One of the most difficult tasks to accomplish in outer space is landing on a comet. In all attempts made so far have not been successful. The space probe has either missed the comet altogether by misjudging the speed of the comet or crashed right into the surface of the comet and disintegrated.

Now a European spacecraft is hoping to land on a comet that it has been tracking for the last ten years. The craft called Rosetta was launched in 2004 and is waiting for the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. It has been in hibernation for the last two years after having positioned itself optimally to make the rendezvous.

On 20 January 2014 it will awaken and begin navigational measures to land on a two-and-a-half-mile-wide ball of ice and dust. All the while the comet will be continuing on its journey towards the sun and Rosetta will continue alongside mapping the surface of the comet.  Eventually by August it will pick the spot where it is to send its probe named Philae.

Philae will eventually, if all goes well, land on the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet in November 2014. The entire European space community is waiting for the day when this extensive science project finally is completed. Here’s wishing them all the success.

Delivery time may be cut down drastically in the future when you shop from online super store Amazon. They company has decided to use drones to make deliveries in a limited range area from their order fulfillment zones. They may end up delivering everything from shoes to small electronic consumer goods if they get the approval of the federal government.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos informed the media on Sunday that “Prime Air”, as the program is being called, will eventually see hundreds of small sized drones buzzing around the homes in America dropping off packages that have been ordered online. The company hopes to deliver the packages within a 60 minute limit.

Now that will be instant service. They will use the small “octocopter” as the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) of choice to make the deliveries. The octocopter is drone that can carry up to five pounds worth of stuff. New drones with stronger capabilities will have to be invented through new science experiments for the program to succeed.

Getting permission to use the drones will be another road block. While the Federal Aviation Administration is working to integrate civilian drones into US airspace , this is not going to happen overnight. The delivering drones will likely begin work around 2025. However it would be fun to imagine just how they would swoop down to deliver the goods to your home.

Ancient light from the very early universe takes billions of years to get to our part of the galaxy. By the time scientists on Earth get to observe this ancient light it has traversed a twisted pattern distorted by the pull of matter in its way. This is known as B-modes and its secret has been unraveled using the National Science Foundation’s South Pole Telescope, and the Herschel space observatory.

Scientists believe there are two kind of B-modes. The first kind were generated a few billion years into our universe’s existence while the second type were produced when the universe was formed, fractions of a second after its birth in the Big Bang. It is the second kind that may hold clues to how the universe began and that is a mystery all scientists everywhere are interesting in solving.

The data from the Planck mission is being combed to find more instances of this primordial B-modes of light. Researchers were looking for the kind of polarized light formed by a process called gravitational lensing. This is where the gravitational pull from matter disturbs the path of light. Further scientific study is needed to sort and make sense of all the data that this ancient light may hold.

Lasers have become an integrated part of our lives. We use them to print files from the computer, listen to music on CDs, view movies on DVDs, operate on eyes, monitor blood pressure, cut and weld metal for automobiles and a whole lot more. One more use of lasers is going to be to test drinking water potability.

Potable water is water that is safe enough to be consumed by human beings. Testing the quality of drinking water before it is piped to the city is a major responsibility as new contaminants can enter the water and cause diseases for the full population of a city. The researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF in Freiburg have developed the technology to allow lasers to test the quality of drinking water.

The new system automatically analyzes water samples at the waterworks using their quantum cascade laser. The apparatus can not only identify if the water is contaminated, but also narrow down to find out what impurity is present in the water. It has been designed in such a manner that it can immediately identify any dangerous substance present in the water and give early warning. Such a science project will indeed have a positive impact.

Part of the reason why solar energy took so long to catch on is that the number of solar cells required to produce usable energy was massive. This was because of the failure of the solar cells to convert the solar energy efficiently, which resulted in loss of solar power. Nano technology may have a solution to overcome this large loss of power.

At the Arizona State University researchers have developed nano particles using graphite which are able to improve the absorbtion of solar energy of solar cells. Traditional Photovoltaic solar panels can use only a fraction of the sunlight that reaches them. The rest gets converted to heat and impedes the absorption of energy.

This limitation was partially overcome by using solar collectors. The solar thermal collector collects this extra heat and uses it to boil water, make steam and run a turbine to generate electricity. It is these solar collectors that the researchers have improved by adding mixed nanoparticles including those of graphite.

Being black in color makes graphite a good absorber of heat. This increases the heat collection of the solar collectors making them more efficient. There are many potential uses of these improved solar thermal collectors and the researchers are working on many science projects related to this as well.

