With the Olympic Games every four years come a host of expectations from athletes all over the world. Some expectations are from the public, others from the family and near ones of the sportsperson participating and yet more come from the coaches and sponsors. Is it any wonder then that the pressure leads to experimenting with performance enhancing drugs?

Doping is forbidden in sports meets and can result in expulsion from the games. However the allure of the big medal is difficult to explain. The sports person will risk everything that he or she has worked for by taking a banned drug to help improve the performance to an elevated level. The 16 year old Chinese swimmer who was the eye of the storm in the recent doping controversy will be able to attest to the pressures that the sportsperson faces.

As there are regular scientific studies involving the testing of drugs that enhance human performance, it is not too difficult to imagine the temptation that a sportsperson feels when he knows he can shave of many seconds from the performance with the help of these drugs. It is human nature to strive to be better after all. So what if that involves getting unexpected help from a couple of pills.

The human race has revolutionized the means of transport available to it. They were not satisfied with walking as a means of exploring the world, and so worked on faster means of transport. The wheel is considered mankind’s greatest invention for the simple reason that it killed distances much faster than before.

A couple of centuries ago it would take months to cross a continent over land and sea if you planned to go from London to New York. Today you can cover that distance, doorstep to doorstep in a matter of hours using a combination of cars and aircraft.The better the means of transportation became the smaller the world got.

As the world began to shrink it was not uncommon for people of different continents to come together for a shared purpose. One such event is the ongoing sports meet in London, the summer Olympics.Can you imagine the number of cars, buses, rail and aircraft that have been put to use to bring each and every contingent from countries around the world to participate in the games?

Of all the science projects that have been undertaken perhaps we owe the most to the means of transportation that have been developed for the drastic change in our lifestyles. Faster, higher and better, rather akin to the motto of the Olympics.

Making the human body test its limits is no new concept. Mankind has always been interested in pushing itself to extremes. The number of science projects that do research on enhancing human performance have been many and varied.

Some sought to test the physical ability of the human body while other research was centered on the mental faculties we possess. It is in no small measure that these scientific studies have contributed to our overall understanding of the feats and deeds that the human body is capable of completing.

Then comes the push to do better. If a record for a physical ability exists the next guys wants to break it. Swimming, running, and other sports are good examples of this, but what about mental abilities? Can they be trained to do better like the physical body can be trained? Apparently so.

The mental performance can be enhanced by training as well as some supplementary help. This can include performance enhancing drugs such as those are banned in physical sports as well as the artificial stimulation of the human brain physically.Maybe some day in the not so distant future you will be able to download the answers to the test straight to your brain. Till then such a human performance enhancing system remains the constant subject of research in science projects the world over.

The human body is like a magnificent puzzle that scientists are trying to solve with different research projects. How the body reacts to different stimuli is a popular method used in science projects dealing with the human body. It is well known that the energy for the effective functioning of the body comes from food, but water is just as important suggests this new study.

The Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Connecticut recently performed a science experiment involving performance of a simple task with a dehydrating effect. It was nothing very drastic, but proved illuminating all the same. The volunteers were made to walk a treadmill to induce dehydration after which they were put through a series of cognitive tests.

It was found that even a mild dehydration of 1.5% loss of the normal water volume of the body had a detrimental effect on concentration, reasoning and mood of the person. Another fact that came to light was that while the detrimental effect was seen in both sexes, the women showed a more substantial shift from effectiveness.

So if you want to study well or be physically fit it may pay dividends to ensure that you are also well hydrated. Drinking water regularly can actually make you more effective! At least that’s what the researchers of this science project had to say.

We eat food to provide us energy. Out of the total number of calories that we consume 10 percent is used to maintain the body temperature, 20 percent is used by the physical exertions that you under take during the day and 70 percent is used up by the basic cellular processes that support our life including regulation of the osmotic balance of each individual cell that makes up the body.

There is considerable angst amongst teenagers with respect to their looks and weight. Diets are a popular way to control weight gain and some of them can be quite absurd. However a new scientific study says that girls may actually need less calories per day as compared to boys.

The reason for this is that boys tend to be taller, heavier and have larger internal organs and muscles as compared to girls. As per the study another reason may be the fact that girls naturally have a slightly higher proportion of body fat and need less energy to sustain it. The conclusion of the science research study was that girls need 500 less calories per day as compared to boys.

Maybe that is why the natural urge for girls to lose weight translates into dieting and for boys into increasing their physical activities in terms of exercises and sports. Guess there is a difference between boys and girls on a more basic cellular level after all.

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.