Have you ever wondered just why we are so fascinated with space to develop so many science projects related to it? From the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969 millions of people on earth have been fascinated with exploring space further than the moon.

While there may be nothing new in this idea, it is interesting to see why this idea has survived for so long in the human mind. Since the time ancient man looked up in the night sky and grew enchanted with the stars there has been a latent human wish to explore the vast regions of outer space.

It is human nature to want to explain things that are unfamiliar. It is this quest to discover more that has made man climb mountains, cross deserts and plunge into the depths of the ocean. He has explored the limits of air, land and water.  Now, after generations of exploration and when most of the secrets of earth have been discovered, man has decided to extend his exploratory field to the final frontier.

This is why the space explorers have caught the imagination of the entire human race. That is the reason governments are funding science projects like the International Space Station. And that is the reason why even Google had a competition for a private vessel to land on the moon.

Think of the word “Vampire” and you will probably think of a fanged mythological monster who survives on human blood and not of a scientific phenomena. Yet a vampire star is just like the mythological vampire, and can make the beginning of an interesting science project.

Of course it does not survive on blood, but it does prey on the companion star’s mass and becomes more luminous while the companion star withers away. Astromers at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory have used 4 telescopes to study such a vampire star and its companion.

Using the images that they gained they are now in a position to calculate the mass of the larger vampire star. This unusual pair of stars exist in the constellation of Lepus. Also known as the Hare constellation. The two stars have the approximate distance between the Earth and the Sun and tend to circle around each other in 260 days.

The hotter star is the Vampire Star and the cooler one is fast loosing its mass to it. In fact in this rather unique double star system the hotter star has already consumed half the mass of the cooler companion star. The Astronomers are now hoping to see soon just how this science project concludes.

One of the most popular ways to spend time is to play video games. At the Indiana University School of Medicine a science project which studied the effect of playing violent video games for a prolonged period of time, found that the very brain patterns of the person involved changed.

The study established that cognitive function and emotional control were directly affected for the video game players. This means that all the people who have been saying that violent media affects individuals to exihibit violent behavior may have been telling the truth.

The correlation between violent media exposure and violent behavior tendencies has been a controversial debate for some time now. So playing a video game with violent tendencies for more than ten hours a day is really likely to affect the way you act is the finding of this study.

 Guess the kind of games you play really do have a major influence on the way you behave. So the next time you are looking for gaming software you may want to factor in the way it is likely to change your behavior before you make the purchase.

Of course you could always counter that by developing a science project of your own which has games that help you improve you memory or softskills without endangering your behavioral patterns.

The researchers involved with science projects based on the environment say that the Earth is being swallowed up by the pollution caused by green house gases. There are more things going wrong with the environment today due to human meddling than ever before. Environmentalists have serious concerns about the feasibility of the planet to support its growing human population.

What then is the solution to managing the pollution that we as a race have brought forth? Do we give up our smoke making industries and polluting lifestyles? How about the different means of transportation that use fossil fuels? Should we all cycle everywhere? Obviously that is not the solution.

The real solution would be to find a situation where the human race can live in harmony with the natural environment. A task that we have failed miserably given our bleak history. It may be already too late to reverse the damage that we have done to the environment, but at least we can be more careful with the resources that we have in the future.

Part of that process is developing new technologies so that the older ones which harm the environment can be put to rest. In this case any new idea which is environment friendly deserves a chance to be explored in a science project. So put on your thinking hats and come up with such possibilities.

Today there are many science projects that are dedicated to environmental concerns. The deteriorating form of the environment has many people crying that the planet will soon be lost to pollution. The industries are mainly blamed for this but they are not the only ones.The family car is also a culprit when it comes to increasing global warming thanks to the green house gases that it emits.

So scientists have come up with a new type of car which does not use the pollution causing fossil fuels. These new hybrid cars have the option of using fossil fuels but primarily run on renewable energy sources such as solar energy. The solar cells on the car harvest the energy of the sun. This is then converted into energy that is available for the car to run on.

Solar energy is not the only renewable source of energy that scientists are playing around with. They also have tried to harvest wind energy through turbines to run engines. The trouble lies in harvesting the energy constantly and storing it to be used as and when required. The automobile by Google seems to have had some success in this.

However it is by no means the last word in the business. Perhaps a new technology will come along and improve on what they have done. Perhaps it may be a result of your own science project. So what not work on these environmental concerns and do your bit to save the world.

Why do somethings sink and others swim? That’s a topic that makes for an interesting science fair project. Iron is a heavy metal and a small coin made out of iron will sink. Paradoxically a huge boat made out of iron manages to float well enough to cross vast oceans.So what makes this same metal act in such different ways? And more importantly how do we make this into a science project?

