The host of “Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Mini Maker Show” on YouTube is a pint-sized problem solver with a big personality.

Sylvia Todd teaches do-it-yourself science projects for kids — how to etch a copper circuit board, how to launch a rocket and even how to turn a teddy bear into a backpack.

She can relate to her audience.  She’s a kid herself — just 11 years old.  So far, her 20 videos have received a total of more than 1.5 millions views.

Image credit: Sylviashow.com

She got interested in D.I.Y. science projects after her father took her to a Maker Faire in Marin County, Calif.  She was 5 years old.   He started filming her projects and things just sort of took off from there.

“When I was 8, I wanted to make a little show thing and put it on YouTube,” she said.

Her first one showed how to make something called a Drawdio, a combination pencil-harmonica. She was a natural.

“I really liked doing it,” she told ABC News.

In April, the Auburn, Calif., sixth-grader won a silver medal for her watercolor-painting robot in the world’s largest robotics competition. Last week she was invited to Washington to present that invention at the White House Science Fair and met President Obama.  Her YouTube viewers donated money to pay for the trip.

“I was really nervous at first,” she said of meeting Obama. “But it was very amazing and very life-changing to actually meet the president.”

Her show is a labor of love for her and her dad.   In fact, the whole family pitches in.

“Me and my dad put together the scripts, and he’s the guy behind the camera,” Sylvia told ABC News. “I get help from my siblings, my mom, but me and my dad do most of the show.”

At a time when the U.S. lags far behind other countries in science education, especially for girls, Sylvia is a role model.

She recently gave a TED talk, encouraging teachers to make science more fun.

“I’ve gotten e-mails and tweets from kids and adults or parents,” she said. “I’ve gotten some teachers who are like, ‘I’ve showed your show in class. It’s very good. Thank you for doing this.’”

Sylvia said those messages made her proud.

“I really want to inspire girls and kids and adults to get out there and make something,” she said. “Like I say at the end of each show, I say, ‘Go out there and make something!’”

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

Usually, hurricanes on Earth have a small eye and much larger outer bands. But incredibly on Saturn 1,250 miles is the distance of the center eye only. The entire storm could be several thousand miles more.

As for the wind speed in the storm, usually in hurricanes the strongest wind is in the center of the storm around what is called “the eye wall” of the hurricane,  and tends to get weaker as you get to the edge of the hurricane. The wind speed on the outer edge of the cloud band of Saturn’s hurricane is 330 mph and the winds in the center eye are four times faster than some of the strongest hurricanes on Earth. To compare Saturn’s storm to hurricanes that affected the U.S., the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. was Camille in 1969 with winds of 190 mph.

One of the interesting facts is that usual hurricanes on Earth feed off the water vapor from the warm ocean water. That gives it the needed energy for the hurricane to develop.  But on Saturn there is no body of water nearby for this storm to feed off. Instead it is feeding off of small amounts of water vapor in Saturn’s hydrogen atmosphere.

Another interesting fact: Hurricanes on Earth form usually in the tropical latitudes and move north due to the forces acting on them. But Saturn’s storm is located at the planet’s north pole that has made it stationary with nowhere further north to go. Because of this discovery, NASA scientists believe that it could have been there for years.

Only in 2009 sun began reaching the northern Hemisphere allowing Cassini spacecraft to capture these images.  This is because Saturn’s seasons last nine years each, therefore their north pole is dark nine years at a time.  So when the space craft first reached Saturn in 2004, the north pole was in the middle of winter.

NASA scientists will study this terrestrial hurricane-like storm because even though there are differences in size, strength and source of energy, it does carry similar characteristics such a central eye that has no clouds, counter clockwise spin in the northern Hemisphere, and high clouds circling the eye.

The recording, a wax-and-cardboard disc, contains the voice of Bell counting aloud, rattling off different percentages and dollar figures, and stating his name, date and address.

Image credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images

“This record has been made by Alexander Graham Bell in the presence of Dr. Chichester A. Bell on the 15th of April, 1885, at the Volta Laboratory, 1221 Connecticut Avenue, Washington D.C.,” the inventor declared.

“In witness whereof, hear my voice, Alexander Graham Bell.”

