Stem Cell research is one of the most fascinating ongoing science research projects. These are the cells that produce blood during postnatal life. The nature of stem cells is such that they can be manipulated into becoming any kind of cell that you may need to regenerate for a person.

As you can imagine the potential for stem cell research is unmatched for medical treatments developed so far. It is thus easy to understand the excitement of researchers as they make breakthrough after breakthrough in the different fields related to human health. It is also easy to understand why critics are worried about researchers playing god in the laboratories.

As with anything the technology can be used for good as well as bad. In the latest experiments on gerbils there has been some good. The scientists have now generated ear cell progenitors that can help restore auditory response in the animals. While the research is still ages away from solving deafness in human beings, it is indeed a major step forward in that direction.

Imagine what the repercussions of this science project would be in the future, if every one who has lost their hearing could take this stem cell based treatment and regain auditory responses.

With the concerns for our planet’s well being running high there is considerable anxiety about what we humans will do if the Earth finally is unable to support the teeming billions who inhabit it. Naturally there was considerable excitement when astronomers discovered a new super Earth planet in the habitable area of the star Gliese.

The red dwarf star  has a exoplanet which is 6.9 times the size of the Earth, but which tends to have all the life supporting conditions that Earth has. the planet called Gliese 163c has an orbital period of 26 days. It is loacted 49 light years away from our Solar System.

Gliese 163c was discovered in the Dorado constellation orbiting the red dwarf star by astronomers working on the European Southersn Observatory HARPS telescope. the discovery gave scientists hope that there may be life sustained on the planet that is similar to what developed on Earth, although no signs of life have been seen so far.

Naturally shifting planets for the entire billion plus population of Earth to another planet is not something that can be undertaken right now, but in the future, who knows what will transpire.  Perhaps what seems like science fiction today may become scientific fact tomorrow.

Having the residual Olympic fever in our systems helps when we hear of new records being broken. However this one has nothing to do with a global sports meet and everything to do with the largest cooperative science project being run out of this world.

On 6 September 2012 NASA announced that Sunita Williams, an astronaut currently located on the International Space Station, has broken the Space Walk record for longest time spent in space. The previous record was held by Peggy Whitson who has a total of 39 hours and 46 minutes in space walking time.

Thursday Sunita Williams spent 6 hours 28 minutes outside the International Space Station with Japanese astronaut, Akihiko Hoshide. The two were effecting repairs on the main power unit switching mechanism and installing a camera on the robotic arm of the space station.

Adding this latest space walk to Sunita William’s previous total sent her time on space walks to 44 hours and 2 minutes, beating Peggy’s old record. On hearing the news Peggy responded by saying “You go girl!” The congratulatory message was relayed to Sunita who responded by saying “Anybody could be in these boots.”

Well, we know it could not be just anybody in those boots. It took a lot of hard work and dedication to science space projects to get her the opportunity to set this record.

Who doesn’t like a well mowed lawn? And who doesn’t hate the effort that getting that perfectly manicured lawn look takes? Well it seems that Honda has decided to answer the horticultural prayers of the green thumbs society. They have come up with an astonishing sensor based lawn mover that works miracles on your patch of green.

This robot that looks astonishing like the Roomba vaccuum cleaner that they came up with is called the Miimo. The robotic lawn mower will trim 2 to 3 mm of grass on your lawn over several sessions during the week. That way you don’t have to sweat it out on the weekends to get the full job done.

Miimo navigates with a combination of controls, timers and sensors while working inside the constraints of a buried boundary wire. That way you are assured that its not going to take off and start trimming the neighbour’s lawn while you are at work.

It works on a lithium ion battery so you will save on the gas costs too. Its got a docking station that allows it to charge its battery which looks similar to the Roomba charging station. This is one science project that will do everything to make sure your patch of green gathers compliments with you bothering too much about it.

Robots are sure moving up in the world these days, they even have their own football world cup. There are a lot of sporting fans cheering at Bristol, England these days, but the teams that they are cheering for do not have any human beings on the playing field.

Twenty six teams of robots have come together to compete in the 16th edition of the FIRA or Federation of International Robotics Association RoboWorld Cup. Just like the human FIFA there are star player and better teams, not to mention major fans.

The players may not be human but they spend a fair amount of time in preparation for their time on the playing field just as their human counterparts from the FIFA do. And besides soccer, which is the main draw other sporting robotic attractions include sprinting, basket ball and weight lifting.

Some robots are built from scratch others are modified after being store bought. And yes there are tributes to the human spirit as well, which can be seen in the robot named Usain Volt, in honor of the Jamaican sprinter Bolt. As you can see that is one well named and rather interesting science project to work on.

