By Kim Mullin

Safely viewing a solar eclipse takes special equipment—ask an adult for help now so you are ready!

Those who see the May 20 annular eclipse will see a ring of sun around a dark center. The above photo of the January 2011 annular eclipse was taken by the Hinode satellite. Image: NASA.

As the Earth makes its rotation on May 20, many people around the world will be in for a treat—a view of a solar eclipse! If you live in North America, be ready to witness this celestial event in the afternoon or early evening... unless you live on the East Coast. The eclipse's path won't include the eastern edge of North America, so residents there will need to visit their favorite science news outlets for pictures.

What Will You See?

A solar eclipse happens when our moon passes between Earth and the
Sun, briefly blocking our view of the Sun. There are three main types
of eclipses: total, partial, and annular. A total eclipse occurs when
the Sun and moon line up exactly, so the moon completely blocks our
view of the Sun. During a total eclipse, we can see the sun's "corona"
(a band of plasma that surrounds the sun) around the edges of the
moon. A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and moon are not exactly
lined up, so the moon only blocks part of the Sun, temporarily making
the Sun look crescent-shaped. An annular eclipse is when the Sun and
moon are lined up, but the moon appears smaller than the Sun, so a
thin ring of the Sun is visible around the edges of the moon. Think
giant solar doughnut in the sky!

On May 20, lucky viewers, including many in the U.S., will see an annular eclipse, but most sky-watchers will see only a partial eclipse. The image below shows the timing of the eclipse for viewers in various parts of the U.S. and indicates the thin arc of the annular viewing path. You can also check NASA's interactive map to see if you will be able to see the annular eclipse, what some refer to as a solar "ring of fire."

Image: Skyandtelescope.com

You may wonder why some people will see a partial eclipse and others will see an annular eclipse when everyone is viewing the same Sun and moon. In fact, people on some parts of the globe will not see an eclipse at all on May 20. This is because people in different locations are viewing the Sun and moon at different angles. Think of it this way: you could hide from a friend by crouching behind a sofa, but if your friend started to walk around the sofa, she would see more and more of you the further around she came. Your view of this week's solar eclipse depends on where you live!

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Viewing an Eclipse Can Be Dangerous

Never look at the sun or an eclipse directly with your eyes. Doing so can cause permanent blindness or other severe damage. According to Jane Houston Jones of NASA, "Though only six percent of the sun's surface will be visible at greatest eclipse, it will still be 60,000 times brighter than the full moon and will damage your eyes if you look directly at it." According to experts, you need to "filter out more than 99% of the Sun's light before it reaches your eyes." Even so, from solar-viewing glasses to special telescope filters, or even a "projection" of the eclipse onto another surface, there are safe viewing techniques if you plan ahead. Sky and Telescope's article about how to safely view a solar eclipse can help you understand your options.

Depending on your age and your weight, you might stop, spoon poised, and fleetingly think twice about your loaded triple-fudge and caramel brownie sundae with extra candy sprinkles—just before you dig in. Whether you finish off the sundae alone or not, it's impossible to escape awareness of the debates that rage on about the nutritional dangers of too much sugar. But it isn't as simple as simply saying "no" to a spoonful of sugar here and there. When it comes to sugar and the body, there's more to consider than just after-dinner dessert or a plate of morning pancakes loaded with syrup. How long it takes the body to process the sugar you take in has a lot to do with how good or bad a food may be for you and your bloodstream. Experimenting with a plant-based enzyme can help students peer inside the digestion process.

The level of glucose in the blood has to be constantly monitored. Too much or too little glucose can lead to a health problem. Understanding how glucose is created in the body—and how sugars in foods are converted to glucose—can make nutritional labels make more sense. How much do you know about sugars? The plant-based enzyme, invertase, helps students look under the lid to see what's going on inside the digestive process.

Opinions vary, but many parents argue that sugar makes their kids hyper, cranky, or less focused. Some adults even admit to post-sugar blues, and while your common approach to an afternoon slump might be to grab a candy bar, nutritionists will tell you that protein is a better choice to rev up a flagging brain. In recent years, sugar has become a pariah for healthy eating advocates, health practitioners, and many parents. In reaction to the outcry against sugar and carbohydrates, numerous fad diets have made the rounds as the public searches for the key to healthy eating.

Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. Most agree that too much sugar isn't good for any of us at any age. That doesn't necessarily mean no sugar. It doesn't necessarily mean eating only protein. It may or may not work out that eliminating all white foods from your diet is a sure-fire approach to nutritional health.