Carl Haber, senior scientist in the physics division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, told ABC News that the National Museum of American History has actually been in possession of the Volta Laboratory collection of recordings for years.

“They’ve had this collection since the 1880s. Their assessment was that it was so delicate that they wanted to sit on it until someone could look at it without damaging it,” Haber said.

“In some cases, we’re not sure how [these recordings] were played back at the time,” said Haber. “Superficially, a lot of these discs look like something you could put a needle to, and you might get some sound.”

He said, however, that many of these recordings of various formats were fragile and some already cracked.

The process the Berkeley lab uses to examine these recordings in a gentle way involves a type of high resolution 3-D camera. The technology was originally created to play and digitally transfer modern records “noninvasively,” or without a needle.

Carlene Stephens, the curator of these early records at the National Museum of American History, first learned of Haber’s innovations and contacted his laboratory in 2011 about the possibility of recovering sound from a portion of the 200 artifacts in the Volta collection.

“We basically pick about 10 percent  of the recordings to do a sort of pilot study to uncover sound,” Haber explained. He said the recording of Bell’s voice was identified by inscriptions during a cataloging process the museum was undertaking, making it immediately appealing to both the museum and the Berkeley lab.

“It’s pretty badly broken, it basically looks like a jigsaw puzzle. So, even if this wasn’t Bell, this would have been a great example to examine,” said Haber.

READ: Solar Plane Makes Last Test Flight Before ‘Across America’ Trip

As for Bell’s counting and speaking aloud of all those numbers in the recording, Haber speculates that early ideas of sound recording were different from what we might think now.

“In those days of Edison and Bell, they thought recording was going to be important for accounting purposes or keeping business records. They may not have originally considered recording music,” he said.

Haber’s lab in Berkeley has already examined and pulled sound from 9 recordings of the Volta collections, with a few more still in the works. The various formats range from materials like plaster, paper, metal, foil, waxes and differ in shape and size.

In regards to moving forward with examining the full collection from Volta, Haber said that the idea sounds good to him. He’s hoping that the release of samples as interesting as the one containing Bell’s voice will raise awareness and possibly increase the desire and funding for projects like these.

Image credit: Jean Revillard/Solar Impulse

The Solar Impulse solar-powered airplane made history in 2010 when it embarked on the first-ever solar-powered night flight, and again in 2012 when it made the first intercontinental solar-powered flight (Europe to North Africa).

Now the co-founders and pilots of Solar Impulse have announced plans to conduct the first solar-powered coast-to-coast United States flight – Solar Impulse Across America – kicking off early next month.

Tuesday, Solar Impulse flew over the San Francisco Bay area, its final pre-cross-country test flight. The Across America trip will take off  from  San Francisco and reach its final destination in New York by early July, making stops in Phoenix, Dallas and Washington, D.C., along the way.

The wingspan of the plane is 208 feet, about the same as a jumbo jet, but it weighs no more than a car and has a cockpit just large enough to host a single pilot. Because of its light weight, the plane can collect sufficient energy solely from solar cells, and it even stores power, making night flights possible.

Swiss co-founders Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg began working on Solar Impulse in 2003 as an aviation and energy project.

“We want to show that with clean technologies, a passionate team and a far-reaching pioneering vision one can achieve the impossible,” said Piccard  at last month’s announcement of the Solar Impulse Across America trip. “If we all challenge  certitudes by driving change and being pioneers in our everyday lives, we can create innovative solutions for society’s biggest challenges.”

Ross Aimer, CEO of Aero Consulting Experts, told ABC News that he believes Solar Impulse’s Across America flight is “a big step, but also a baby step.”

“When it comes to a commercial craft, you would need more power. … You’d probably need something like two football fields of solar panels,”  said Aimer, a retired United Airlines captain.

But the flight expert is confident. Seeing advances in solar flights and some new airplanes using  biofuel encourages Aimer. “Anything to get us away from burning kerosene,” he said.

Some commercial planes are already using electric battery backup systems, although that technology is still in its early stages, Aimer said.

The Across America flight will be live streamed and chronicled at the Solar Impulse website beginning next week.

“Hopefully, the [Across America] flight will get some people’s attention. I’m optimistic that the future can be solar and electric,” said Aimer.

