A forest fire in a hard to reach region can become a nightmare for the forest rangers. The loss of flora and fauna can take years to recover from. Now scientists at the George Mason University are coming up with an innovative way to put out fires using… sound! They have found that loud noises directed at the trees below can disrupt the air surrounding the fire.

Since the fire needs air to fuel it, the absence of air results in the fire dying out. As per the researchers the sonic extinguisher would work best at bass frequencies. Bombardier is a company that has taken it one step further and produced a flying saucer type of disc which it calls Firesound. A good blast of sound from it is all it takes to put out a fire.

This UFO lookalike works on this same principle and uses sound pressure waves to help fight forest fires. The electric drone is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell and has enough sensors loaded to help the park officials know just how well the fire extinguishing efforts are proceeding. Now this is one science project that could make a world of a difference when it comes to fire fighting out in nature’s lap.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising constantly leading to a lot of awareness of the Carbon Footprints of a number of activities. It is believed that the rise in carbon dioxide is directly contributing to the global rise in temperature.

This makes it important to try and control the release of excessive carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However it is also possible to reduce the amount of this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere by removing it from the air around us. That’s what scientists at the University of Hohenheim at Germany have been researching.

By planting the jatropha plant it is possible to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. The plant is found naturally in arid regions and can substantially capture carbon from the air. They are now awaiting the cultivation of ten thousand hectares of the plant in the coastal region of Saudi Arabia. The large scale science project will be better able to determine just how effective the carbon capturing forest will be.

Natural carbon capture and storage in this manner is likely to be far more effective than the intrusive man made solutions. Needless to say this is one science project that could drastically affect the climate of the future.

Growing food to sustain the ever increasing global population is a challenge for farmers and researchers everywhere. A company in Port Augusta, Australia called Sundrop Farms came through with an astonishing science project that involved growing 17,000 tons of food without pesticides, soil or ground water. Now that is revolutionary to say the least.

Sundrop Farms used coconut husk, mirrors and seawater from the Spencer Gulf to create a greenhouse made of cardboard. The company line is all about breaking farming’s dependence on finite resources. They have already managed to supply non Genetically Modified Crops to grocery stores in the country. In fact 13% of the Australian market is theirs.

The initial investment of $200 million on the farm was huge, but the entrepreneurs are sure that they will recover the cost in the long run. Considering that the farm has the ability to produce crops all year round in the greenhouse, that just may be true.

The hydroponical method of agriculture followed by the farm allows them to use less water than traditional farming. They also don’t use pesticides as the entire system is controlled and there is very little scope of insects getting into the crop and ruining it. This science project is a showboat for the future of farming.

If you were jealous of Luke Skywalker always getting stuff done by R2D2, you have reason to rejoice. Asus  has come out with a robo buddy who can actually follow you around just like R2D2. The robot called Zenbo was unveiled in Taipei in June 2016.

Zenbo is about a meter high and runs on wheels. The face of the robot is actually a touchscreen and can take instructions from you. The robot is also equipped with Artificial Intelligence, a camera and sensors to allow it to navigate easily as well as recognize people.

The personality of Zenbo is like that of a five year old kid. You get to control the robot by using touchscreen commands, verbal commands and even via the smart devices that it can be hooked in to. So you can make it much more fun than dealing with an actual hyperactive five year old.

Zenbo can even work as a good companion to the elderly as it has the ability to monitor if they have a fall or hurt themselves and then launch a video call to the requisite health care professionals. Now that’s part of the science project that is really exciting the medical fraternity.

Going on long space missions involves having enough food supplies to last the duration besides catering for oxygen and other essentials to maintain life in space. One of the primary reasons we have no manned space exploration for the planets in our solar system is our dependence on food. Wouldn’t it be easy if astronauts could just swallow pills and survive on them for the duration of the mission?

Unfortunately while Vitamins and Minerals are essential to maintain good health, they are in no way enough to survive on. These are micro nutrients required by the body. In order to stay healthy and active the body will also need to eat major nutrients such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Without these the human body will begin to get malnutrition.

As of now there are no pills for carbohydrates, proteins and fats that are enough for survival. The astronaut will have to eat multiple pills of these ingredients for them to be remotely satisfactory for nutrition limits. Needless to say popping a pill to survive is still science fiction. Although it would be interesting, as a science project, to undertake a study of just what all nutrients a human body needs to survive and in what quantity he must consume them.

NASA scientists are working ahead towards actual Mars Gardens to see what plants future astronauts may be able to grow on the red planet when they land there. This is to enable them to grow some of their own food on a longer mission so that they don’t have to carry everything they need to eat with them. The scientists have been growing different plants under Mars atmosphere like conditions to get an idea of how a possible garden should be cultivated on the planet.

The researchers have already experimented with growing plants in space by having gardening projects on the International Space Station. They have been able to identify which plants do well in space. Now NASA wants to check out just how Mars would affect Earth plants. This is difficult to do as the soil on Earth is full of organic material and is loose. The soil on Mars is volcanic in nature and is more like crushed rocks.

A preliminary experiment conducted by Florida Tech Buzz Aldrin Space Institute has established that lettuce grown in Mars like soil taken from Hawaii tasted the same, but had looser roots and a much slower germination rate. So basically this science project lets us know that your BLT make take longer to grow on Mars!