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Ning Zhou inspected mice brains last summer at Harvard University, looking for the genes that control brain size. That painstaking work, which involved dissecting 200 mice and countless hours analyzing the results, paid off for the Wayzata High School senior this week, when he won several awards at the 67th Annual State Science & Engineering Fair.

Zhou, who worked with the Future Scientist Discovery Program of St. Paul to prepare his project, spent six weeks in a summer internship at Harvard Medical School conducting his research. Then he did lots of statistical analysis at home.

"I found genes related to psychological disorders," he said. "The hope is that this could be instrumental in treating humans someday," said Zhou, who will attend Harvard next year to study neuroscience and genetics.

His project was one of three from the Minnesota Science Fair that will advance to next month's International Science Fair in Portland, Ore.

Other budding scientists who'll advance are Richie and Ryan Huynh, ninth-graders at Champlin Park High School, and Alina Muellerleile, a 10th-grader at Coon Rapids High School.

About 450 junior-high and high-school students advanced from regional science fairs to earn a place at the state competition, which was held Sunday through Tuesday at the Radisson Riverfront Hotel in St. Paul.

In addition, dozens of others won medals and cash prizes for their projects, which included studies of the effects of soda on muscle coordination in mice; the impact of blackberry plants on bluff vegetation and breast cancer tumor development.

"The complexity and depth of the projects was inspiring," said Kristi Grey Shepherd, project manager of the fair, which was put on by the Minnesota Academy of Science. "The students were intelligent, fun to work with, and really offer a great hope for the future."

Muellerleile who, in addition to her science efforts, is currently appearing in her school's spring play, "Footloose," was honored for her use of electromagnets and a superconductor to try to change the shape of water droplets.

"I got the idea while talking with my dad about water in space," she said. "We both love space and we're both sci-fi buffs."

To check her hypothesis, she analyzed spinning water droplets surrounded by electromagnets. Did it work? "It's hard to say. I thought I saw some movement, but I have to say it's inconclusive," she said. She hopes to continue the project next year. "If it does actually work, we might be able to manipulate water's shape, and maybe someday that could lead to antigravity research and new forms of renewable energy."

The identical Huynh twins, Richie and Ryan, combined their musical and scientific interests in their project, which asked the musical question: "Does classical music affect the white blood cell count in high school students?"

They had classmates listen to classical music for 20 minutes each evening, then drew blood from the students weekly for six weeks and analyzed the blood to see if more white cells were present. Another group of students didn't listen to the music, but gave their blood for the cause.

And the Huynhs did find additional white cells in the blood of the classical music listeners over the course of the experiment. There was a 98 percent likelihood that the difference in cell count was not due to chance, but probably was due to the calming influence of the classical music, Ryan said.

The brothers said they listen to classical music in their spare time and both play in the school orchestra: Ryan the violin and Richie the viola.

"Other studies have shown that classical music relaxes the human mind," Richie said. "And when the body is more relaxed, the white blood counts increase." Would rock music generate the same results? "We didn't test rock and roll," Ryan said. "But we think rock probably makes you hyper," Richie said.