A forest fire in a hard to reach region can become a nightmare for the forest rangers. The loss of flora and fauna can take years to recover from. Now scientists at the George Mason University are coming up with an innovative way to put out fires using… sound! They have found that loud noises directed at the trees below can disrupt the air surrounding the fire.

Since the fire needs air to fuel it, the absence of air results in the fire dying out. As per the researchers the sonic extinguisher would work best at bass frequencies. Bombardier is a company that has taken it one step further and produced a flying saucer type of disc which it calls Firesound. A good blast of sound from it is all it takes to put out a fire.

This UFO lookalike works on this same principle and uses sound pressure waves to help fight forest fires. The electric drone is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and has enough sensors loaded to help the park officials know just how well the fire extinguishing efforts are proceeding. Now this is one science project that could make a world of a difference when it comes to fire fighting out in nature’s lap.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising constantly leading to a lot of awareness of the Carbon Footprints of a number of activities. It is believed that the rise in carbon dioxide is directly contributing to the global rise in temperature.

This makes it important to try and control the release of excessive carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However it is also possible to reduce the amount of this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere by removing it from the air around us. That’s what scientists at the University of Hohenheim at Germany have been researching.

By planting the jatropha plant it is possible to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. The plant is found naturally in arid regions and can substantially capture carbon from the air. They are now awaiting the cultivation of ten thousand hectares of the plant in the coastal region of Saudi Arabia. The large scale science project will be better able to determine just how effective the carbon capturing forest will be.

Natural carbon capture and storage in this manner is likely to be far more effective than the intrusive man made solutions. Needless to say this is one science project that could drastically affect the climate of the future.

Growing food to sustain the ever increasing global population is a challenge for farmers and researchers everywhere. A company in Port Augusta, Australia called Sundrop Farms came through with an astonishing science project that involved growing 17,000 tons of food without pesticides, soil or ground water. Now that is revolutionary to say the least.

Sundrop Farms used coconut husk, mirrors and seawater from the Spencer Gulf to create a greenhouse made of cardboard. The company line is all about breaking farming’s dependence on finite resources. They have already managed to supply non Genetically Modified Crops to grocery stores in the country. In fact 13% of the Australian market is theirs.

The initial investment of $200 million on the farm was huge, but the entrepreneurs are sure that they will recover the cost in the long run. Considering that the farm has the ability to produce crops all year round in the greenhouse, that just may be true.

The hydroponical method of agriculture followed by the farm allows them to use less water than traditional farming. They also don’t use pesticides as the entire system is controlled and there is very little scope of insects getting into the crop and ruining it. This science project is a showboat for the future of farming.

If you were jealous of Luke Skywalker always getting stuff done by R2D2, you have reason to rejoice. Asus  has come out with a robo buddy who can actually follow you around just like R2D2. The robot called Zenbo was unveiled in Taipei in June 2016.

Zenbo is about a meter high and runs on wheels. The face of the robot is actually a touchscreen and can take instructions from you. The robot is also equipped with Artificial Intelligence, a camera and sensors to allow it to navigate easily as well as recognize people.

The personality of Zenbo is like that of a five year old kid. You get to control the robot by using touchscreen commands, verbal commands and even via the smart devices that it can be hooked in to. So you can make it much more fun than dealing with an actual hyperactive five year old.

Zenbo can even work as a good companion to the elderly as it has the ability to monitor if they have a fall or hurt themselves and then launch a video call to the requisite health care professionals. Now that’s part of the science project that is really exciting the medical fraternity.

Going on long space missions involves having enough food supplies to last the duration besides catering for oxygen and other essentials to maintain life in space. One of the primary reasons we have no manned space exploration for the planets in our solar system is our dependence on food. Wouldn’t it be easy if astronauts could just swallow pills and survive on them for the duration of the mission?

Unfortunately while Vitamins and Minerals are essential to maintain good health, they are in no way enough to survive on. These are micro nutrients required by the body. In order to stay healthy and active the body will also need to eat major nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Without these the human body will begin to get malnutrition.

As of now there are no pills for carbohydrates, proteins and fats that are enough for survival. The astronaut will have to eat multiple pills of these ingredients for them to be remotely satisfactory for nutrition limits. Needless to say popping a pill to survive is still science fiction. Although it would be interesting, as a science project, to undertake a study of just what all nutrients a human body needs to survive and in what quantity he must consume them.

