Cardiac problems caused by birth defects are a major source of infant deaths worldwide. Since there are not enough heart donors, the situation is pitiful. While researchers have been working on repairing congenital heart disorders, most solutions have given rise to more problems and challenges.

The latest offering from researchers at Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital is an air powered robot. The soft robot has been designed to help keep an ailing heart beating. It has not yet been tested on humans but the device has shown improved blood flow in animals on which it was used.

It consists of artificial muscles encased in a silicone sleeve that is placed just outside the heart. The device compresses and relaxes just like the heart tissue that it is placed over. It helps in regulating the heart beats and since it is outside the heart, there is no contact with blood.

The prototype even allows the robot to pick if the left or right heart ventricle needs to be compressed to facilitate blood flow through it. Best of all this science project does not need anti- clogging drugs to work effectively. Human trials are some time away, but they will be producing a technology that would aid millions of humans worldwide.

Artificial Intelligence is growing by leaps and bounds. At the World Economic Forum a new Socially Aware Robot Assistant (SARA) took everyone by surprise. SARA is able to understand not just the words that are spoken to it, but non verbal clues such as those given by body language as well.

The robotic engineers at the Carnegie Mellon University presented SARA as a scientific research project. It soon became one of the key exhibits at the forum held in Davos. SARA is able to change conversation tactics based on the mood of the human being it is interacting with.

Technically it’s not an actual robot, just a computer screen. It uses a camera to get inputs from the human’s face, eyes, smile, lift of eyebrows and a whole lot of other non verbal behavior cues. It can be made of use commercially for a number of operations which require direct interaction with clients.

SARA could be used in health care for elderly people who may get lonely and require assistance. It could also be used as a learning aid by younger children. The scope of uses for this technology is huge. It will be a few years before the results of this science project are seen in the market, but it will be well worth the wait.

Assissted Reproductive Techniques or ARTs are used as a treatment for infertility. Should there be a problem with a couple trying to conceive a child, they may opt for an ART procedure. One of the more popular processes is In Vitro Fertilization or IVF. This process is used when there may be a problem with the egg or the number of sperm being produced.

The process involves fertilization of the egg with the sperm in a petri dish. This zygote or embryo is then developed to a degree where it can be implanted in the womb of the mother. The process is often refered to as making test tube babies. The first test tube baby was born in 1978.

Since the procedure works as a treatment for a number of infertility causes, scientists are often looking into ways to improve the chances of fertilization. The latest research at an IVF clinic at Moscow involves helping test tube babies grow better by using music, techno beats to be precise.

The findings of the study revealed that the embryos which were serenaded with techno music such as Armin van Buuren’s “A state of trance” and other dance tracks were doing better than those who were placed with classical, metal or pop music. The techno eggs were more likely to grow to a size which could be implanted in the womb the science project found. So music does aid the quest to procreate after all.

Imagine a city which literally floats on the ocean, no land beneath it. Completely autonomous, able to look after all it’s basic needs. That’s what the non profit think tank at the US based The Seasteading Institute wants to make a reality.

They even signed a memorandum of understanding with the French Polynesian government to begin construction work on the floating city in 2019. The institute has spent the last five years trying to fugure out how to build permanent, innovative communities floating at sea. They are looking at the sheltered waters near the 118 Islands of the French Polynesia as the location.

They have plans for the floating city to be replicated all over the world’s oceans once the first science project is a success. The cities will have their own special governing framework, creating an innovative special economic zone. It’s technologically possible, but the financial backing required to create this city will be considerable.

Here the institute hopes that the residents and innovative entrepreneurs will be free to operate their own lives and businesses. The executive director of The Seasteading Institute, Randolf Hencken said that they were interested in a societal choice and having a location where they could try things that had not been tried before. Should such a floating city exist, would you be willing to give up terra firma and live on it?

The Earth has a single natural satellite, the moon. Our home planet’s moon is not a typical example of other moons in the solar system. For instance it is considered a much too large satellite for a planet the size of the Earth.

Now there is a theory being put forth by the researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Weizmann Institute of Science which suggests that the moon is not the original satellite of Earth. In fact it is the last in a series of satellites that have revolved around the planet.

They propose that originally there were a number of smaller moons, or moonlets if you will, that orbited the Earth. Over the millennia these smaller moonlets began to collide into each other, forming a larger mass. As their orbits crossed, collided and merged the moonlets eventualy took shape of the present day Moon.

Prof. Hagai Perets, of the Technion says that they believe Earth had many previous moons. Prof. Raluca Rufo from Weizmann Institute says that a long series of such moon-moon collisions could gradually build-up a bigger moon – the Moon we see today. Their science project was reported in the publication  Nature Geoscience.

When we think of quad drones it’s usually something small that can fly around taking pictures and videos. It’s a surveillance gadget that security agencies may use. It’s a delivery service that online shopping websites are trying out. Now, its lifting people!

A startup is working out how to carry heavier loads using drones. They want to not just be able to carry cargo but also work as an emergency service and airlift patients who need medical services in an emergency. Think of it as an ambulance that doesn’t need to use the road and will never get stuck in traffic.

While a drone with the power and ability to carry heavier loads is important and can have uses in many fields, being able to work as an ambulance is surely the best possible use that would come out of it. In the future you may just be able to see a number of lives being changes because of this contraption.

Science projects may still be required to make sure that the quad drone ambulance works properly and doesn’t end up causing more harm than good to the patient in the long run. Needless to say it’s going to be a popular area of research.