The Google Science Fair was designed to discover the brightest new and upcoming scientists from all over the globe. They are invited to submit their creative science projects that are relevant to the world around them today.

Students ranging in age from 13 to 18 are encouraged to enter, either on their own or as a team. Entries will be accepted from January 11, 2011 through April 4, 2011. The first round of judging is scheduled to start on April 5, 2011, at which time they will select the semi-finalists. Semi-finalists will be announced on May 9, 2011. The second round of judging will begin on May 9, 2011, to select the events finalists, and the people choice winner. The public voting for the people choice winner will continue until May 20, 2011, and the winner will be announced on May 23, 2011. The event finalist will be selected and announced around July 11, 2011.

The 15 finalists chosen on May 20, 2011 will be flown to Google headquarters to take part in Google’s celebratory Science Fair event, and for the final judging on July 11, 2011. The finalized will be required to present their final projects to scientists from Nobel Laureates, at which time the panel will select a winner from each age category. A final winner will be decided from this final group for the grand price.

The grand prize winner and their parent will win a 10 day trip to Galapagos Islands in the company of the National Geographic Expeditions. They will be visiting the Darwin’s living laboratory and get to view several unique species like marine iguanas, flightless cormorants, and domed giant tortoises.

There is also a $50,000 scholarship to be awarded to the winner or team and is intended to help further the education of the student. The finalists will also receive a $25,000 scholarship for the individual or to be split among team members.

The winner of the People Choice Award will receive a $10,000 scholarship for the individual or to be split among team members for furthering their education.

There are several other prices awarded to finalists and winners, for complete details, and more information on entering see Google.com.

This is a sponsored post but the views and content are fully my own!

1. Slacker Radio – This application is basically a clone of Pandora, but it offers one great premium feature which Pandora doesn’t, which is why it edges Pandora out of the “turning your iPhone into a radio” category. Slacker Radio allows you to listen to any brand of music you want with a smart DJ feature which will play songs in similar families, all with unlimited music skips if it plays a song you hate.

2. Textfree Unlimited – This great alternative to SMS messaging lets you message for free using push notification, so you’re no longer stuck with those high SMS charges for sharing pictures and moments with your friends.

3. TweetDeck – There’s nothing like having a great Twitter application to enhance your experience, and now you can bring your favorite Twitter client directly on your iPhone with you, so you can answer the question, “What are you doing?”

4. QuickOffice – This great little app allows you to edit all of your Word and Excel documents on the go, so if you’re sitting in class or at a meeting and you need to make some last minute changes, you’re free to do so.

5. Kindle – Need your Kindle in a smaller package? This great iPhone app lets you take all of your Kindle books with you, on your phone. While is not as easy to read as the original, it saves space by putting your eBooks into one place instead of lugging around another device.

With the new Microsoft Windows 7, you will be able to run the most advanced operating available today. It will need the hardware power to run optimally. There are not a lot of requirements which are not met by the most of the computers these days. You will not need a lot of improvements if you are running Windows Vista. But if you are a Windows XP user, you may need to upgrade your hardware.

Here we will discuss the things that you will have to do in order to upgrade from various versions of Windows to the Windows 7. Primarily the users will be shifting either Windows Vista or Windows XP.

Upgrading from Windows XP:

If you are currently using the Microsoft Windows XP, you will have to double check the hardware requirements. You may not be meeting the requirements for the Windows 7 even if you are running Windows XP smoothly. The windows XP can run nicely on 512 MB of RAM but the Windows 7 will need you to add to this. You may also need to upgrade your processing power because the Windows 7 will require more processing power to run smoothly. You may also have to upgrade your graphic card as the Windows 7 requires direct X 9 enabled graphic card with certain other requirements as well. To get the optimal graphic experience, you should consider upgrading to a good graphic card. You may have to spend a little more while upgrading from XP rather than Vista, but the difference in the Windows environment and graphics will be amazingly good.

You will have to perform a new installation instead of upgrade if you are using Windows XP. This means that you will have to save your data before migrating to the Windows 7. This may be of some concern to many users but there is no other way. You can not upgrade a Windows XP to Windows 7 without a fresh installation.

