Today when you wish to get from one place to another you have a number of street signs that will help you get where you want to. You can also log in to a GPS and make sense of which path you need to cut through all these street signs to take you to your intended destination without once placing a foot astray.

Did you ever wonder how difficult navigation would have been in the ages before man put satellites into the sky? When the only way to navigate was to know your stars and plot a course on the ground based on the picture seen in these celestial formations? Imagine having to find your way under such conditions.

Tough, isn’t it! Well now imagine trying to fly through the skies under such conditions where you have no instruments to guide you. The US Department of commerce began establishing airways for trade in the mid 1920s. The old World War I planes were flown over huge landscapes with very rudimentary instruments. Imagine a science project where you have to navigate like that!

In order to aid their pilots the they put up big concrete arrows on the ground pointing in the direction that the pilot should be moving to reach the next town and airfield. Some of these ancient flying path finders can still be seen along the old air routes, befuddling their use to people unaware of the past.

Millet is one of the most ancient grains to be farmed, right along with buckwheat and quinoa. While today millet is seen as little more than bird food, the grain actually is a highly nutritious one.  Its protein content is comparatively high and it does not require too much water irrigation during its growth cycle. This makes it ideal for providing nutrition in areas that may have suffered from lack of water.

The tiny grain is actually a powerhouse that can be used more extensively in today’s world, as it is gluten free. Considering the number of health conditions on the rise which require gluten free diets, millet could prove a major boon.

Already there are organic food companies touting millet flour as a substitute to regular wheat flour. It is only a matter of time before all its advantages come to the forefront in the main stream market. A few science projects could be conducted to see exactly how well millet can help different ailments.

In countries with large populations such as China, India and countries where water is scarce such as African nations, millet can be grown to great advantage. Given the state of global population expansion, this ancient food source could perhaps help turn the tide in feeding the billions that will populate the planet Earth in the future.

There have been dire predictions about the dying populations of bees across the globe. Some people go so far as to suggest that if the bees ever died out, so would the human race, due to the lack of their pollination abilities. If that may be true, its a good thing that Los Angeles has taken a look at the problem and come up with a rather unconventional solution to boost dwindling bee populations.

The Los Angeles city council has recently approved the  keeping of bees in residential areas. Beekeeping as a hobby has seen a major revival because of this step. If you can have a few people in each neighborhood dedicated to rising the population of bees, there will be a significant increase all over the world. In theory the science project offers a lot of promise.

US Beekeepers have reported losing a quarter of their bees last year and the trend is not encouraging. Advocates of bee keeping find Los Angeles city council’s decision great. They even argue that urban bee keeping is better than farm bees, as there is less pesticide in the plants that the bees get their pollen from. So the new hives may actually have healthier honey.

Living in a busy city has made some of us almost unable to distinguish the fact that there is pollution in the air. We have grown immune to the stale air that we breath. However the World Health Organization has revealed statistics that one in eight deaths in 2012 was caused due to air pollution.

Architects around the world are working with scientists coming up with ways to make buildings that can actually help lower the air pollution experienced by people inside the buildings. The Manuel Gea Gonzalez Hospital has a smog eating facade that is covered with titanium dioxide which works as a catalyst to break down pollutants into less harmful components.

This allows the air within this hospital in Mexico City to be less polluted than that outside. Inspired by this development London is also set to use titanium dioxide in similar roles. There is a Palazzo in Milan, Italy which is also likely to have a air cleansing exterior.

Although scientists are skeptical about these measures reducing global air pollution, there is a big trend of using innovative technologies to deal with the issue. The ongoing science projects in the field are doubtless going to help reduce air pollution in the future.

Adrianne Haslet – Davis was devastated to lose  her left leg below the knee as a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013. The loss was felt severely by her as she was a professional ballroom dancer. However thanks to Hugh Herr and his biomechatronics team at MIT she is now able to dance again.

Hugh himself is a double amputee and has designed Adrianne’s robotic prosthetic leg in a highly unconventional manner. It has a number of sensors that react to speed, torque, and position by either stiffening or relaxing her robotic ankle allowing her to maintain the flow in her dancing.

It is important scientific research that Hugh conducts as he designs each individual robotic leg that are optimized for running and walking. Hugh hopes to produce intelligent prosthetic limbs that can change under different conditions just like a real bionic limb would. They will be nothing like the stiff precursors that amputees have had to use so far.

As far as Adrianne is concerned, the new robotic prosthetic limb has given her more courage to try out new things. She felt victorious even before she could walk back on stage and is much more fearless than she was before.