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College students on the Central Coast are creating prosthetics for a boy who lost his fingers in a fiery car crash.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo engineering students are working on a pair of prosthetic hands for 10-year-old Julian Reynoso.

There’s a unique science program that’s being taught to some middle school students on the South Coast that involves eating insects. It may sound nasty, but they’re doing it in the name of science.

Some kids in the Conejo Valley are spending time at a unique business where they’re learning how to develop computer programs known as coding.

“You’re able to use coding to affect things in the real world like controlling one of these drones,” says 12-year-old Mason Tarter who comes to Code Ninjas in Thousand Oaks.

You may notice more and more people using standing desks at work. Many of them opt for standing, rather than sitting, for its health benefits.

However, a scientist on the South Coast says his research shows that standing is not as healthy as you would expect. The study found people who stand when working only burn a few more calories than those who sit.

Imagine your phone telling you if you have a bacterial infection. There’s now a tool designed for clinics, hospitals and doctor’s offices that can do just that. UC Santa Barbara researchers developed a smartphone app that allows users to detect bacteria at a low cost in under an hour, which can be life-saving.

More than a dozen teenagers are trying some brand new high tech interactive exhibits which just opened at a South Coast museum. But, the teens here aren’t just playing with the exhibits at Santa Barbara’s MOXI: The Wolf Museum of Exploration and Innovation. The high school students are fine tuning them, because they are the designers and builders.

Scientists come from across the globe to the South Coast to conduct research on birds. A research center in Ventura County houses one of the largest collections of bird eggs, nests and skins in the world. It also serves to educate the community.

South Coast astronomers were part of an international team of scientists who made a new discovery about black holes.

Researchers from Goleta-based Las Cumbres Observatory used their worldwide network of robotic telescopes as they worked with other scientists, NASA satellites and the International Space Station to observe something never seen before.

The fields of science, technology, engineering and math are becoming more attractive to college students across the South Coast. In fact, the number of science majors is rapidly increasing.

Astronomers on the South Coast were part of an international team of scientists who made some important observations about a supernova.

NASA’s Kepler satellite caught a rare glimpse of a supernova, which is the explosion of a star. And Goleta-based Las Cumbres Observatory – known as LCO -- used its network of 21 robotic telescopes around the world to observe it.