In addition to some of the smartest kids you'll ever meet, there were motors whirring, gears spinning and test tubes bubbling. And Ethan Pines was there to capture it all.

Four hundred and twenty five schools sent their sharpest minds, who filled the California Science Center in Los Angeles one weekend last month. More than 800 projects, some of which we actually understand, were artfully displayed on tables by students was anxious to show off their inventions. "There was definitely an ultra nerdy quality but at the same time everyone was so earnest, which I really admired," Pines says. "There is no agenda and no cynicism, just kids who had a real love of science."

These are no ordinary school projects—there's not a paper mache volcano to be seen.