Smoking is injurious to your health! That’s a standard warning issued on all the cigarette packets and yet people smoke. Some claim that its just too difficult to kick the addiction. Well, this new science project may just provide them with hope that they too can get rid of the addiction.

Dr Ronald Crystal at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York is leading a research which aims at cutting out the gratification that a smoker gets from smoking. The concept is that if there is no pleasure derived from the act people will be able to quit smoking much easier.

The team has developed what it calls a genetic vaccine in which the genes gobble up the nicotine before it can reach the brain to give that satisfaction associated with a drag. The shot makes the antibodies of the body fight the nicotine and thus prevents the trigger of pleasure from reaching the brain.

Most smokers who quit end up back with a smoke in less than six months. If the pleasure trigger can be removed, the researchers feel that they will not get the urge to get back to smoking.Interesting enough for a scientific research, but will it work in the real world? We will know soon enough.

For anyone who has been exposed to diabetes, either because they suffer from it or have seen a relative suffering from it, here is some good news. A new science project developed by Dr Suman Kapur of BITS Pilani may prove to be the least intrusive regular blood glucose test ever.

Regular blood sugar monitoring requires a diabetic to test his blood often and can prove expensive due to the testing strips that the blood sugar monitoring machine uses. In this new method that Dr Suman kapur has devised this will be a thing of the past.

The finger is pricked and blood is sent via a capillary tube to a cellphone sized blood sugar monitoring machine. It takes 10 seconds to give you a result. Plus it needs 1,000 times less blood than a standard glucometer today. It is also likely to cost less as the need for expensive testing strips is eliminated.

The new device is undergoing final trials and will be hitting the markets by the end of the year. It promises to be more effective and less expensive than current monitors.It is this constant improvement that various science projects bring to our lives that makes the different in human lifestyles.

The basic science project follows the same set of steps – Ask a question on a particular topic. Make a guess to the answer or state a hypothesis, then plan the experiment to correctly prove or disprove the guess you made. Now you perform the experiment and  make observations which you record. After which you analyze the results that you have compiled allowing you to reach a supported conclusion.

So it all begins with the topic that you pick a question about. This is often the most confusing and daunting step of the entire process. Once you have this settled the rest of the project tends to flow easily. Finding the right topic for your science project need not be a herculean task. You need to stick with a few basic guidelines and you will have no trouble at all finding the initial question you seek to answer.

Lo0k for a topic that you find personally interesting. Read through magazines or website articles to see what you want to learn more about or what you enjoy reading about. Now think of possible questions you can ask about this interesting topic. Filter through all the brainstorming questions to find the ones that you can possibly test on your own and you have your possible topic for your science project ready.

This is a simple set of two science experiments for a preschooler stage child.Its never too soon to get a child interested in science.

Making a Rainbow with a Glass of Water

Light based experiments are always fun. The fact that sunlight can be split up into a rainbow is truly fascinating to young children. Here’s what you need to do. Take a glass full of filtered water outdoors. Now place it on a table or stool in such a manner that it is on the edge and casting a shadow on the ground. As the sunlight filters through the water and the glass it will cast a rainbow as it reaches the ground.

Fishing with Magnets

This is an activity that the preschoolers enjoy. Cut up colored card sheet into fish shapes. Add an iron pin to the fish. Now string up a bar magnet with a strong string at the end of a small rod or ruler. Add the fish to a pond(basket with blue colored paper) and sit on the edge and begin the fishing. Its more fun when there are two people fishing to see who gets the most fish. A simple science experiment that causes hours of hilarity and fun.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! That’s the mantra that was given to us to help save the environment and our natural resources. However, how many of us follow this as we grow up? To care for the environment is not a choice that we make, its a duty that we must fulfill. As the famous quote goes, we have not inherited the Earth from our parents, but borrowed it from our children.

It is imperative that we look after the world that our children and grandchildren will inherit. So what can you do about it on your level as a school student? Quite a lot! You need to examine your lifestyle and see where you are possibly wasting precious resources. Then you need to eliminate the processed that cause this waste.

Simple things that you can remember to do are switch off the lights when you leave a room. Or use the cycle to run your errands rather than taking a motorized vehicle which uses up fossil fuels. It will have the added benefit of keeping you fit.

Another thing is to save water by using it sparingly. There are places in the world where people have no access to clean water. You are lucky to have an abundant supply. So use it with care. Make caring for the environment your new pet project.

