Astronomers had found a planet similar to Earth in a solar system that is approximately 200 light years away. The planet had been revealed when the data from NASA”s Kepler spacecraft was analyzed. The initial similarities had made the researchers dub it Earth’s Gassy Twin, but subsequent findings have suggested that there are more than a few differences between this pair of planets.

The mass of the planet called KOI-314c is like that of Earth but it is about 60% larger in diameter as it has a very thick gaseous atmosphere. From observations made and conclusions drawn the astronomers at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have suggested that the planet is merely 30% denser than water.

Traditionally astronomers measure the weight or mass of a heavenly body in a solar system by the tiny wobbles of the parent star induced by the planet’s gravity. However the astronomers who weighed KOI-314c used a different method called the transit timing variations or TTV.

This method is dependent on more than one planet orbiting the same star to be effective. TTV was used because the traditional method is very difficult to use to determine the mass of a planet the size of the Earth. The main finding of this science project just emphasized the fact that even twins can be very different.

The smart phone touch screen has changed the way we interact with a mobile. It is perhaps the personal organization tool which has become more valuable to the user than any previous generation’s communication method. It goes with you everywhere and does just about anything that you ask it to.

It also does one thing that you don’t ask it to. It picks up bacteria and fungi and can transfer them to you causing you to become ill. However glass manufacturing giant Corning has come up with a solution to this problem. Corning has designed what it claims yo be the world’s first antimicrobial touch screen glass.

As per the company Corning’s Antimicrobial Gorilla Glass inhibits the growth of algae, mold, mildew, fungi and bacteria. It is formulated with ionic silver. The antimicrobial property of the glass is intrinsic and effective for the lifetime of the device. The glass can be used in all kinds of electronic devices such as computers, mobiles, tablets, laptops, calculators, and other gadgets that use electronic display panels.

This is one science project that will come in handy to all those users of electronic gadgets who never realized that they could be picking up a microbial infection from their commonly used gadgets.

If you are a fan of the Star Wars series you would be familiar with the hologram of Princess Leia that appealed for help. The one which spurned Luke Skywalker into finding person she was looking for to get her help. Guess what? A company called Leia Display is now pioneering the technology which could make it possible for you to use such holograms on your smart phone.

To create the hologram the caller needs to sit before a special camera with two lenses that can create the single blended image that appears to be 3D in nature. The image from the camera is fed into a hologram machine which then beams it on to a , hold your breath, water vapor screen. That’s not all, using a microphone it is possible for the hologram person image to move and speak in real time.

Love the concept and want one for yourself? Its going to be a while before you can lay your hands on this hologram spewing phone. The company hopes to have a working model of the technology by next year and will eventually move into production about five years from now.

Marcin Panek, the chief executive of Leia Display says that the idea is to pioneer the technology that was imagined in the movie 40 years ago. Marcin hopes that once it is perfected it will be as if loved ones, friends and family are standing right in front of you. I know a number of parents and grandparents who would love to use the end product of this science project.

When you think of something as sturdy has a jet plane you imagine it being constructed in a factory. However the Royal Air Force has now got a Tornado fighter jet plane that has parts printed out using a 3D printer. The test flight of the fighter jet fitted with these parts was successful as per the British company BAE systems from the air force base at Warton in Lancashire this month.

The new technology which allows them to print out the parts will make it easier for the technicians to maintain the plane and substantially reduce the cost of the production of this fighter jet. The RAF stands to gain  over one million pounds in savings thanks to this new technology over the next four years. Some parts of the plane will now cost less than a hundred pounds to produce.

While a relatively new concept 3D printing is already a well established industrial technology. It has been utilized to make prototypes of a number of products in many different industries across the world. Now it is changing the shape of the components industry by making it possible to print parts cheaper than it is to manufacture them in factories.

Britain’s education secretary Michael Gove said that the technology would soon be taught in state schools. This will help the school students learn valuable skills. It sure will be a science project that many of them will enjoy playing around with.

How would you know if there were actual time travelers from the future amongst us? This was what Astrophysicist Robert Nemiroff, a professor at Michigan Technological University and his students wanted to find out. The most obvious place to find them would be on the internet.

Here is how Nemiroff and his students decided to trace time travelers online. They decided that the internet was the logical place to hunt for them. A time traveler would have knowledge of things from the future and may mention them online before the event transpired. To test this hypothesis they considered two events that gained major internet exposure – Pope Francis and Comet ISON.

Then they set up a search for references to these two before the events came to be. After extensive scanning they found no references to the comet before September 2012 when it suddenly hit the scene. There was just one reference to a Pope Francis before Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected head of the Catholic Church on March 16. That too seemed more accidental that prescient.

After the study they concluded that currently there are no time travelers hiding out amongst us. Although I am sure that even if they were, they would not make such elemental slips that would get them caught! Still it was an interesting science project to indulge in even it was quite whimsical.