While there are clear culprits in the sugar game and obvious sources of unnecessary sugar overload lining grocery store shelves and household pantries and snack drawers, the reality is that sugar, in all its forms, and combined with overeating and less active lifestyles, has contributed to an increasing number of people who either have diabetes and know about it, have diabetes and don't yet realize it, or are considered pre-diabetic. Diabetes is a metabolic condition in which the body fails to effectively convert glucose to energy. The problem centers around the body's production and use of insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps regulate the level of glucose in the blood.

According to the American Diabetes Association, 25.8 million people in the U.S. have diabetes. That number, which includes both children and adults, represents 8.3% of the U.S. population^*. Complications and conditions caused by, or connected to, diabetes are wide-ranging. Blindness, kidney failure, and heart disease are among the many health conditions linked to diabetes, and diabetes is a factor in more than half of all non-traumatic lower-limb amputations.

The numbers are startling and dramatic, and while the search for a "cure" for big name killers is always on the front burner, diabetes is a silent but far-reaching and growing health problem in the U.S. and comes in at number seven on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) list of leading causes of death. Treatment, in large part, is nutrition-based, and the more you know about "sugar" and the body, the better. Avoiding refined sugars like those found in a candy bar or lollipop isn't enough. Instead, it's important to understand how the body processes sugars, how long it takes for glucose to clear from the blood stream after eating, and what slows down or speeds up the process.

Glucose in the Body

Sucrose, the white sugar commonly used in baking, is one of several kinds of sugars, all of which are carbohydrates. During digestion, sucrose and other carbohydrates (like starch) are broken down to create glucose and fructose, basic carbohydrates that are then digested and absorbed into the intestines. When glucose is being created from food that has been taken into the body, the level of glucose in the blood rises. It is the pancreas's job to monitor and respond to the blood glucose level. If the level is high, the pancreas releases insulin to instruct cells to remove glucose from the blood and store it for energy; if the blood glucose level drops, the pancreas stops releasing insulin, signaling that the body should use stored glucose. It's a delicate balance. Tip the glucose or insulin scales one way or the other, and serious problems can arise.

While reading labels and monitoring the intake of sugars can help you be more aware of food choices, the rate of digestion of sugars and carbohydrates differs. As a result, the impact of sugars in two different foods may not be the same on the body. Students can't easily monitor digestion and glucose production in a human body, but by using invertase, an enzyme that catalyzes the same reaction in plants and yeast as sucrase does in the human body, students can simulate and explore the breakdown of sugars and what the process reveals about various types of foods.

Invertase in Action

The "Sucrose & Glucose & Fructose, Oh My! Uncovering Hidden Sugar in Your Food" project from the Medical Biotechnology interest area of the Science Buddies Project Ideas Library gives students a blueprint for conducting a biotechnology investigation of the relationship between the concentration of sugars in common foods, the time involved in converting those sugars to glucose, and the amount of glucose digested. Using invertase, students can test various foods to observe, firsthand, glucose concentration levels both before and after the enzyme is added. As a result of this investigation, students will better understand what foods are good when someone needs a glucose boost, what foods convert to glucose faster than others, and which foods have a minimal impact on blood glucose levels. The "How Sweet It Is! Measuring Glucose in Your Food" project offers a less advanced science project that explores glucose concentration in fruits and juices—minus the simulated digestion.

Before you sit down with that next triple fudge sundae, you might give an extra moment of thought to the glucose involved. You may not see it lurking in the cherry on top, but your body views sugar as more than simply a sweet treat. It's a complicated biochemical process, and the more you understand what's going on, the more educated choices you can make!

The 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) kicks off today! According to the Society for Science & the Public, more than 1,500 high school students from all over the world will be on hand in Pittsburgh this week to show off their projects and compete for more than three million dollars in awards.

Blake and Matthew, winners of the 2011 Intel ISEF, are featured on the cover of this year's Intel ISEF program.

To follow along with this week's Intel ISEF proceedings, tune in to the following sites, galleries, and social media streams:

• Intel ISEF 2012 site

• Intel ISEF 2012 photos
• @IntelISEF twitter stream
• #IntelISEF hash tag

Students who qualify to attend the Intel ISEF represent the pinnacle of this year's student research and innovation. The path to the Intel ISEF is often a long road of research, experimentation, and a chain of fairs beginning with a local or school fair. For those who compete in advanced competitions like the Intel ISEF, the Intel Science and Talent Search, or the Broadcom MASTERS, public recognition tends to follow. These students' stories make the local papers and news reports, and when the winners are announced at the Intel ISEF later this week, names, schools, research topics, and prize amounts will buzz through social media streams as we all celebrate the top of the top in K-12 science.

