Do you have a tendency to fall asleep when you get tired doing something monotonous? Imagine the disastrous results if a driver did actually feel so sleepy while driving at night that he fell asleep! Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid  in Spain have come up with a special solution to this problem. Here’s what they did.

They have designed a car system which is able to detect pedestrians up to 40 meters away from the car in poor visibility. The system uses infra red cameras to capture body heat to confirm the presence of pedestrians in the field of vision. In some versions of the system a warning is issued to the driver if a pedestrian is spotted too close to the car.

In an automated car system the same process is used, but it brings the car to a halt on its own if the pedestrian is in the danger zone. So even if the driver nods off at the wheel the car will not let him cause a tragic accident. Of course these systems are still under the testing stage at Intelligent Systems Laboratory of the university, but car makers the world over will be watching the progress of this science experiment with great attention.

There are some addictions that are legal and the morning cup tops the list. Tea and coffee are the beverages of choice for the morning fix. For those who love their coffee on the go, here is a new option from a Danish designer that allows you to fix your coffee anywhere. The Growers Cup claims to be coffee’s answer to the tea bag. The manufacturers of this new product describe it as a hybrid between a filter coffee brewer and a French Press.

The coffee bag is as simple to work as the tea bag. The process involves pouring hot water into the bag where the water is held over the coffee beans.  As with the tea bag, the longer you infuse the water the stronger the coffee will be. One bag uses about 300 ml of water to produce two cups of coffee.

Currently the Growers Cup offers their customers five different types of coffee bean variations. Just how successful the coffee bag will be in contrast to the tea bag only time can tell. What about you? Would you drink coffee that was brewed like this using a coffee bag? Or can you come up with a new science project in which you brew coffee just a little bit differently?

The arrival of plastic money made it easy for people to shop around the world. You no longer had to carry wads of cash tucked into your wallet to make a payment. One slim plastic credit card was enough to see through all the expenses that you could possibly have. It was revolutionary, but here’s the next big thing – Your Hand!

A Swedish start up company, called Quixter, has created a device that allows you to swipe your hand in place of a credit card to process payments.  The biometric system scans the veins present in your hand to identify you. Once the identification process is complete the payment is approved.

This system is based on the fact that like fingerprints no two human beings have the exact same pattern of veins in their hand. Quixter has tested 15 machine on the campus of Lund University. Fredrik Leifland who is a founder of the start up is a graduate in engineering of the Lund University.

Here is how the system works. You punch in the last four numbers of your phone number and then hold your hand over the sensor to process the payment. The whole transaction takes less than 5 seconds and is a great example of an innovative science project.

In a world that is growing desperate for power and energy due to fast depleting natural resources hope has been brought forth by a tiny island that is the first in the world to be powered entirely by water and wind. El Hierro is the smallest of the Spanish Canary Islands. Its capital Valverde is the center of major buzz as in June 2014 with the opening of another wind farm the island will be fully energy sufficient.

Currently alternative energy means like wind and water have not been consistent enough to provide uninterrupted power supply. However by combining the two natural means of energy production the Gorona del Viento power plant will ensure that the islanders always have electrical energy available. The wind farm will use five turbines installed in the north eastern region of El Hierro to provide an output of 11.5 megawatts which is more than enough to meet the demands of the nearly 10,000 residents of the island.

While islands across the globe have tried using solar and wind power El Hierro will be the first to ensure a constant supply of power without tapping in to an external electric power source. Now that is truly an awesome science project with spectacular results.

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) held its first competition in which there were five categories that a machine could be entered. These included :Weird and Wonderful, Discovery, Equipment, Innovation, and People. Professor David Delpy, EPSRC’s Chief Executive was extremely impressed by the breadth of images and imagination exhibited demonstrating the talent, both scientific and artistic, that resides in the community.

Toby Harris, a PhD student at Queen Mary University of London’s Cognitive Science Research Group won the award for his Stand Up Comedian Robot.  Harris said they were thrilled that their experiment pitting human stand-up comedians against a robot was inspiring others. This ground-breaking research was helping them to understand both what makes for a great performance and what makes for a compelling audience experience.

They used new technologies to analyse people’s moment-by-moment responses, so while teaching a robot stagecraft was fun, it was the ability to read and react to the audience that made it work. More than the creative industries were at stake here said Harris, by better understanding what happens between performers and audiences, we should gain new insights into the value of bringing students together for class, or workers to a conference table.

Other science project entries to the inaugural competition of the EPSRC included the beauty of Rayleigh-Taylor instability shown in salt water as it accelerates into fresh water, the amazing Gömböc – the world’s only artificial self-righting shape, micro-scale vaccine mixing, cancer cells that resemble tropical islands seen from space, and mathematicians that appear to fly