The Earth has enough mud and dirt for farmers to grow food, right? Maybe not. The food plants are usually best grown in top soil which has organic mulch combined with silt and sand. Like the farms in Iowa have, which is considered extremely fertile top soil and allows the farmers to grow soyabean, maize and oats in world topping production.

Unfortunately the world over, Iowa included, top soil is disappearing. What used to be 14-16 inches of top soil in Iowa at the beginning of the 20th century has now reduced to merely 6-8 inches this year. About one third of the top soil across the world is disappearing in a combination of extensive farming practices and increased rain and storms which wash away the soil.

The process to form top soil takes centuries, which means that we may not have enough top soil left in a couple of decades to grow food for our growing human population. Researchers are working on modifying some wheat plants so that they don’t have roots as deep as the traditional forms. If successful it will be used to modify other plants

This science experiment may help the farmers grow plants even in low levels of top soil. In other studies researchers are trying to grow plants without any soil at all. Using a fluid which is nutrient rich in a green house to grow spinach. Only time will tell what the future of farming will bring.

A hundred and ten years ago in the month of July Frenchman Louis Bleriot made the first trip across the English Channel in an aeroplane. It was a historic moment for the aviation industry. This year entrepreneur Franky Zapata decided to use the landmark date for his attempt to cross the channel on his “Flyboard.”

The Flyboard is a jet- powered hovercraft that can reach speeds of 190 kilometers per hour. It was also on display on the 14 July military parade which was presided over in Paris by the French President Emmanuel Macron. Franky Zapta successfully flew down the Champs-Elysees boulevard during the annual Bastille Day parade.

Amidst concerns from local maritime authorities, Franky , a former jet-ski champion, set off from the beach at Sangatte, near Calais. It would always be challenging crossing especially considering the windy day. He wanted to cross over in 20 minutes, however it was not possible for him to maintain the 140 km/hr speed to cover the distance of 35 km.

There was considerable fanfare at the beach when he departed and disappeared from view. It was announced shortly after that he had failed the attempt and landed in the water. Now he’s working on the science project to be able to refuel midway and make a successful crossing.

For a number of years scientists have been telling the general population about global warming. They have spoken about how the activities of humankind have sped up the process and led to climate change. While a number of more responsible people have sat up and taken notice, there are still plenty of those who refuse to believe that change in the climate can lead to the drastic catastrophes that the scientists claim.

Here’s the proof supported by scientific studies. Researchers at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, conducted a study on a species of birds called mountain wagtails. It was found that as the temperature increased these birds became lighter. The scientific reasoning is that larger animals can survive cold weather better, but in warmer climate with scare food, it is the smaller animals that survive best.

Another study of the Thwaites Glacier in the Antarctica shows that it is on the brink of melting really fast. The rate of ice loss for this and five other glaciers in the are has doubled in just six years. The 70,000 square mile glacier would raise the sea levels across the world at a much higher rate than previously expected. This will lead to coastlines flooding over all continents.

Vitamins are important for human health. This has been established by studies down the years by researchers. Having vitamin C ensure that your immune system works well. Vitamin A helps you maintain good eyesight, and so forth with other vitamins. However, even now the researchers are discovering new ways in which vitamins can help the human body.

At the John Hopkins University in the United States, researchers led by Professor Guoying Wang have been studying the effect of vitamin D deficiency in children. The study co-relates the deficiency of the vitamin in early childhood to an increased risk of elevated systolic blood pressure in them as adults.

Systolic blood pressure refers to the higher number in the two readings of a blood pressure. This figure reflects the amount of pressure exerted by the blood on the artery walls as the heart beats. The lower number refers to the diastolic reading.

High levels of systolic blood pressure can indicate an elevated risk of cardiovacular disease even if the diastolic level is normal. Simply put if you have suffered from vitamin D deficiency as a kid, you are at a great risk of getting a heart attack as an adult. Now that’s useful information from this science project.

Have you ever felt frustrated when you came across a spoiler from a television show that you were yet to see? Simply browsing the internet and going through your social media accounts is enough to tell you about how a particular game ended before you get to watch the recording. In order to help people avoid such spoilers scientists have come up with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can flag potential spoilers in online reviews.

Mengting Wan is associated with SpolierNet, a dataset with spoiler annotations on a very large scale. The computer science student has found that spoiler sentences usually tend to be clumped together towards the end of a review. The tool, SpoilerNet has been able to trace spoilers with an accuracy of 89 to 92%. This means that when you use this tool you are much less likely to be hit with spoilers than if you are simply browsing the net.

Naturally SpoilerNet is a tool which will constantly need to be updated, but the researchers are hoping to program it in such a way that the tool can make use of AI to train itself. The science project based on this innovative artificial intelligence tool may lead to revolutionizing the way we save ourselves from unwanted spoilers online.

The ever increasing number of school books have resulted in heavier and heavier school bags over the last few decades. While some schools offer the ability to retain unnecessary books in the lockers at school, many schools around the planet do not have this facility. This leaves young students trudging along to and from school with a heavy backpack. One which often causes them back pain and may even affect the spinal growth.

Researchers at the Liverpool Jon Moore University in collaboration with the researchers at the University of Granada in Spain conducted a scientific study in Applied Ergonomics. The study was conducted on 49 students from primary school and conducted a kinematic analysis of their trunk and lower limbs under three conditions.

The first was walking without any burden. The second had the children walk with a traditional school bag. Third had them walk with pulling a backpack trolley with loads at 10%, 15% and 20% of their body weight respectively. The study found that for least impact it was best that the school children pulled trolleys rather than carried backpacks. Also if they had to carry backpacks, the weight of the backpack should not exceed 10% of the child’s body weight.