When it comes to engaging youth in engineering, one club in Utah is taking the challenge to new heights. The all girls maker club is building weather balloons to soar 30,000 feet above earth.

With the help of virtual reality seniors are exploring national parks, scaling ancient ruins and traveling back in time to their childhood homes. An MIT startup called, Rendever, is combating the physical limitations of age by bringing VR to assisted living communities.

In 2014, India became the fourth nation to launch a satellite to Mars and the first to do so successfully on a first attempt. In this story, three female scientists share their experience working on India’s Mars Orbiter Mission.

Did you know that women make up just 25 percent of STEM professionals? One of these women is Mary Barra, the first female CEO of General Motors. Up next, she explains her road to the top and why more students should pursue an engineering degree.

The network of oil pipelines that stretch across the United States rely heavily on a high tech leak detection system to ensure safe transportation. Devika Krishnan Kumar and her colleague Jared Renshaw co-wrote an investigation for Reuters on the technology designed to monitor pipeline leaks, how it fails, and what happens to ecosystems when those failures occur.

Construction is underway in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the first new cathedral to be built in the United States in decades. From the building materials to the architectural design, engineers are using the latest acoustic technology to make sure both music and the spoken word resonate properly throughout this grand space.

Imagine a world where cyborg locusts are trained to detect bombs. Sounds strange? One lab in St. Louis Missouri is busy making this a reality.

How is the water cycle affected by change in climate over time? To find out, scientists at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory have been recording data from a western North Carolina watershed for more than 80 years. And the data provides valuable information on the effects of climate change.

What do you get when you combine a microwave and a pan full of those pastel colored marshmallows known as peeps? NPR's science reporter, Adam Cole demonstrates in this segment the squishy mess can actually help you calculate the speed of light.

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics are a priority in schools, but the Amazing Explorers Academy in Oviedo, Florida is giving students a jump start by outfitting pre-k students with engaging activities.

Can technology help victims of trauma rewrite painful memories? A team of researchers from the University of South Florida are studying the effectiveness of accelerated resolution therapy, a tool that may improve anxiety and post-traumatic stress among soldiers returning home from war.

What if you could share energy with your neighbors during a power outage? One company in Brooklyn, New York is working to create energy microgrids that would radically change the way energy is bought and sold. Scott Kessler, Director of Business Development at LO3 joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss this.

As populations grow, researchers are applying high-tech science to traditional farming methods to help farmers produce bigger yields that are also drought and disease resistant.

Since scientists began studying squid, they’ve been trying to understand why squids release ink. Could squid ink be used to attract a mate, repel predators or confuse prey? Up next Science Friday takes us inside the lab at the Monterey Aquarium Research Institute in California where scientist Stephanie Bush searches for these answers.

At the mad science summer camp in San Antonio, Texas, kids are spending their summer vacations building robots. Up next, a look at what the next generation of robotics engineers has in store.

Science and technology impact many public policy issues today, from energy and the environment, to public health and privacy. But how is public opinion and knowledge of science informed or misinformed by our political discourse? A new book titled, “The War on Science,” is starting conversations about the relationship between science and democracy.

Football is an American tradition, sometimes full of camaraderie, team loyalty, and nail biting referee decisions. But what if the refs could use electromagnetic waves to help pinpoint exactly where the ball landed to make their game calls?

According to a 2012 report by the U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee, only 14 percent of U.S. engineers are women. This disparity has not deterred Meghann Lloyd who from a young age knew she wanted to work in the automotive industry. She now encourages young women interested in math and science to explore a career in stem like she did.

Photosynthesis, the process by which plants turn sunlight into food, is crucial to crop production and our food systems. What if we could increase the yield of food crops by improving photosynthesis? Stephen Long, Professor of Crop Sciences and Plant Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, joined Andrea Vasquez in a Google Hangout to discuss the genetic altering of plants.