In our last science experiment we saw that sunlight is actually made up of a number of different wave lengths of light each of which can have a different color. So why is it that the sky, on a clear day, appears to us in the color blue? Why is the sky not plain white like sunlight or a kaleidoscope of different colors as found in the rainbow?

The sky above earth is not a vacuum. It is full of gases of all kinds. One of which is oxygen and it is thanks to this oxygen in the air that all of us are alive. This mixed bag of gases in the atmosphere also is responsible for the color of the sky. As the sunlight comes through this set of gases some wavelengths of light pass clear through while others get bounced around by the molecules in the gases.

Colors like red, yellow, and orange pass straight through the mix of gases in the atmosphere while the blue color manages to get reflected all over. The bits of reflected blue hits your eyes as you look up. This is why it becomes the most predominantly present light wave length in the sky making the sky appear blue in color. There are a number of interesting science projects based on the sky that you can try out.

If you say the word “light” there is a vision of white light from a tubelight or yellow light from a bulb that comes first to mind. However that simple light is not just made up of one color. It is in fact a collection of many different colors all rolled into one. In this science experiment we are going to split light up to reveal its spectrum.

This Light Spectrum is the set of visible wave lengths of the light that can be seen by the naked eye. For the experiment you will need a pan two third full of water, a small mirror, a blank sheet of paper, and a nice sunny day which gives you good direct sunlight rays.

Set the pan of water in direct sunlight. You can place it on a table or put it right down on the floor. Now with one hand hold the mirror under the water in the pan. Let the light that is reflected by the sun on to the mirror be caught on the paper that you hold in your other hand.

You will need to adjust the angles of both the  mirror under water and the paper above it till you see the visible spectrum of light on the paper. Then hold it steady and study the light reflected on the paper. It will look rather like a rainbow as the water has acted like a prism and separated the different wavelengths of light in this science experiment.

A visit to the dentist is not the only way to tell if you are brushing your teeth properly. Now with the help of this new brush developed by a company called Beam you can actually get a report on your phone that tells you just how well you brushed your teeth.

The toothbrush is not electric so you will be manually brushing your teeth, but the phone app will be sent a report via Bluetooth. You can time your strokes and also monitor the daily progress ensuring that you brush your teeth more than the average time of 46 seconds that most people spend brushing their teeth.

That duration is woefully inadequate for brushing your teeth properly. It is why the brush also has a two minute timer which lets you know just how long you need to brush your teeth properly. The time is activated by the body’s own bio-electricity when the brush is placed inside the mouth.

The activated toothbrush then automatically sends the data to the smart phone of the user where it can be updated daily. The data is then analyzedlike in a science project based on the log generated and you are told how much of your brushing goal you have met.

Currently navigation of spacecrafts is done by radio waves sent out into space from a network of ground stations located on Earth. As the spacecraft has to wait for instructions from Earth it makes navigation in space a lengthy and time consuming process. Now the European Space Agency is looking at a new navigation technique for spaceships.

They are hoping to use x-rays from dead stars to help the space ships navigate autonomously in space.  Researchers at the National Physics Laboratory have already been working on the navigation system in the solar system and hope to extend its capacity beyond into outer space.

Pulsars are the x-rays from dead stars which will be used to help the navigation of a large number of space crafts. The traditional navigation system can support only a limited number of spacecrafts. The news system will be a major improvement and will allow more than one space mission to be undertaken autonomously.

Researchers at the University of Leicester hope that using pulsars with regular frequency of emission will allow the news system to work as a new space GPS system. This will revolutionize the way space ship navigation occurs. It is still some ways from becoming a reliable navigation system but the ongoing science project is one which will have a major impact.

In a futuristic world it would be possible to charge your phone on the go by merely dropping it into the right pocket in your purse. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? You would never run out of juice for your phone if you were charging it each time you stored it in your purse.

Well, its no longer futuristic and its no longer science fiction. You can in fact charge your phone in a purse today. Its called the “Everpurse” and was developed by Dan Salcedo for his wife Liz Ormesher Salcedo. Dan is a serial entrepreneur who developed the purse to help his wife, a social worker, who frequently would run down the battery of her cell phone.

The problem of the phone running out of juice each day was addressed by a number of experiments that began with off the shelf parts from electronic stores. Eventually Dan came u with the cute clutch that had cutting edge technology embedded in the lining which made it possible for Liz to charge her phone by merely dropping it into the pocket.

The Everpurse was put out on display last month to a crowd funding platform as the couple hope to raise money for its commercial production. This is one science project that is guaranteed to make investors sit up and take notice.