The use of solar panels on the roof to heat water for the bathrooms is standard practice in many countries world wide today. Some other solar devices have been used for cooling purposes, but have not been found very economical. However the researchers at the Madrid Universities Carlos III and Politécnica are doing path breaking research in using solar power for heating as well as cooling.

Their suggestion is to incorporate  solar energy collectors into a gas-based co-generation system with an absorption machine. This will allow the energy expenditure and CO₂ emissions both to be reduced. This gas engine generates electricity which can be used to power air conditioning during the summers. The extra heat that is trapped can be used during winters to warm the rooms. The prototype has been built.

The hybrid tri-generation plant built by the researchers at Madrid upplies 1.7 MW of electricity, 1.3 MW of heating and 2 MW of air conditioning.  Unfortunately the size and scope of the gas engine is such that at present it would take 14 years of use for the machine to pay for itself.

While the concept was developed to help the energy needs of the buildings within the Madrid region, it may be a wile before the proposed gas engine can be used in an economical manner. Perhaps more science experiments could help make it more user friendly.

Solar energy has been gaining ground as a viable green source of energy for our planet. The drawback of having solar cells all over the top of a building to be able to generate enough energy to provide electrical current for running a few simple devices may soon be overcome.

Scientists at ICFO have been working on a solar cell that offers a high degree of transparency. These new generation transparent solar cells are also far more efficient at generating energy using the sun’s power. They give hope to the concept of having a building where in the windows are able to capture the sun’s energy to power the home’s electrical needs.

True the concept is still in infant stage and a whole lot more work is yet to be done to make this a viable and economical project, but the possibilities and potential of these transparent solar cells have researchers the world over excited. Perhaps this could mean the end of the energy crisis.

They are also likely to induce clean cities as the energy is not coming from a polluting fossil fuel but something that is as natural as life itself, sunlight. This science project is a major step in the direction of integrating renewable, green energies into urban lives and landscapes.

The frosting over of glass on the car windshield while driving through a fog can actually be dreadful and in some cases involving accidents, even fatal. This is why there are ongoing scientific experiments to try and keep the windshield glass clear. Researchers Michael F. Rubner, Robert E. Cohen and their team have been working on developing a water repelling coating that can be applied to the glass to ensure it does not blind the driver of the car.

The coating is supposed to keep the glass free of fog and frost enabling the driver to have a clear view through the windshield while he drives. If they succeed in making the glass coating there will be other possible uses for it. For instance the coating may help photographers who rue the lens of their camera fogging over in an outdoor shoot.

Possible industrial uses would include windows for homes and offices which would use the glass coating to repel water and forever stay clear. There may be something tricky with cleaning these windows so as not to take off the coating with regular domestic cleaning products. Its enough fodder for a new science project to produce a cleansing agent that does not react with the glass coating chemicals.

Did you ever wonder what happened to the human body when it went into the zero gravity environment of space? This has been the subject of many interesting science projects on astronauts and here is what they have come to understand.

The bones in the lower part of the body no longer need to support the body as instead of walking the astronauts tend to float from place to place. This makes them lose calcium which is absorbed into the body and the bones  are weaker and more brittle. The muscles are also not used in quite the same manner and tend to atrophy, which means to lose muscle mass.

The heart does not have to pump quite as hard to get the circulation going and over time tends to reduce in size. The lack of gravity makes the discs of the spine expand and so an astronaut is actually taller in space than on earth. Bodily fluids do not get dragged down to the lower body and tend to stay in the upper regions. This gives astronauts puffy faces and head aches.

Sleeping in space also poses a problem and the lack of sleep can affect the performance of the astronaut as well. All in all the science experiments aside, being in outer space is not likely to be a very exciting time for the human body.

The center of our galaxy, The Milky Way, is a high radiation zone.  It is being currently studied by researchers from the Centre for Astronomy of Heidelberg University and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. The weather conditions in the center have been compared to those seen at the inhospitable and stormy Cape Horn on our planet, while the conditions on Earth have been likened to the Italian Riviera by the scientists conducting the study.

The center of the galaxy is where an existing black hole and formation of new stars has created a radiation wind of the kind that humans would never survive. It is a thousand times stronger than the radiation that is caused by our sun, Sol. The research is providing invaluable information in the formation process of young stars. They are currently following the progress of an extremely dense cloud at the Galactic Center called G0.253+0.016 which has been labeled a cosmic weather balloon.

Through astronomical observations the researchers have managed to calculate the approximate temperature of this dense cloud. This data was then used to try and determine the actual temperature at the Galactic Center. There is no doubt that as this science project progresses we will learn new things about the formation of stars in our galaxy.