For anyone who has seen a 3D movie, and found stuff flying at them and ducked, you need to prep yourself for an even more intense experience with the emerging 4D technology. Researchers at the University of California in San Diego have come up with a pair of 4D glasses which allow the user to be ‘touched’ by the objects that they see on screen.

The glasses were an off shoot of a science project that dealt with mapping out the areas of the brain that were responsible for multi sensory integration. In this case to see what parts of the brain were actively stimulated with sight and touch. The study is published in the journal “Human Brain Mapping”.

For the lay man the fruits of this science experiment have provided a boost to commercial entertainment possibilities. The device can be used in movies, music, games and other virtual reality using videos to provide an enhanced multi sensory effect to the user. So now you won’t just see the spaceship coming your way, you will actually feel it touch you as it passes by. I’m not too sure I want to wear these 4D glasses when I go to see a horror movie.

As more people begin to use drones there is a very definite threat to the privacy of people. It is possible for a drone to record activities of a full neighborhood without the residents being any the wiser. This can be potentially dangerous specially if used with the wrong intention.

Cyber security researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Weizmann Institute of Science have some ideas that can help. They have come up with a simple method that allows a person with a laptop and a flickering object to check if a drone is recording a specific target.

The Israeli researchers have come up with a couple of ways to check if your privacy has been invaded. The best part of the science project is that it can be done by anyone. It does not require any sophisticated hacking or cryptographic breaking skills. It uses smart film and a software along with something called an FVP channel.

They have done a couple of successful demos wherein the cyber security researchers were able to positively identify that a neighboring drone was indeed recording the house. This could go a long way in military use as well as for civilians who will now be able to prove that their neighbors violated their privacy.

The horses we see today have hoofs and not toes. However this wasn’t always the case. The early horses that lived 55 million years ago, such as the Hyracotherium were much smaller and had five toes. As the horses evolved and grew in size, it seems that the excess weight at the end of the legs had a big impact on speed. So to grow faster the horses began to reduce the number of toes and eventually came down to a single toe per leg, or the hoof.

The horse genes are still programmed to develop five toes in the womb, but as the fetus develops the remaining four toes tend to disappear before the eventual birth of the foal. It is the middle toe that develops into the hoof for the horse while the others are lost during the process of the fetus’ development. This allows the horses more swiftness and longer strides to help get away from predators. A fact that played heavily into their survival.

Evolution shows evidence of a number of animals changing over the eons to help survive better. That seems to be the primary reason why horses have hoofs now and no more toes. It would make an interesting science project to see what other animals have lost and gained as a result of their evolution for survival.

A beaver is a semi aquatic rodent known for building dams, canals and lodges. There are two primary types of beavers in the natural world, the North American beaver and Eurasian beaver. Their skill at building their homes in water bodies have earned them the title of the best engineers in the wild.

Beavers build dams to provide protection from predators. They use tree branches, stones, mud and more to assemble the dam structure that has a moat like appearance. They are known to provide their own timber for building the dams by gnawing on tree trunks with their powerful teeth and jaws. A feat that is quite a treat to watch when a beaver is busy collecting material to build a dam.

Then they dig canals under water from which they can access the lodges, or actual residence area. These aquatic engineers use the water filled canals as a deterrent for unwanted guests. One of the largest known beaver lodges is found in Alberta, Canada and is over 500 meters in length. However despite it’s size it is not visible from space, as the rumors claim. It can be a good place to visit to write up a science project report.

The average human being is good to go with a night’s sleep of about 8 hours. However there are animals on the planet that need a lot more sleep than that. Five of the sleepiest animals in the world are described here. At number five is the North American Opossum which needs to sleep for about 18 hours a day.

The fourth sleepiest is the Giant Armadillo who needs about 18.1 hours of rest. It is the largest living species of armadillo. It lives in South America, and is found all the way south till Argentina. Third in line is the Brown Bat which needs 19.9 hours of sleep. The little mouse eared bat belonging to the species Myotis is extremely common in North America.

At number two we have the sloth who sleeps for 20 hours a day. This arboreal mammal is noted for it’s slowness of movement and has inspired enough stories and sayings. Usually found in Central and South America, the sloth is often hanging upside down in the trees of the tropical rainforests.

Taking the number one position on our countdown is the Koala. A koala bear can sleep from 20 to 22 hours in a day. It is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It would make an interesting science project to list how different animals sleeping habits differ in the wild as compared to in captivity.

If you have ever seen a long line of ants each following the other, you may have wondered about their discipline. After all they are mere insects but they seem to do better than a drill squad when it comes to following each other down the path. The reason that they can literally step into the ant before them’s footstep is to do with a set of chemicals called Pheromones.

Pheromones are the secret to successful communication in an ant hill and outside it. There are nearly 20 different pheromones that come together in different combinations to enable successful communication of messages such as location of food, path to a nesting site, presence of a predator, and being able to defend their territory.

Each species of ant may use a different version of this pheromone language. These chemicals are secreted from the body of the ant in the manner that will be understood by the other ants. These chemical “words” help the ants survive and thrive. That’s why the ants will always toe the line of pheromone trails when they walk outside the ant hill. Now if only there was an equally effective way for human beings to communicate, maybe a science project is required to come up with a universally understood language.