Virtual Dental Implant Training Simulation developed by BreakAway

Video games may be good for your dental health. Not for the jaw-clenching or tooth-grinding action -- discuss these conditions with a professional if they persist in conjunction with gaming -- but because dentists will soon have access to virtual mouths before they get their hands on your chompers.

There was a time when carting a plastic lunchbox to your high school cafeteria was a popularity death knell. The ubiquitous paper bag was more fashionable, but in our new, green-conscious era, maybe it’s time for the lunchbox to make a comeback. Though schools probably can’t impose outright bans on paper bags, they can make efforts at generating less waste. Without the resources to rebuild every school out there with the most sophisticated green technology, however, the pertinent question is: How can pre-existing school buildings become more environmentally friendly?

On March 25 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, 175 students competed in the final round of the city's largest high school science and engineering research competition. The New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSEF) is sponsored by the NYC Department of Education and the City University of New York. The 19 NYCSEF winners will go on to Intel's International Science and Engineering Fair in Reno, Nevada, May 10-16, to compete for scholarships and other prizes totaling nearly $4 million.

Popular Science caught up with some of the students, whose stunning projects covered such complex topics as stem cell research, wind energy, and cancer treatments. Some of them are already packing up their projects for the trip to Nevada.

Two years ago, a yellow spongiform robot named Keepon became a minor YouTube sensation when one of its creators programmed it to do a squishy, twisty dance in time to the Spoon song "I Turn My Camera On." The video has garnered more than 2 million hits. Now Keepon's keepers, Marek Michalowski, a Ph.D student in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, and Hideki Kozima of Miyagi University in Japan, are turning Keepon's attention to a more serious task: to study how children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) interact socially and to see if the robot may be able to help in therapy.

What if you knew that a ten-minute podium presentation could alter your life's course for decades? Seasoned entrepreneurs sweat out this kind of tension when they make elevator pitches to venture capitalists. But at the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards Summit, the presenters on the hot seat are all between 14 and 18 years old.

For months, scientists, educators, and textbook publishers across the country have waited as members of the Texas Board of Education squabbled over whether to remove three little words in their sciences standards: “truths and weaknesses.” The controversy? The language—supported by creationists—requires biology teachers in Texas to discuss possible weaknesses in evolutionary theory, and has had implication for how evolution is taught across the country.

Naturally Obsessed: The Making of a Scientist is the best film ever to depict what goes on inside a real science lab -- period.

Above is one of the first scenes in the movie. It introduces one of the protagonists, a graduate student named Robert Townley. Go ahead -- watch it.