(Newser) – Score one for girl power: Three young American women took the top prizes at Google's first-ever science fair, beating 7,500 other contestants from 91 countries. The grand prize went to 17-year-old Shree Bose, who discovered a way to improve ovarian cancer treatment for patients who have built up a resistance to chemotherapy drugs, Google announced in a blog post. She wins a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and an internship at CERN.

Naomi Shah, 16, won her age group award with a project demonstrating ways to reduce reliance on asthma medication by improving indoor air quality, and 13-year-old Lauren Hodge won her age group with a study looking at the effect of different marinades on carcinogens in grilled chicken. Both young scientists get $25,000 scholarships and internships at Google and LEGO. The girls' clean sweep wasn't planned, but "I was secretly happy to see that happen, because for ages men have dominated the science field, and in many cases women who have done excellent work have been ignored," a Google judge tells the New York Times. (Read more Google stories.)

