our website and there may be a few surprises to look out for... 

We would greatly appreciate your patience over the coming weeks and assure everybody that they have not heard anything from us for a while because we are working hard to make sure the process is performed properly.