The out of body sensations that a human being faces in a near death experience may actually help improve the virtual gaming experience if the neurologists in Switzerland have their way. The team of researchers at the Ecole Polytecnique Federale de Lausanne has been studying the brain’s reaction to the conflict of senses.

Led by Olaf Blanke, the team has been conducting experiments where a person is placed in a virtual reality setting. The volunteer is then asked to identify with a computer generated image or avatar. Then the person receives a physical stimulation like a stick touching their arm. Simultaneously something is seen to touch the computer generated avatar.

The human volunteer begins to identify with the computer generated avatar to a great extent. If the finger is squeezed of the human, but nothing is done to the avatar, the human being actually does not register the intense pain that he should feel. The perception that the avatar is the reality can become very strong.

The area of the brain which affects this “one with the avatar” complex is the same in which out of body experiences are handled. The region of the brain needs more scientific study but the neurologists say it could lead to several breakthrough treatments.

Ever wonder why you love going to some stores? It could be because of the kind of music they play says a scientific study. It has already been established that playing music can soothe the frayed nerves at a dentist’s clinic, but can the piped music in a store make you want to spend more?

Apparently it can, as per Trevor Cox, a British acoustics researcher. Although it would depend on some other factors such as how loud the music is and what the ambiance in the shop is like. Some conventional wisdom must apply to all the piped music we keep hearing.

Soft, slow music makes people tend to linger longer and spend more in stores as per Cox. However is the music is loud and brash it makes the people want to run away. The type of music being played is also a factor to be considered.

Christmas music including carols and songs such as “Let it snow” are actually effective in making wishful thinking come alive in shoppers during the season. This again, leads to more sales. In France the romantic instrumental tunes increased the sale of flowers in a shop.The playing of accordion music helped sell more French wine than German wine in a liquor store. This musical study is still a fledgling science project.

Woods and forests play an important part of our bio diversity and ecosystems. There have been enough science projects and research done to indicate that the trees and fauna of the forests are vital for maintaining the balance of life on Earth.

Now a team of researchers from the US Forest Service have conducted a carbon dioxide study which helps us understand why the loss of forest cover across the globe is affecting the climate adversely. Yude Pan led the study which revealed that global forests absorb close to 2.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.

About 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere each year. So the forests actually help counter the effects of human activities which create carbon dioxide. 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is absorbed by the forest cover across the world. However with logging and deforestation becoming more prevalent this figure is dropping.

Without the trees being available to absorb the excessive amounts of carbon dioxide that the human activities release we will face a major problem. Tropical rain forests which traditionally absorb as much as 50% of the total greenhouse gases are now struggling for survival. Does it really need more science projects and research to show us that our very survival is linked to this?

Gathering information about Earth’s closest celestial neighbor, the Moon, has been an ongoing science project for many researchers. The first lunar rover from the erstwhile Soviet Union, the Lunokhod I was placed on the moon in the early 1070s. The scientists however lost contact with the lunar rover a few months after it landed on the moon.

In 2010 NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Obiter or LRO found the Lunokhod I using high resolution cameras. When pulses of laser hit the vehicle it sent back a strong signal using its retroreflector.  The 2.3 meter long rover looks more like a bathtub on wheels but is in fact a powerful machine which can help in providing valuable data on the moon.

Scientists at the University of California at San Diego are being led by Tom Murphy to collect information from old lunar rovers including Lunkhod II, and the other rovers left behind on the moon by the three Apollo missions. As of now all five lunar rovers are reflecting the laser beams back to earth. The telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico is capturing this.

The experiment allows us to calculate the distance between the earth and the moon precisely down to the last millimeter. Did the people who made the moon rovers ever think that they could be put to this use? Just shows you how one science project can often blend into another.

Given the number of science projects involved in hunting for alien life form, it is equally possible that alien life form is also searching for us. It is even probable that they have already found us and are studying what we are up to on earth. And while I may not quite subscribe to a Men in Black scenario, it seems that scientists at NASA and Penn State University are far more speculative.

Last year Shawn Domagal-Goldman of NASA’s Planetary Science Division along with his colleagues developed scenarios where alien contacts ended in three broad categories: beneficial, neutral or harmful. These are the scenarios that could actually unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter. They were developed so that in case of actual alien encounters the human race would have a game plan to deal with them.

If the contact is beneficial the human race may benefit from ET technology and gain knowledge that it is still light years away from. If the aliens remain neutral,it is likely that they may merely observe how humans go about their business and not offer any help. Naturally the hostile or harmful alien contact is the one to watch out for. While it may all be speculation, it is indeed a fascinating topic for a science project discussion.