NASA scientists are working ahead towards actual Mars Gardens to see what plants future astronauts may be able to grow on the red planet when they land there. This is to enable them to grow some of their own food on a longer mission so that they don’t have to carry everything they need to eat with them. The scientists have been growing different plants under Mars atmosphere like conditions to get an idea of how a possible garden should be cultivated on the planet.

The researchers have already experimented with growing plants in space by having gardening projects on the International Space Station. They have been able to identify which plants do well in space. Now NASA wants to check out just how Mars would affect Earth plants. This is difficult to do as the soil on Earth is full of organic material and is loose. The soil on Mars is volcanic in nature and is more like crushed rocks.

A preliminary experiment conducted by Florida Tech Buzz Aldrin Space Institute has established that lettuce grown in Mars like soil taken from Hawaii tasted the same, but had looser roots and a much slower germination rate. So basically this science project lets us know that your BLT make take longer to grow on Mars!

Somaliland has it’s fair share of modern day pirates around the region of Berbera. They have a reputation of being ruthless as they plunder resources from passing vessels. The plundering in the area has been keeping most shipping vessels away from the shipping lines in the Gulf of Aden. Enormous tankers which would normally be traveling through the region are taking alternate routes.

While the patrolling pirates in the area may be bad news for shipping lines, they are excellent for the fish and coral reefs in the area. The study of the marine biology in the region has found a rich diversity of fish as well as extremely healthy coral reefs to host the schools of fish. The civil war and instability in Somalia leading to the formation of Somaliland and Puntland has been a huge benefit to the world underwater.

Add to this the preference of the local population to eat meat rather than fish, the waters are nearly untouched. Even unlicensed foreign vessels keep away from fishing in the region because of the threat of pirates, despite the rich breeding grounds for fish. Needless to say a detailed scientific study of the area will throw up many interesting facts about the underwater ecosystem.

An extensive three year study of the Australian Great Barrier Reef will be conducted by a team of international scientists and researchers over the next three years. The interesting part is that although the feature being studied is largely under water, the study is going to be conducted from the air from an altitude of 28,000 feet.

How is that going to work? They will use the Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer or PRISM. The PRISM will be used to obtain high definition images of the areas being studied. The resolution of the images will enhance the electromagnetic spectrum of the areas under observation. PRISM will be mounted on a modified Tempus Solutions Gulfstream IV aircraft when it takes the images.

The data will then be calibrated and analysed for 10 key biological and environmental features. The study will provide the coral reef science community with high-quality oceanographic imagery. These will be analysed for accuracy, range, resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity and uniformity to obtain the state of the reef.

There is a great deal of excitement about the science project as this is the first such study of it’s kind. There are sure to be a great many discoveries to be made.

The reefs found in Earth’s oceans have been suffering from ecological damage for years from man based activities. NASA has now come up with an airborne mission to study the sensitive coral reef and the ecosystem at the famous Australian landmark.

It is ti be a three year mission which will offer the clearest and most extensive picture on the actual condition of the world’s largest coral reef. The data provided by the scientific study will help scientists in the future to come up with new models of analyzing the reef.

Six distinct sections of the reef have been identified for the purpose of this particular mission. These are spread over from the Capricorn-Bunker Group in the south to Torres Strait in the north. Two of these locations will serve as bases for in water validation of the data collected.

Scientists are coming together from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the University of Queensland in Brisbane, NASA and BIOS for the purpose of this study. Close to 900 islands and 2,900 reefs will be under scrutiny as part of this science project. It is truly a large scale study which should provide lost of data on the Great Barrier Reef.

Can you imagine what would happen if you were unable to make new memories because your long term memory was destroyed? You would never be able to learn something new. You would not remember new people you have met and interacted with. You would have to relearn processes every time you needed to perform an action.

The short term memory allows you to handle a number of facts for a small period of time. For instance when someone yells out a phone number for you to dial, you remember it for just the time that it takes for you to punch in the numbers. If you need to redial, you most likely will have to ask for the number to be repeated to you again.

The long term memory starts out with you learning something new in the short term memory. Then as you spend day after day using the same skills, they transfer by consolidation into your long term memory. Eventually it becomes a part of the long term memory set up which you can recall anytime you need to use that skill.

There are a number of science experiments and studies on memory which hope to find out the trick to taking short term memories to long term memory faster and more efficiently.