Think of a TV switching itself on when you say, “Hi TV, power on”. Or perhaps logging into your Facebook, Twitter and Gtalk accounts by merely staring at the TV screen. Sounds like science fiction to you? It is no longer sci – fi but reality thanks to face recognition software integrated in the next generation of smart TVS.

A smart TV today can help you do a lot more than the old box could do even a decade ago. You can have High Definition movie streaming coming over the screen from a website, or browse through a number of interesting apps, or even sit back and catch up with all the stuff that your friends put up on various social media sites.

The smart TV experience is so close to science fiction that the majority of the masses have yet to realize that its no longer sci-fi but reality. Watching futuristic technology march into the home would make you wonder what’s coming next.

Its just a matter of paying attention to the next round of science projects under developement. Still I suppose we have some time to go before the gadgets in the house become so high tech that they begin resenting the humans that they serve.

It took 7 minutes for curiosity to land on Mars after years of preparation. For those seven minutes the entire world was glued to the success of the landing and this is only the beginning of the project. For the first time scientists have received panoramic snapshots of the scenery on the red planet. Many assumptions will be confirmed or trashed as the lab discovers the planet.

Imagine what it would be like to be part of a team sitting here on Earth and driving research vehicles out there on Mars. It would have seemed liked science fiction even a decade ago, but today its  reality that a scientists is driving a remote controlled car and orbiting the Gale Crater on Mars. That he is able to see snapshots and video of the bedrock layers that form the floor of the crater.

Curiosity Mission Manager Mike Watkins of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California has likened the capabilities and skills required to run the Curiosity project to brain surgery. He would not be far off the mark considering the laborious attention to detail and precision skills that come into play in both operations. It is a science project that many will talk about for days to come.

There are more than 1 billion cars on road in the world today for a population of 7 billion human beings. As per studies conducted by the OECD the automobile density will reach its maximum of 650 to 800 cars per 1,000 inhabitants very soon. So does having so many cars on road demonstrate progress? Or is it  a matter of grave concern?

While public transportation has been making life easy for denizens of cities, it is still the private car which is the primary means of transportation for most suburban families. While concentrated research is being conducted in developing new technologies with clean and green fuel there is no denying the fact that it is the fossil fuel powered car that is the mainstay of personal transportation today.

The population needs to move and the pollution from their cars is not enough of a deterrent to make a switch to a more expensive and less reliable means of green transport. They may consider car pooling but beyond that the environment is not too much of a concern. So yes the private car is indeed a boon to the family and a bane to the environment. And till scientific researchers come up with an alternative that can be mass produced and is cheap enough to compete, the fossil fuel powered car is here to stay.

In the last couple of decades the depletion of the ozone layer has become an established fact thanks to a number of scientific research studies which have proved that the hole above the continent of Antarctica in the ozone layer is growing.

The Ozone layer is a gaseous layer in the Earth’s atmosphere which protects us from ultraviolet rays that the sun radiates. It is because of the ozone layer that life as we know it, exists on this planet. Unfortunately the gas layer has been depleting steadily due to human activity and now as new research comes in maybe due to volcanic activity as well.

It has been found that along with lava and rocks volcanoes also throw up large amounts of bromine when they erupt. Bromine is a chemical which destroys ozone. So in effect when a volcano erupts it not only damages the immediate area in its vicinity but also the ozone in the atmosphere above it.

Perhaps it is good to know that man alone is not responsible for the depleting ozone layer, but the fact that mother nature is also giving it a helping hand is surely not glad tidings. More scientific research needs to be done to determine just how fast bromine from volcanic activities is affecting the ozone layer.

As strange as that may sound, the Navy has indeed trained dolphins and sea lions to search for bombs in and around vessels. While they have been fairly successful, they are difficult to train and involve a great deal of expense.

The dolphins have also had some trouble with smaller sized bombs, which may not sink the ship but will still cause considerable damage if left undetected. So does that mean a human diver needs to go under each ship that sails to ensure its not being sabotaged by bombs? Now robotic researchers may have come up with a better solution.

In their science research project Franz Hover, the Finmeccanica Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and graduate student Brendan Englot have designed algorithms that vastly improve such robots’ navigation and feature-detecting capabilities.

This new group of algorithms makes it a better bet to have robots designed for bomb scouting rather than making use of the dolphins. They have been working with resilient robots that have been constructed in the last decade for underwater reconnaissance missions.It is the progress on these different and unrelated science projects that have made the difference for teh bomb detection missions.