Think of the number of visits you need to make to the optometrists and opticians to get the correct number for your eye glass lenses. What if you no longer had to do that? What if you could adjust the lenses in your glasses and make the blurry vision get clear and focused in an instant? “Eyejusters” may allow you to do just that!

Eyejusters is an Oxford based start up company which has developed a pair of eye glasses which can be focused by the wearer by merely turning a dial on the frame of the glasses. The glasses were developed from an original idea as old as 1920 by a pair of physics students and two engineers.

Oven Reading, co-founder of Eyejusters and Head of Business Development, said that they agreed that optometrists could provide a better standard of care but their glasses were particularly useful in parts of the developing world where people did not have access to prescription glasses.

Eyejusters has sold their glasses to a number of NGOs in Sudan, Uganda, Morocco and India. They are also available as over the counter reading glasses in the US. Some science projects can be truly helpful and financially beneficial.

If you are lactose intolerant and wonder if you would ever get to taste cow’s milk, the work that scientists are doing at the University of Waikato in New Zealand would be of interest to you. In their rather unique science project the researchers have genetically modified a cow that produces milk which lacks beta-lactoglobulin.

This is a protein which is found in cow’s milk but not in milk produces from a woman’s breast. This is the reason why some people are allergic to milk from cows which contains beta-lactoglobulin. The absence of this whey protein makes the milk low in allergy properties.

The absence of this protein in the milk has occurred due to a DNA modification technique known as RNA interference. The resulting cow was born with no tail, but the researchers say that was not likely to be a side effect of the genetic modification.

The cow was then given hormone treatments to make it jump start the production of milk, as it was not pregnant and was producing milk of its own. So if you are lactose intolerant and still want to taste cow’s milk , this low allergy milk produced in this science experiment should be your first choice.

Think of a bike that’s fork less, chain-less and dynamically adjustable. It would change shape as you rode it to give you the best ergonomics possible. This is what Cannondale have come up with in conjunction with Priority Designs. The Continuously Ergonomic Race Vehicle or CERV concept Bike debuted at the Eurobike show in August.

The design of the bike is such that the rider remains in the most optimal and comfortable position all through the ride. The dynamically adjustable headset  moves both fore and aft and up and down while the cyclist rides it. This flexibility is unique to the bike.

The designing the team states on its website that “the headset translates forward and down for a clean, low-drag position when descending. When climbing, it moves up and back, creating a more upright position for maximum leverage on the crank. Doing all this with a traditional fork in place wasn’t going to cut it, so a single-sided swing arm was proposed. Designing a forkless front-end has its own challenges, integrating it into a multi-axis adjustable system is another degree of difficulty altogether.”

When you think of security measures you would think of materials in terms of iron, steel, cement , concrete, and other strong materials that infuse confidence in security. You would not be thinking in terms of flimsy fabrics of any kind, and you would be missing out on the opportunity to use a revolutionary security  measure.

An almost invisible fabric based burglar alarm is the latest in security technology. This smart fabric is essentially a fine web of conductive threads which is connected to a micro controller. If it is cut the action triggers a warning alarm that includes the exact location of the breach.

The fabric can be used under wall tiles of a building,or laid over the floor under wall to wall carpeting, or laid on the rafters of a roof to provide an additional layer of invisible security for the building. It could even be used in the construction stage and integrated right into the concrete used to construct the building.

The revolutionary fabric was the product of an ongoing scientific  collaboration between the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM, Berlin, the Techische University Berlin, and ETTLIN Spinnerei und Weberei Production GmbH. The current flowing through the fabric is too weak to pose a threat to humans but is more than enough to trigger an alarm.

When you think of a computer you think of software and logical steps. You think of programmed tasks and rather mechanical behavior. What you do not think of is emotions. However there’s a group of researcher in Malaysia who are determined to make you think again. Here is what they have done.

The team of researchers at the Manipal International University of  Selangor have developed a computer which they claim can decode human emotions by reading lip patterns.  Led by Karthigayan Muthukaruppan the reseachers have come up with a system that uses a genetic algorithm that helps the computer identify the various emotions that a person may be expressing.

The algorithm improves with each iteration to match irregular ellipse fitting equations to the shape of the human mouth displaying various emotions. Essentially the more the person uses the system the better it becomes at reading their emotions.

This latest science project could change the way that people interact with computers. It would also provide a great opportunity for disabled people to use voice synthesizers with more ease and efficacy. Computer based communication devices will also see a total revolution if the system can be used in mass manufacturing processes. That is still some time away, but the computers that understand emotions are here.