Do you like to build ground vehicles and air vehicles as science projects? Well then this Autonomous Vehicle Competition is right up your street. SparkFun is having its fourth annual Autonomous Vehicle Competition (AVC) on 16 June in Boulder, CO.

They do have a list of regulations for each category of vehicle and you may want to look into them if you plan to take part. The ground vehicles will need to go around 4 barrels to complete the race. The positions of the barrels will only be revealed on race day. So the vehicles you design will need to be flexible able to do any route that is presented to them.

As for the air vehicles, bad news for the helicopters. No quadcopters or helicopters allowed in the category. The air vehicle will be expected to go around the four exterior walls of the building in which the competition is being hosted. Wheel carriages are allowed for aircraft that don’t have their own wheels. Human assisted take-off  such as throwing a plane in the air for takeoff  is not considered autonomous.

If you meet all the requirements you will be able to qualify for one of the 50 spots reserved for potential competitors on race day.Nothing to beat a good race as the culmination of all your effort taken to build a vehicle as a science project!

The sun is the sole source of light and energy that allowed the human civilization to survive on our planet. However this hot ball of gases and fire is not all benevolent. In fact it can be quite the trouble maker when it comes to our high tech society.

In the 18th century a particularly strong solar storm affected the telegraph service on the planet. Operators actually disconnected their batteries and were able to function using the surge of electromagnetic power that the sun had provided!

Fortunately such a strong solar storm has not reoccurred in a century. So we were able to go high tech without much interference from the sun. Now however, with everything based on mobile and wireless technologies, a similar solar storm in this century may leave us in dire straights.

The truth is that the sun is not as stable a source of power as we would like to believe it is. It has its ups and downs, and yes it has the potential to knock out our civilization. There is little that we can do to stop it, but we can still try to be prepared for the worst that it can send us using our experience from countless science projects to help us along the way.

In the last post we decided to conduct an investigation using a specific objective. Then we gathered all the equipment and material that we would need to conduct this scientific investigation and now we do the actual recording of relevant data. This will help us measure the different variables that make up a part of our objective under study.

Remember it is this raw data that will give you a possible way to negate or prove that objective under consideration. So take all possible care to record this data as accurately as possible. Once the data has been collected you will need to write a report expounding just what you did and what you were able to prove.

The report must be as close to the process that you actually followed. Do not think of fabricating any part of the report as an experienced teacher will be able to catch you out instantly. Try be as honest to the actual experiment that you conducted in the report.

The Science Fair project is now ready for display. Take the highlights of your study and make a nice three fold display out of it. Make sure that you cover all stages of the scientific investigation in detail on the display board as not everyone is going to have the time to read your report on the project.

With physics based science fair projects a working model is the most popular way to win over a jury, however it is not your only option for a science fair entry. You can also organize a scientific investigation in such a manner that the study becomes your science fair project.Here’s what you will need to do.

Start with a valid objective. Define just what you intend to study in as many details and variables as you can possibly find. The more measurable details that you have in your objective the easier it will be to conduct your study with accuracy. So define the objective well.

After that is done make a list of all the things that you will need for your study. Special equipment aside make lists of basic supplies such as pencils, scales and erasers as well. It is quite frustrating to want to record some details to study later only to realize that your notebook is all used up!

Now you are all set to begin your study. Designate the time that you will be conducting the study. Some projects like the study of the moon phase, for instance, will require you to record your observations only at night. This could be a problem if your parents are not too keen on your staying up at odd hours like an owl. So pick your subject of scientific investigation carefully.

A balloon is always viewed as a fragile thing with a relatively short life. The mere thought that one could be fireproof seems ludicrous. However as you must know, with science the impossible is just a misguided experiment away. So here we have a tryst with a fireproof balloon.

For this science experiment you are going to need two balloons of the same size, a box of matches, a couple of  candles and a glass of water. Blow up the first balloon with air and keep it aside. The second balloon will be filled with the water from the glass and blown to the same proportion as the first balloon.

Now use the box of matches to light the two candles.  Fix them firmly on the ground and bring one balloon each above them. As the first balloon filled with only air comes in contact with the steady heat emitted by the candle it will burst. However the second balloon will not.

The balloon with the water in it seems to be fireproof. Why does this happen? Its simple if you apply the principles of science. The water in the second balloon absorbs the heat from the candle and does not allow the rubber to get overheated making the air inside the balloon expand continuously and burst. A simple and effective science experiment.