Credit: Google

It seems as if there’s something new to learn just about every day when it comes to Google Glass, the company’s new Internet-connected glasses that show digital information right in front of your eyes.

Now, as those lucky enough to be given Explorer status will begin to receive their Explorer Glass devices, some may be surprised to find that, in a possibly un-Google-like manner, the company has written, Do not “resell, loan, or transfer” language in the user agreement.

So what will the penalty be if you fork over the $1,500 and then decide to pass your brand new device on to someone else? The company says they can remotely turn your device into a fancy-looking forehead ornament.

“Google reserves the right to deactivate the Device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the Device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty,” as stated in the Glass Explorer Edition terms of service.

This week, Google announced that Glass Explorers (the winners of its #ifihadglass contest, as well as those that registered at Google I/O 2012) will be getting devices “in waves in the coming weeks.”

READ: Google Glass Explorer Edition to Ship This Month

One Explorer, asked to be referred to as “Ed from Philadelphia,” actually posted his device for sale on eBay before receiving it … and before reading the Explorer Edition terms of service, according to Forbes.

“I took the auction down after learning that those Explorers who already received their Glass had gotten terms of service agreements prohibiting the sale or transfer of the device,” he told Forbes.

Though “Ed” created the eBay listing with a starting bid of $5,000, the price shot all the way up to $95,300 before he terminated the auction.

“I didn’t want to jeopardize my getting a pair of Glass… So, I voluntarily removed the auction and I’m still excited to get the Glass even if I cannot sell it,” he explained.

It is important to point out that the Glass Explorer Edition device has its own terms of service listed on the Google website. The general terms of service for Glass state, “You may not commercially resell any Device, but you may give the Device as a gift, unless otherwise set forth in the Device Specific Addendum.”

So, though some Explorers may feel bound tight, not even given the ability to “loan” their devices out at their pleasure, regular Glass buyers may not see quite the same level of restriction when Google begins selling a version to the public later this year.

ABC News contacted Google for comment on these terms of service, but the company did not immediately respond.

Image credit: John Chuang, Neurosky

Sure, you already store your passwords in your brain and then punch them into your computer, but a group of computer scientists are thinking about cutting out that second step. A team at UC Berkeley’s School of Information has been able to use brain waves to authenticate people.

Led by Professor John Chuang, the team at Berkeley used Neurosky’s Mindset Brainwave sensor, a $200 headset with electrodes that can measure electroencephalograms (EEGs) or brainwave activity. (Neurosky is the same company that makes those brain-powered cat ears.) With the headset on and connected to a computer, the participants were asked to perform a range of mental tasks, including singing a song and counting objects of different colors.

Participants were also asked to repeatedly sing their favorite song or think of their favorite color, functioning as their own personalized thought password or “pass-thought.” After collecting data over a number of weeks, Chuang found that the computer could accurately and consistently distinguish between brainwave patterns of the participants. Basically, one person’s brain activity during certain tasks was different from another and the computer could tell that and verify that it was that person.

“We wanted to find out can we accurately authenticate users based on user brain waves, and the answer is yes, we were pretty good at that,” Chuang told ABC News. He said that unique focused thoughts, say focusing on a favorite song or color, isn’t necessary for authentication, just one’s own pure thoughts and waves are enough.

RELATED: Move Cat Ears and Fly a Helicopter With Your Mind

“Unlike traditional passwords where people have their own passwords, that doesn’t seem to be necessary in this case for brain waves,” Chuang explained. While the team was able to differentiate between different users’ waves and see that they were unique and consistent over time, the team didn’t actually integrate the technology with any password-based systems, like e-mail or another web service.

“We implemented an algorithm, or an authentication protocol, and we demonstrated it, but we haven’t actually integrated it with any systems,” he said. But Chuang doesn’t see the technology being applied to computer password systems.

“We don’t see this as a replacement to traditional passwords in scenarios where we sit down in front of a computer. It is obviously easier for us to type in our passwords, but there are other scenarios that involve wearable computers, for example, Google Glass,” he said. “In those scenarios, something that goes beyond typing in our password might become much more useful.”

Cell phones have changed the way we communicate, converse … and run a dairy farm?

A farm in Dubuque County, Iowa, is showing how improvements in technology are helping to make dairy farming more efficient.

