Longitude Prize seeks solution to top scientific challenge

Three hundred years after the British offered 10,000 pounds to whoever could solve that era's greatest scientific challenge, they're at it again.

This time the U.K. is offering 10 million pounds (almost $17 million) to whoever can solve one of today's top scientific problems—once the public has picked one from a roster of six medical and other scientific puzzles.

The Longitude Prize is inspired by a 1714 contest of the same name that sought a way of pinpointing a ship's location at sea. The winning invention—the marine chronometer, which revolutionized navigation—was the brainchild of a working-class Yorkshire clockmaker with little formal education. In 1765, John Harrison collected 10,000 pounds for his efforts, equal to about $1.7 million today.

The Longitude Prize outstrips the cash being offered for another medical challenge: the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder Xprize, which seeks a tool for consumers to measure key health metrics and diagnose a set of 15 diseases.

Longitude Prize organizers said last week that the public would vote on which of six challenges the prize should tackle. The three medical challenges in the mix are reversing paralysis, overcoming antibiotic resistance and improving the lives of people with dementia. Also being considered are providing food and clean water for all and ensuring air travel is not environmentally harmful.

The chosen topic will be announced June 25. The contest, overseen by Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and other scientists, will open for entries in September.

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