With more and more of the global population using smart phones, researchers have come up with a new way to collect data on social behavior. Since most smart phone users use the Social Media applications to announce just what they are up to at each moment, it is easy to trace their movement.

This so called transparency of movement is used by retail researchers to study the general behavioral pattern of the population. Sarah Williams is an urban planner from New York City working on such a research project at Columbia University. They use data generated by the smart phone in various major cities of the world.

As per their findings so far in Moscow the big shopping centers seem to get the maximum crowds. The most popular amongst these were Afimall City, the European Mall, or Atrium Mall at the edge of the inner city. Fair ammount of traffic was also seen on the Tverskaya which is the most famous shopping street in Moscow.

In Tokyo the residents are always on the move. They travel nearly ten times more than their counterparts in Paris. The Japanese also tend to do their shopping in traffic junctions such as Shinjuku station. New York on the other hand had no distinguished shopping circles like Moscow had with residents going all over the city. Interesting to see how this science project pans in to real life applications.

Impressive science projects are ones that have many possibilities of being put to use in the real world. This is what helps students with fresh thoughts bring new ground breaking projects into the world of science and technology. It doesn’t have to be too complicated either as this unique science fair project shows.

Carcinogens or cancer causing molecules are formed when chicken is grilled. However certain types of chicken marinades can block these carcinogenic compounds from forming when the chicken is grilled. As per the high school student who conducted the study it was something as simple as lemon juice marinade that could do the trick. Now that’s a science fair with possibilities galore.

If you have access to more complicated equipment you can do even better research like this high school kid did. He hooked up an EEG scanner to his brain and used to to improve the efficiency of mind controlled prosthetic limbs. Prosthetic limbs are artificial legs or arms that are often fitted after a patient needs to undergo amputation. They are not usually the easiest of devices to get used to, but this new mind controlling technology will make it easier. That’s a science project that will have endless possibilities in the real world.

What causes the judges at a science fair to sit down and take a second look at a science project? Is it how well it is displayed? Or how much data has been processed to gain results? Is it something that can be played with like an interactive game? Or is there some more elusive detail that makes science projects impressive? A science project is usually impressive if it has possibilities.

A plastic eating microbe was isolated by researchers after a high school student in Canada did a science project based on them. It got him the first prize and a whole lot of media exposure. Why, because the project had possibilities. Using this microbe in landfills with plastic could reduce the rate of decomposition of the garbage by 40%. That would have an impact worldwide.

Software that speeds up your computer was what a high school student came up with. Making computers go faster usually needs more memory, but instead the student here used a software to analyze how programs were running and spread out their needs over all the CPU to make everything function faster. The computer firm that paid him $50,000 for the software sure knew its possibilities. There are any number of such science projects with possibilities out there, all you need to do is find them.

There are constant innovations being made to health care as technology progresses, but this little science experiment is an interesting one. Patients at the Peterborough City Hospital are being given the option of watching their favorite films while they undergo surgery with local anesthesia rather than general anesthesia.

The project is being spearheaded by consultant anesthetist Dr Richard Griffiths who feels that this is a better way to  relax patients while undergoing surgery. The most popular choice of movies amongst older patients undergoing surgery this way include classics such as Sound of Music, West Side Story, Cabaret, and South Pacific.

Older female patients have been choosing either the BBC documentary Blue Planet, because of David Attenborough’s soothing narrative, or Dirty Dancing. In fact Dirty Dancing is amongst the most popular choices amongst most female patients.  A 75 year old lady who underwent a hip operation watching Sound of Music is totally sold on the idea.

She says that it was a good experience and a much better way to have an operation. She would never have expected to have such an option but now she is determined to ask if she can watch TV if she ever needs another surgical procedure. Trust human beings to make life interesting using such science projects.

The typical snowflake representation with six sides and cut work type patterns with strong branches is actually not so typical in real life. In fact only one in a thousand snowflakes is actually likely to have that shape. So then what’s the shape of a regular snowflake? That’s the question scientists are trying to answer at a ski resort in Utah.

The typical 2d representation of a snowflake is also very different when seen in 3d. The researchers have come up with a way to record snowflakes as they fall “in the wild” so to say. Their camera system has an exposure of one – forty thousandth of a second as it captures the falling crystals. This is far more than the normal camera’s exposure rate of one -two hundredth of a second.

The snowflakes do not always fall alone as they tumble to the ground. Sometimes they join water droplets in the air on their way down and change shape. If too much water gets absorbed they become small pellet like shapes called “graupel”. Even if they do not absorb water droplets they may end up sticking with other snowflakes on their way down.

This causes larger snowflakes with more complex designs to be formed on the way to the ground. So far the researchers have had trouble coming up with a basic shape that all snowflakes correspond to, but the research on this interesting science project continues.