Mars rover Curiosity is now autonomously selecting its targets to study with it’s laser and telescopic camera of the ChemCam instrument. Software on board the rover used the NavCam image to select the spot where it wanted the laser to be pointed by the ChemCam. This is the first time in any planetary exploration that this level of autonomy has been achieved during the field explorations.

Roger Wiens, principal investigator for ChemCam at Los Alamos is excited about the development. He says that this ability will allow them to cover even more soil and rock samples for study. The smart rover will no longer be dependent on the scientists sitting at home to pick out what samples it should study.

The target samples are chosen based on criteria that can be fixed in advance for the rover. The size or brightness of the rock can be some measures that are taken into consideration. The autonomous software is called AEGIS (Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science) and was developed by engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

This science project is going to make it much easier for scientists to get detailed studies of the Martian surface done, with less man hours going into it. Plus it is a good portent for things to come.

After all the doomsday movies which predict the end of Earth as we know it because of a celestial body hitting into it, it’s no surprise the scientists in Russia did something about the potential threat. Using the SKIF Cyberia supercomputer the Russian scientists simulated the  nuclear explosion of an asteroid in such a manner that none of the resulting fragments would come down to Earth.

This is aimed at disposing of potentially threatening celestial bodies that may be on a direct collision course with the Earth. The current computer simulation took a target the size of the asteroid Apophis which is actually likely to cross quite close to us in 2029. It was estimated that an impact of a nuclear detonation with energy of nearly one megatron would be required to liquidate the asteroid into gases and liquids.

A rocket would be used to send the implosive device to the approaching asteroid to ensure that no piece it breaks into will be larger than 10 meters. As per the science project this is the minimum required for the safety of planet Earth. It is good to know that a potential threat to humanity can be dealt with using the methods in this simulation.

Those who are trying to count calories, be it for weight loss, weight gain, or just plain old athletic training, it can be quite a time consuming task to list out everything that went into your mouth and just how many calories it contained. For the calorie obsessed this necklace can actually be a boon.

The AutoDietary smart necklace actually recognizes food based on the sound it produces when it is being eaten. This made-in-China innovation records the sound, then sends it to a smartphone which compares it to an existing database to find out what food the sound represents.

Once that is done it also counts the time you eat that food and estimates the number of calories that could have been consumed in that time slot. So far the device has had a 85% success rate of predicting the food being bitten, chewed and swallowed.  It’s been struggling on some food stuff such as soups.

Of course the science project is in a very early state and a whole lot more time and effort will go into developing the device into an actually useful tool, but the future potential of the necklace is mind blowing. It could end up being a major health aid.

A pill that you swallow to keep track of your body temperature, internally is the ultimate in tracking your performance these days. E-Celsius is a pill created by the French company BodyCap. It looks like a regular medicine capsule but it is packed with a temperature sensor, batteries and memory.

Once you swallow it the pill has the ability to send data on your body temperature  to a computer monitor via radio frequency. No it does not have bluetooth capabilities as yet. However it does have the ability to store 16 hours worth of data. That is something to think about given the minuscule size of the e-pill.

These electronic -pills were devised as a means for elite athletes to track their performance and have been used by the French football team FC Nantes and also by cyclists who participated in the 2015 Road World Championship.

The actual potential of these e-pills lies in the potential use by doctors who wish to monitor patients after surgery for bouts of fever which could mean an infection. There are many ways in which this innovative science project could actually work in the health care industry. It will be interesting to see how it develops.

When we think of robots the usual assumption is that it’s a tiny thing, possibly humanoid and programed to do something useful that can help it’s human owners. We do not think of 4,500 kg beasts that are hydraulically operated and can be controlled by a human to fight battles with another similar monster.

MegaBots is a start up company based in California which is trying to make this an actual event in the Olympics. Okay, so that may be a far away vision as of now, but MegaBots has managed to convince enough people that having a global robot fighting league would be a really good idea.

A rival company in Japan called Suidobashi Heavy Industries is already signed up for a battle against the MegaBots’ representative with it’s own Kutaras robot. The first battle between these two huge machines is likely to show just how popular robot battling can become as an international spectator sport.

Don’t worry, it’s not a fight to the death. In fact the huge robots actually have a cabin built inside them where a human being sits. The human can guide it to grapple with the other robot or simply shoot huge paintballs weighing 1.5kg at it. Now that’s a science project I can totally get behind.

The Japanese are the masters of taking an available technology and miniaturizing it. The gadgets become smaller, smarter and sleeker each year. Now they have come up with the ultimate in miniaturization, by creating the prototype of a device which could effectively turn your very skin into a monitor screen.

The device which the research team at the University of Tokyo is currently working on comprises of polymer LEDs with organic photodetectors. These have been mounted on a flexible rubber substrate which is connected to a sensor that measures blood oxygen levels when attached to the human hand. As of now the tiny device is attached to the hand by using clingfilm.

Of course the proof of concept device that is currently being worked on is in a very rudimentary form but eventually the final version should look just like an LED tattoo on your skin. Naturally when it works it will herald a new generation of wearable technology.

Imagine not having to carry your smartphone, or even wear your smartwatch because you can get all the data you need from the cloud directly on your skin. Now this is one science project that the sci fi writer could have an absolute blast with.

Firefighters have trouble finding victims in buildings when the smoke billows around them reducing their field of vision. A thermal imaging device helps them to find heat signatures of survivors even when they can not physically see them. However these machine are heavy and cumbersome, often leaving the firefighter with only one hand free to attempt the actual rescue.

Tyco is an American company which has come up with an innovative solution to this problem by developing the product they call “Scott Sight”. Essentially this is a firefighter’s mask with a built in thermal imaging scanner which relieves the firefighter from struggling to carry the previous bulky devices into burning buildings.

The thermal imaging camera is placed on the front of the mask and there is a small display inside which allows the firefighter to see what the camera picks up. The mask can be calibrated for different temperatures as per the need of the firefighter and the device will currently run for four hours on a single charge. More than enough time to find and rescue people in a regular fire. This is one science project that is bound to make lives easier for firefighters around the world.