Mark and Karen Hosch of Round Hollow Farm live on their 400-acre dairy farm. In early December 2012, they made a significant technological investment by transitioning their dairy to robotic milking. The many years of hunching to milk the cows was eased by the help of two Lely Astronaut robots. One robot can handle 60 cows a day, and each robot costs about $200,000.

“She’s got a transponder on the side of her neck. It shows where the teats should be, what the udders should be shaped like and it uses the laser to pick up,”  Mark Hosch told ABC News’ Cedar Rapids, Iowa, affiliate KCRG. “It remembers the last 30 times the teats were seen for each cow and it uses that information to make it faster.”

Multiple cameras monitor each robot. This process allows the cows to operate on their own schedule, and not solely when the farmer is available. It also helps the farmer spend fewer hours milking and more time supervising the dairy.

Mark Hosch can even use his smartphone to track cows, watch live video feeds, and he is alerted with any problems that arise.

“The robot will call me with a voice and tell me what the problem is, and I can check to see which one is shut down or in a cage,” Mark Hosch said.

The technology is so efficient that, while the Hosch’s have 25 fewer cows than before, their productivity is about the same as the previous volume of approximately 145 cows.

“Now the cows milk themselves three times a day,” Mark Hosch told ABC News. “Before [when] we would have to physically milk them, we would spend six hours to milk [twice a day]. It’s made it a lot easier. We could manage the cows for the production instead of doing the physical milking.”

Researchers have made a new discovery in the field of adorable dancing animals. In a University of California Santa Cruz study, Ronan the California sea lion has learned to bob her head in rhythm to several songs, a capability once believed to be only possessed by humans and some birds.

According to an article published on the University of California Santa Cruz’s Newscenter, Ronan’s favorite song is currently Earth Wind & Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland,” but it took Ph.D. student Peter Cook and his colleagues a few months to show her how to boogie.

Cook became interested in studies and presentations that featured birds engaged in what scientists call “rhythmic entrainment,” or simply keeping rhythmic beat.

“The idea was that beat keeping is a fortuitous side effect of adaptations for vocal mimicry, which requires matching incoming auditory signals with outgoing vocal behavior,” Cook told the Newscenter. “It’s understandable why that theory was attractive. But the fact is our sea lion has gotten really good at keeping the beat.”

Image credit: University of California Santa Cruz

Ronan was a rescued sea lion that Cook had used as a control in other studies. He said Ronan showed higher than average intelligence, so Cook decided to pursue the rhythmic entrainment experiment with her, with the results recently published to the Journal of Comparative Psychology.

“From my first interactions with her, it was clear that Ronan was a particularly bright sea lion,” Cook said. “I figured training a mammal to move in time to music would be hard, but Ronan seemed like an ideal subject.”

WATCH: Pet Crazy: Dancing Dogs

Her training began with a simple metronome and fish treats as rewards, but Ronan was eventually able to bob her head in synchronization with songs by the Backstreet Boys and Earth Wind & Fire.

Cook also explained why Ronan’s behavior will likely make for more than just another cute video.

“Ronan’s success poses a real problem for the theory that vocal mimicry is a necessary precondition for rhythmic entrainment,” he said. “Human musical ability may in fact have foundations that are shared with animals.”

In fact, from what they can tell, Ronan actually shows stronger rhythm than most birds.

“[The birds I've seen] fall off the beat a lot. They’re good at finding the tempo in music, but don’t seem to maintain the behavior as reliably as Ronan. She stays right on the beat,” Cook said.

Of course, you can also decide who you think is better. Up top we’ve got a video of Ronan and below a video of Snowball the Cockatoo. The beat is on.

How many of your Facebook friends have you actually met in real life? Take the online ballot below, and watch the full story on “20/20″ Friday at 10 ET.

Public OpinionPoll Results

There may not have been a trial, or a conviction, with so much evidence in the form of shared texts, photos and videos. The sheer number of digital interactions the prosecution examined tells the story of how much these young people — and, by implication, others around the country — live their lives through social media.

Below are a few of those numbers.

Watch the first interview with one of the convicted teens, interviews with parents of the boys, and hear what the teens who were there that night said about what happened, on “20/20: Way Too Gone: A Night in Steubenville” Friday at 10 ET.

(Image Credit: ABC News)