It is all a matter of displacement as Archimedes told us. Archimedes principle states that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.So as long as enough water gets displaced the object will float and if its does not then the object sinks.

Essentially this means that a certain diameter needs to be maintained for the object so that it will float. So we will make spherical shaped boats out of foil to check what the ideal diameter to float is. Now once the size is unable to push away enough water the boat will lose its buoyancy and sink.

So start from a specific size and then keep making larger sized boats out of foil till the largest one sinks. Then work backwards to see the smallest size that manages to float. Record all the data you generate. Take photographs for the display board and also ensure that you make some tables from the data that you have collected. It is a simple and interesting science fair project.

When you think of a parachute the first image that comes to mind is that of a skydiver. The canopy of the parachute overhead as the sky diver gently floats down to earth, but what makes the parachute a device safe enough to trust a life with? Can the size of the parachute matter? How about the material it is made from?What about the weight?

These are a few questions which when answered can translate into a good science fair project. The variables that you can consider include the load that parachute must carry. How heavy or light is the load? Is it a small stone or a big stuffed toy? Then think of the height from which it is to be dropped. Will you throw it down from the first floor or the top of the school roof?

What material will you use to make the parachute? Is there a specific length of string that you will be adhering to? How about the material of the string? The shape of the parachute can also be varied. In case of the sky diver we usually see a rectangular shaped one. However the parachute can be circular, or even triangular in shape.

The shape and weight of the parachute will affect the way the parachute functions.So keep all that in mind as you set out to build the ideal parachute for you load in the science project. Tabulate all your attempts and share the data on the display board to show how you got the best parachute for you load going.

The dream of every transportation engineer has been to make a small private car fly. While it would be a science project with many interesting possibilities, it is not one which can be undertaken in high school. Still we are going to attempt an experiment in aerodynamics by making small car models fly.

What we intend to do is construct catapults using three different types of elastic materials and then use them to launch our toy cars into flight. Essentially we will turn the potential energy of the elastic material into kinetic energy transferred to the cars launched by the catapult.

The object of the science project is to find which of the three different elastic materials has the most potential energy. This will be measured by how high the cars reach when launched by the different materials. The catapults can be used to launch five different car toys of different weights and sizes.

The data that you collect will then be compared to see which of the three given elastic materials managed to send the most cars soaring highest. That is the material which has the most potential energy out of the ones used in the science project. Make sure that all the data is tabled properly and displayed well.

The dangers of space exploration are many. The excitement will still draw humans to learn more about outer space. Wouldn’t it be nice if humankind could indulge its passion for space exploration in a safe and secure manner. There is a new set of science projects in the works which may just allow humans to explore space by proxy.

There has been considerable progress in the field of robotics. The new generation of robots are smarter, more efficient and more flexible than the initial attempts a decade or so ago. Giant strides have been made in the programming of robots. There is a good chance of teaching a robot how to learn for itself.

An ongoing project has taught a robot to access the internet and learn how to do tasks that it is not programmed for. This kind of instant tutorial may eventually help develop Artificial Intelligence in the robot. The sensitivity of the robotic arm has also been improved drastically.

The robotic arm can now handle soft and fragile items with far greater ability and dexterity than before. It is able to handle complicated electrical repairs in outer space that would usually necessitate a space walk for a human astronaut. So with all these improvements thanks to different robotics based science projects it may soon not be necessary for the human beings to leave earth to explore space.

The call of the great unknown has always beckoned humankind. Now with all the terrestrial areas having been mapped the boundaries of the unknown have got pushed into outer space. The ongoing science project which is called space exploration is a dangerous business indeed.

Lives are at stake in every mission that seeks to send humans out into the hostile reaches of outer space. The point was driven home very effectively when the Space Shuttle Columbia crashed killing all seven crew members on board on February 1, 2003. The tragedy served an important purpose in reminding all of us of the frailty of human life and the strength of human spirit.

As the 106 metric ton weighing Space Shuttle Columbia re entered the over Texas there was anticipation at the completion of a mission well done. However shortly after the controlled, destructive reentry of the shuttle pieces of the space vehicle broke up. This happened when the left wing shielding during launch allowed hot gases to enter the wing structure of the shuttle.

The disintegration of the Space Shuttle Columbia saw pieces of debris scattering all over northern Texas and eastern Louisiana. The media covered the event extensively and it was humbling to learn that the best laid plans could really go astray. Not that it affected the science projects dedicated to exploring space as new missions still are being planned each day.