A star is born as teen wins top global science competition

Hao Ruochen may have his head in the stars, but the 17-year-old also has a practical streak.

A "shining star" on his campus, Shandong Experimental High School, Hao won the top prize in the physics and astronomy category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held in the US city of Pittsburgh last month.

With research based on sound experiments involving the greater horseshoe bat, Hao stood out from about 1,700 young students selected from more than 75 countries at the fair, which is considered the world's largest high school science research competition.