With more people becoming fascinated with science projects involving Artificial Intelligence it is just a matter of time before we truly have Conscious Intelligence. These robots will be like real people who will have the faculty of reason. They will be able to walk, talk and act like humans.

They will be able to actually think about the circumstances that they are faced with and then take a decision based on the facts that they know. Very much in the way humans take their decisions today. They may even be able to assist us in taking decisions in the future.

Does that mean that we are now headed over for a dangerous world where there will be rogue robots just like there are rouge men? There is always a new threat with each new invention and as Conscious Intelligence has not really been developed yet we can not claim to know the threats that it will bring with it.

Yet since Artificial Intelligence or Conscious Intelligence is all about human ingenuity we can safely assume that it will also have the faults of a human being. Just like fire can be used to sustain life and to take life, any new technology can also be used for good and for evil. The trick lies in achieving the right balance with each science project based on AI.

As I mentioned in the last post Artificial Intelligence is not some futuristic science project awaiting completion. It is surprising but we are already living with AI in our midst. We don’t even realize that the gadgets and devices which use the technology of AI and make our lives easier use AI.

Our concept of AI is more in tune with the walking and talking robots that we see in science fiction movies. The fear that these robots will multiply and take over the human world is a common theme in these sci-fi movies. However the AI that we use today is very far from the Conscious Intelligence which will be capable of doing such a deed.

Conscious Intelligence is genuine Artificial Intelligence which does not need human intervention to learn and grow. While Artificial Intelligence relates only to programmed responses which the robot can perform Conscious Intelligence will allow the robot to think for itself and make decisions.

This is far from becoming a reality today. The robots that are constructed today can not take their own decisions. They merely follow a set of steps to arrive at a decision following a “Yes” or “No” type of flow chart. This is very different from something that can reason things out for themselves.

Eventually some one will design the perfect robot with Conscious Intelligence. We wait for that ultimate science project to come to life.

Most of us think of a future world when we hear the term Artificial Intelligence. It is no longer a distant science project but an everyday reality. We are living in the midst of Artificial Intelligence and it is making our lives much simpler than before.

The computer is a great example of Artificial Intelligence in action. So are your mobile phones and even the humble calculator. In fact the number of gadgets that use artificial intelligence is multiplying each decade. Everyone has some such device which uses AI.

The robots that we identify with AI may not have come to life in the manner of the Star Wars characters but there are smaller robots which are already in existence today. Many of them are used by the medical profession to study and improve medical care facilities.

There is a considerable market out there for Artificial Intelligence and every day some new design is being built from the drawing board. With a basic programmed chip it is possible to build your own little robotic arm to help you with some repetitive chore at home.

Don’t worry the robot will not take over your life. The AI is not quite that advanced yet. Why not try using Artificial Intelligence in one of your science fair projects? Take a look at the different projects that you can do at Awesome Science Projects.

While neurons actively use electric currents in the body to relay messages to the brain, the strand of DNA is not alien to the concept of electric conductivity either. Science experiments at the Warwick University of UK have shown that the DNA identifies faulty activity in itself by the change in its conductivity patterns.

The millions of defects which occur within the DNA molecules each day are constantly being corrected by an army of enzymes. This repair work happens as the mechanics get dispatched to the site of the problem based on the mutations which occur. The mutations are identified by the body seeing the change in DNA conductivity of the damaged section.

Think about it like a house alarm which goes off each time the circuits trip or a window or door is opened without disarming the alarm. In a way the DNA conductivity is a similar alarm for the human body.  However even the body’s alarm system is not fool proof.

In case of some mutations the change in conductivity is not enough to trigger a repair alarm leading to defects which may even cause cancer if they persist. Still in many ways the inner workings of the body are as fascinating as the working of the universe outside.

We use electricity in a number of science projects and think of it as something that is man made or artificial. Just how untrue that is gets proved when we see that most living animals have neurons which work on electrical currents.

These specialized cells of the body move information from organs to the brain in electrical form. This helps the brain keep better control over the body. In a blink on an eye the brain knows that it has stubbed its toe from the pain receptors being activated by such electric currents.

Hands know that a surface is hot when touched for a fraction of a second. Again thanks to the neurons which quickly transmit the information to the brain. The hands are then guided away from the source of the heat by the brain so that they will not be hurt.

The best part is that all these actions and electric currents flow through the human body without ever actually engaging the conscious mind. Like a well tuned machine functioning on auto pilot. It goes through the entire process with no problems at all. Wish all machines were so easy to handle.

The kitchen is a great place to do science experiments. You can actually turn your kitchen into a laboratory without too much difficulty. Most of the ingredients are already there, you just need to know how to use them. And of course have an adult around for safety purposes.