Upgrading from Windows Vista:

Windows Vista provides easier options to upgrade to the Windows 7. You will have the option to upgrade to the windows 7 without having to perform a new installation. You will also be able to save and keep your previous data. The build in utility in windows Vista offers complete up gradation solution for some of the windows 7 editions. But you will not be able to upgrade to all the editions using this utility. Upgrading using the utility in Vista seems a better option specially if you have really important data on your computer. You also get the option to perform a complete new installation. The Microsoft recommends installing new windows instead of upgrading from the Windows Vista. This means that you will get the most optimal performance this way.

1. Firefox – Firefox’s market share has constantly grown, and with good reason. It’s the largest browser to offer open source coding and a complete web of addons which allow users to tailor their browser to their needs. In fact, Mozilla listens to its addon community so well that many previous addons have been integrated into current versions of Firefox.

2. Google Chrome – Google Chrome is a great browser for people who want speed. It’s fast, simple, and reliable, though it doesn’t have the same customization options which Firefox has, though its been rumored that Google is working to allow extensions.

3. Flock – Flock is a browser which is great for people who are social. With integration into websites like Facebook and Twitter, if you find yourself spending most of your time online at either of these sites, then you’ll likely love Flock. It’s based on the same technology as Firefox, and many of the extensions are interchangeable.

4. Safari – Safari has finally been released for Windows users and why its initial release was full of bugs, Apple has worked to iron them out to provide a smooth browsing experience. While it’s sleek and shiny, it doesn’t offer many of the customization features Firefox does, which makes it just a step behind Firefox in terms of usability.

5. Opera – Opera has been playing catch up just as much as Internet Explorer has, as its the only browser on the list which used to use a pay model. Though it’s now free to use, Opera 10 recently saw release with several improvements to browsing speed and bookmarking tools, however its still the black sheep of browser alternatives.

1. Dropbox – Transferring documents, files, movies, and pictures between computers used to be a real hassle. Now, with the installation of Dropbox on each of your computers you want to sync, you don’t have to worry about it, as Dropbox will take care of updating all of your files.

2. Digsby – Digsby is a chat application that lets you connect to all of the major chat protocols like AIM, MSN, GTalk, Yahoo, and ICQ. However, it goes a step further by storing all of your remembered settings on their central servers, so you can install Digsby on any computer, log in with your user name and password, and feel like you’re right at home.

3. Google Docs – Sharing documents which get a lot of revisions via email is a real pain. Google Docs has alleviated this pain by allowing you to share single documents and entire folders with people in your contacts list, as well as give editing permissions, or just viewing permissions.

4. Pandora – Pandora is a great music application which is run entirely online and streams music to you based on your preferences. It offers both a free and paid version, but the Smart DJ which mixes music based on 42 different algorithms makes for a great playlist.

5. ChromeOS – ChromeOS is to be Google’s flagship operating system, with several screenshots which have surfaced over the past few months. The brilliant thing about ChromeOS is that every feature is uses is accessed through the cloud, so no matter if you do your work on ChromeOS and need to access it on a Windows or Mac, you can.

1. Google Wave – Google Wave was released earlier this year to glowing reviews, as it puts everything you need to access, right at your fingertips. All of your contacts, your email, even your Facebook and Twitter feeds are all available in one application, which makes it easy to check on updates with your friends and co-workers.

2. Dropbox – If you use multiple computers, getting files synced between them can be a real hassle. Dropbox can solve all these problems with a simple application which you install on each of the computers you want to sync. You can even sync with people across the internet, so there’s no need for attaching massive files to emails anymore.

3. Pando – Sending large files across email used to be a huge hassle, but Pando solved this problem by allowing users to send Pando packages instead. Basically, instead of sending the file, you’ll be sending a small package which points to the file on Pando’s servers. You can also track downloads, so you know if your recipient got the file. It supports pause and resume and can share files of up to 1GB in size.

4. Foxit Reader - Adobe Acrobat Reader takes too long to load and often doesn’t even let you edit the PDF in question. FoxIt Reader solves all of these problems by loading extremely fast and letting you edit any portion of the PDF file.

5. Picasa – If you take lots of pictures, editing them and fixing things like lighting and red eye can be a real problem, especially if you’re not sure how to use complicated software like Photoshop. That’s where Picasa comes in, with one touch photo correction and uploading for sharing your memories.