More than Makes the Board

The stories behind the projects on display are often wonderful and engaging dramas that represent the highs and lows of the scientific process. The project display boards lining the exhibition center in Pittsburgh, PA this week showcase each project along a defined set of points that follow the scientific method. From across the room, you might be able to read the project's title. At closer range, you can peruse the hypothesis, conclusion, and summary data charts, but there is often much more to the story than can be contained in the standard 36" x 48" trifold board—more science and more human interest.

The Student Behind the Science Project

The sophisticated projects on display at a fair like the Intel ISEF are not always ones immediately accessible to the general audience. These are not your average school science fair projects, but the students behind them, the students answering questions from judges and passersby, the students passionate about their area of research, their findings, and the possible future applications of their work are still students. When given a bit more attention and depth, students' stories, like those chronicled in Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch... and What It Takes to Win, by Judy Dutton or the WhizKids documentary, offer readers and viewers an inside look at what it is like to be a top student science student, where these students find inspiration for their ideas and projects, and what it feels like to compete on a global level. These stories are often inspiring, eye-opening, and, at times, heartwrenching.

Stories Big and Small

Many of these stories represent the epitome of scientific achievement among K-12 students, but stories of scientific accomplishment unfold every day at schools and science fairs around the country. We hope you spotted write-ups of local fair winners in your area over the last few months. We hope that your student's science fair was well-attended, well-supported by the local community, and that the students who participated got the chance for their hard work to shine, regardless of whether or not a ribbon was awarded. We hope that your student learned something from her project or explored a new area of science. Maybe the process sparked interest in asking another question, researching another angle, or simply participating again next year with another science investigation.

To every student that conducted a science project this year, to every student that put the scientific method in action, to every student that learned something, hands-on, about a scientific principle, we say congratulations!

Make a note!

Science Fair Season: Twelve Kids, a Robot Named Scorch... and What It Takes to Win, by Judy Dutton, tells the story of a number of top science fair participants. This is a great summer read for parents, teachers, and students!

We'll be watching as this year's Intel ISEF unfolds over the next few days. It's an exciting event, and Science Buddies staff will be meeting with many students who are presenting. There will be astounding projects on display, and we know the stories behind those projects may be equally inspiring and exciting. But we are excited by all of your stories and successes, and we are proud to be an integral and trusted resource for students looking for science project ideas and for science project information and for teachers, organizations, and parents who are dedicated to encouraging and supporting science, technology, education, and math education (STEM). Every science project can make a difference in a student's approach to science.

A Local Fair

The Contra Costa County Science & Engineering Fair (CCCSEF) is developing a track record for showcasing and recognizing projects that go on to succeed at higher-level competitions. In 2011, the winners of CCCSEF, Blake Marggraff and Matthew Feddersen, went on to sweep top honors at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Blake and Matthew then joined Science Buddies in the summer of 2011 as part of our first group of Summer Fellows. You can learn more about their research and winning project in this write-up that documents how their weekend experiments evolved into the construction of a homemade X-ray machine—and the grand prize at the 2011 Intel ISEF.

This year, the students moving on to the 2012 Intel ISEF by virtue of top placement at CCCSEF are Christina Ren (10th grade, Monte Vista High School), Eric Sauer (11th grade, Dougherty Valley High School), and Raymond Zhu (12th Grade, Monte Vista High School). Other winners at the 2012 CCCSEF went on to show their projects at Broadcom MASTERS and at the California State Science Fair. Aryo Sorayya, an 11th grade student at Monte Vista High School, displayed his project, "Overcoming the Cold Chain: Designing a Novel Freeze-Stable Vaccine," at CCCSEF and went on to be named the grand-prize winner last week at the 61st California State Science Fair.

Over the last several years, CCCSEF coordinators have watched the fair continue to grow, a trend celebrated and encouraged by support from the community, including organizations like Chevron and Bio-Rad Laboratories, both of which issue special awards at the fair. This year, Matthew Brewer and Brooke Parker, students at Acalanes High School, won Chevron Innovation and John Muir Health special awards for their team project, "Effectiveness of Acne Vulgaris Treatments Using EColi Bacteria." Tiffany Zhou, a student at Heritage High School, and a student mentor in the Science Buddies Ask an Expert forums, received a Chevron Innovation award for her project, "Investigating Biocontrol of Canker Diseases." Other winners of Chevron Innovation awards include: Nicholas Kaufman (NorthCreek Aacademy), Zidaan Dutta (Pine Valley Middle School), and Zachary Cannon (NorthCreek Academy).

Bio-Rad Laboratories special awards were presented to Raymond Zhu (Monte Vista High School) for his project, "Evaluating the interaction between LRRK2 and NMAP as a pathway to neuronal degeneration in Parkinson's Disease," and to Dhuvarakesh Karthikeyan (Iron Horse Middle School) for "MFCs-Step 1 to self-sufficient planet."