We know the immediate and visible devastation earthquakes can cause, and last month, after the earthquake in Haiti, we posted a set of projects that offer good background material and talking points for discussion of earthquakes and plate tectonics. What students may not realize is that the impact of a big shake does more than cause structural damage.

In fact, an earthquake can alter the tilt of the Earth to such a degree that the length of time in a "day" changes. The change is very small—we are talking seconds broken into millions—so small that our timekeeping methods of hours and days isn't effected. It is still fascinating to realize, however, that earthquakes can alter the tilt of the planet and that the amount of seconds in a day is not absolute.

Science Daily reported this week that research suggests that the February 27, 8.8 earthquake in Chili may have shifted the Earth's axis and shortened the day. With a projected change in axis of "2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters, or 3 inches)," scientists have determined that the earthquake may have "shortened the length of an Earth day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second)."

The following project ideas can help students talk about and visualize the importance of the degree of "tilt" of the Earth by examining the change of "seasons" on Earth:

• The Reasons for the Seasons (Science Buddies difficulty level: 4-5)
• A Matter of Degrees: How Does the Tilt of Earth's Axis Affect the Seasons? (Science Buddies difficulty level: 7-8)

Bio-Rad, a manufacturer and distributor of products for life science research and clinical diagnostics, recently announced winners of its scholarship competition. Celebrating students with a passion for science and plans to pursue higher education in science with an eye to science-related careers, the essay-based competition was open to graduating students local to the Bio-Rad headquarters in Hercules, CA.

Science Buddies was on hand as the awards were presented and met with some of the winners. Winning essays from the following scholarship recipients are posted on the Science Buddies website:

• Lauren Croda, De Anza High School in El Sobrante, CA Plans to study pediatrics
• Sanjit Rai, John Swett High School in Rodeo, CA
  Plans to study biomedical engineering at UC Davis
• Kiana Ward, El Cerrito High School in El Cerrito, CA
  Plans to study international relations and the sciences at Brown University

Winners of the Bio-Rad competition each received either a $2,500 or a $1,000 scholarship to help further their studies.

View a full list of scholarship winners.

Read winning essays.

Science Buddies continues to team up with science and tech companies to recognize and support innovative science and what can be created, observed, tested, and discovered with ordinary materials put to creative use in the name of science.

After viewing entries yesterday, Science Buddies' Sandra Slutz is at the California State Science Fair today with Northrop Grumman's Wen Phan to select winners of the Science Buddies Clever Scientist Awards from the over 1000 participants representing over 300 California schools.

Thanks to generous support from Symantec, all winners of the Clever Scientist Award at CSSF will receive a copy of Norton Internet Security.

This year, Seagate and Science Buddies teamed up to sponsor and award the Seagate-Science Buddies Clever Scientist Award at various science fairs. At each fair, the "Clever Scientist" award honored the two most innovative science fair projects which used low-cost experimental techniques to answer challenging scientific or engineering questions.

"Doing more with less is one of the classic measures of creativity," says Science Buddies founder and CEO Ken Hess.

The following projects were recently selected for the Clever Scientist Award at the Santa Cruz County Science Fair, the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair, and the Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair:

• Colored Light vs. Fog
  Daniel Nugent
  Summary: Daniel created a controlled fog generator which allowed him to study light absorption, specifically which color of light penetrates fog the best (e.g., fog lights for automobiles) but is, at the same time, tolerable for human eyesight.
  
• Decomposing Energy
  Max Keller
  Summary: Max's green project explored the use of home compost to generate heat energy. Max designed a system that featured aeration from a home fan, ventilation with PVC pipe, controlled moisture content, and an embedded water reservoir to measure heat change over time.
• Pop Goes the Hairstrand
  Kathryn Wied
  Summary: Kathryn systematically tested groups of hair with varying types of shampoos to determine if shampoo helps increase the strength of hair.
  
• Parabolic Solar Desalination for the Developing World
  Kelci Garcia
  Summary: Tackling the shortage of drinking water in some developing coastal areas, Kelci developed a prototype of an 'E.T. (Energy Transfer) Dish' - "a parabolic mirror and steam generator with a heat exchanger." The E.T. Dish facilitates the condensation of steam and the production of fresh water.
  
• Earthquake Experiments
  Zachary Ajax Zinn
  Summary: The project involved the homemade earthquake shake tables which allowed observation and evaluation of the ways in which both horizontal and vertical shake affects buildings which have different structural components.

• Can Kites Go Low?
  Evan LR Karow
  Summary: Evan built a wind tunnel, modeled after expensive high tech tunnels, out of cardboard, a fan, a rheostat, and a voltage meter. With the tunnel, and the ability to control the speed of the fan, Evan quantitatively compared 8 different kite designs to see which type of kite was capable of achieving lift with the least amount of wind.

Winners received a Maxtor One Touch III, 200 GB drive from Seagate and the opportunity to publish their project on Science Buddies website.

"By rewarding the authors and publishing these original, low-cost projects, we give other students across the country something that they can build and improve upon," says Hess.