From the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy, to the structure of the DNA helix. The simple living cell to the structure of an atom, everything in the world follows a pattern! The natural pattern of things is visible in every aspect we look into, but does this pattern also follow us into the realm of man made objects?

Chemists at the Carnegie Mellon University have been working on mapping the structure of a synthetically generated gold nano particle. Rongchao Jin, associate professor of chemistry at the school said that with X-ray crystallography, they were able to see very beautiful patterns, which was a very exciting discovery.

Called Au133, these particles self-assemble into three layers within each particle. These are the gold core, the surface molecules that protect it and the interface between them. The gold core is in the shape of an icosahedron. The sulfur-gold-sulfur combinations stack into ladder-like helical structure. And the outer layer of surface-protecting molecules whose carbon tails self-assemble into fourfold swirls.

Needless to say the patterns that govern are world are effortlessly visible even in artificially created gold in the laboratories. This is such a pretty science project to behold.

Fossil fuels are limited. They are also not considered environmentally friendly. However since they were the most popular type of fuel in the day most automobiles and vehicles run on fossil fuel. If they wish to continue running after the fossil fuels are exhausted, they will definitely have to switch their diet…perhaps to corn!

More precisely to the hydrogen that is generated by the plant waste in a “bioreactor”! Shell Oil funded a study which showed that it was possible to convert 100% of the sugar in corn stalks, cobs and husks leftover in a harvest field into hydrogen gas.

The process used the corn stover to create hydrogen with minimal carbon dioxide emissions as well. And hydrogen gas is one of the greener and cleaner alternatives to petrol. We already have a number of vehicles running on gas in the country, now imagine being able to power them with farm waste!

Whichever way you look at it, pure hydrogen gas created from corn waste is an amazing idea for both energy generation and keeping the environment clean. Perhaps its time to test this science project on a larger scale to see if it truly will be commercially viable.

Smart Phones have become the hand held computers that everyone uses non stop these days to access the information highway. There’s just one draw back. The more Apps you use, the more multi tasking you do, the fast your phone battery gets drained. Recharging is then a forced break in your multi fold activities.

Now imagine that you could recharge your phone battery in just about a minute? Would you buy that device or what!!! Stanford researchers have been working on an inexpensive aluminum battery which could do just that. What’s more the new aluminum batter is supposed to be safer than the alkaline and lithium-ion batteries in use today which do have the nasty habit of occasionally going up in flames.

The aluminum ion battery that they are working on has a lower flammability and higher power storage capacity than batteries currently available in the market. And the secret ingredient is allegedly graphite, which allows the scientsist to give the battery these advantages.

While the new battery is no where near ready to enter the market place in the current date, it will be a sure fire success with all smart phone owners who wish to recharge their mobile phones in under a minute! Here’s wishing this science project a speedy success, after all I own a smart phone too!

The recent Germanwings air crash shocked the aviation community and the world at large. The fact that a pilot could willfully decide to cause an air crash and kill everyone on board was terrifying. What if the next plane you boarded you didn’t have to wait for a terrorist, but simply count on the pilot to crash it?

The solution is a concept that scientists have been working on for a while now – remotely operated planes that fly without pilots. With new artificial intelligence technology taking on a life of its own, it was just a matter of time before someone tried to fly a plane using AI.

At Nasa’s Ames research center, the R&D funds have increased as companies are now willing to find a solution to the pilot problem. The Pentagon already has cutting edge technology that allows it to assist pilots during combat missions. While they have not got rid of the pilot in fighter jets, there are already UAVs on the make in the skies.

Drone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are the kernel of the technology which will make it one day possible to construct a science project that allows air crafts to fly without human pilots.

The power requirements on Earth are only going to grow more as the population continues to explode all over the globe. The resources on Earth are not going to be enough to generate the power required in a very short time into the future. In order to meet the power needs of humans the Chinese have decided to harness solar power.

So what’s new about using Solar Power you ask? When the Chinese decide to generate this solar power in outer space, it does seem unique. The Chinese government is planning to put up a solar power station which will be bigger than the International Space Station in orbit at 36,000 kms above the ground by 2050.

The space based power station will be able to harness the sun’s power nearly all the time, and will generate ten times the electricity that any Earth based solar panel will be able to. Considering that China is the world’s top carbon polluter and largest consumer of electricity, it would make economic sense for them to be able to generate their own power. With the help of this particular science project China will be not only able to meet its own power needs, but also supply surplus power to anyone else on Earth who needs it.