Here is a simple Kitchen experiment that can be great fun to do. You will need a balloon, a small pint sized bottle, a packet of active dry yeast,  a cup of warm water and two or three spoons of sugar. Take the balloon and blow it up a few times. Make sure that it does not have any small holes from where the air may leak out.

Now in the cup of warm water add the packet of yeast and the spoons of sugar. Stir till they both dissolve in the water. Now pour this water into the bottle. You will notice that  the carbon di oxide bubbles start forming in the water as soon as the yeast and sugar begin reacting.

To the mouth of the bottle now attach the balloon. Keep it away for a while. After some time you will see that the balloon has begun to inflate thanks to the air being generated. Try out more fun science projects here.

As far as science projects go, this little science experiment is great fun to do. Imagine getting a hard boiled egg into a bottle with a mouth that is actually smaller than the egg. It demonstrates a number of  science principles at work. The utilization of oxygen to burn a match, the creation of depression due to air pressure being the two most noteworthy.

Here is what you need. A hard boiled egg, which has been shelled. A bottle with a mouth that is marginally smaller than the diameter of the hard boiled egg. And a box of matches. You are set to go.  Just make sure that you have an adult around to help you with the matches.

What is to be done is really simple. You light a match and throw it into the bottle. Then immediately cover the opening of the bottle with the hard boiled egg. As the match uses up the oxygen present inside the bottle it will eventually suck down the egg into the bottle due to the difference created in air pressure inside the bottle and outside.

Now if you are looking for more science experiments involving air pressure you may enjoy these.

In the last blog post we covered how to make a naked egg. Now we are going to turn the naked eggs you produced into a science project based on the principle of osmosis. Hopefully more than one of the six eggs you started out with survived the process and became a naked egg. If not, you can always do the experiment again.

To start this science project you need  a couple of naked eggs ready to use. You will also need separate containers for the eggs which can hold some liquid along with the eggs. You can  use coffee mugs for the purpose. Now take one shell-less naked egg and cover it with water. Take the other egg and cover it with corn syrup. Place the mugs into fridge for 24 hours.

When you take the eggs out of the corn syrup and water respectively you will find a difference between the two naked eggs. The egg that sat all day in water will be plump and firm, while the one which was in corn syrup will be shriveled and flabby. Why did this happen? The eggs in question have a semi permeable membrane, which means that small molecules can go through the membrane and large ones can not.

The egg white in the naked egg is 90% water and so when the egg is kept in water nothing much happens to it. However the corn syrup is just 25 per cent water and has large molecules which can not move past the egg membrane. So to balance out the different concentrations of water in the solution the water inside the egg white moves out making the egg shrivel. Get more experiments here.

What does one mean by a naked egg? An egg without a shell. It would make for an interesting science project to make a naked egg. And no its not as simple as hard boiling the egg and peeling off the shell. What we are going to do is actually dissolve the shell that surrounds the egg so that you get a translucent egg.  Sounds exciting? So lets get started.

Take about six eggs to start with. Now place them in a container large enough to keep the eggs with them touching each other. Cover the eggs with vinegar. You will see some bubbles coming up. Now cover the container and place it in the fridge for 24 hours.  After that when you open the container you will see the shells have gone.

The egg membrane is the only thing that keeps them together. Scoop out the eggs with a large spoon and place in another container gently. The reason we took six eggs is that during this process some of the egg membranes may break and the egg may ooze out. You can throw away these eggs.

Now cover the remaining eggs with some fresh vinegar and again put it into the fridge for 24 hours. At the end of which time you will be able to gentle hold the egg without a shell in your hands and squeeze it. Check out more exciting science  experiments here.

The science project titled checking the inertia of an egg can actually be turned into a quick party game. Place a few raw eggs along with one hard boiled one in a plate. Now ask your friends to point out to the hard boiled one. The eggs should all be at room temperature otherwise the hard boiled one will be too easy to spot.

Any way, once they have failed to identify the hardboiled egg, all you need to do is spin the eggs gently in the plate. The ones that are not boiled will be wobbly while spinning. The hard boiled egg will spin smoothly because the liquid inside the egg is all solidified.

This happens because the inertia of the liquid is missing in the hard boiled egg. Party game plus science lesson rolled into one. You can also use different party games which include science principles. Believe it or not spin the bottle also uses the inertia of the bottle to stop.

If you are looking for more fun science experiments to do you can head over to solve the mystery of the soda can collapsing here. There is just science and no magic to all these funny and weird happenings. Check it out when you have some time.