Technology

By DPA Erlangen (Germany) : German scientists have developed a way of harnessing heat from the body to generate electricity. The method uses the difference between the body's surface temperature and that of the surrounding environment, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits said. Energy produced this way can be used to power medical equipment, such as sensors attached to the body of a patient in an intensive care ward, the institute said.

By DPA, Cape Canaveral (Florida) : The space shuttle Atlantis thundered into the sky over Kennedy Space Centre Monday carrying six crew members on a mission to the International Space Station. The mission is part of the US space agency's efforts to stock up the ISS reserves as the shuttle programme enters its expected final year in 2010. After this week's mission there are just five more flights scheduled.

By DPA, Hong Kong : A Hong Kong-based animal welfare charity Thursday criticised China's space programme for serving dog meat to its astronauts. Yang Liwei, China's first man in space, revealed in his recent autobiography that dog meat was included in the special diet for astronauts preparing for missions. The Hong Kong-based charity Animals Asia Thursday hit out at the revelation by Yang, who made history when he orbited earth in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft in October 2003.

By IANS, Kolkata : A digital mammography machine with stereo-tactic biopsy system was installed at a hospital in Kolkata Tuesday. This new technology will help in prompt and accurate detection of breast cancer that in turn may extend a patient's life by about 20 years, said doctors of the hospital. The new system - GE Senographe DS workstation - has been installed at B.P. Poddar Hospital and Medical Research Ltd, a multi-facility hospital specialising in oncology, traumatology and breast cancer, in south Kolkata.

By IANS, Washington : Researchers have discovered a new species of fish, a grouper that grows to more than six feet and weighs almost 500 kg. These Atlantic goliaths are not the same groupers that swim in Pacific waters, though they look identical. "For more than a century, ichthyologists have thought that Pacific and Atlantic goliath grouper were the same species, and the argument was settled before the widespread use of genetic techniques.

By IANS Bangalore : India's first exploratory mission to moon Chandrayaan-1, scheduled for launch April 9, has been deferred, a top space agency official said here Tuesday. "As a number of pre-launch tests have to be conducted, it is difficult to meet the April 9 deadline," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told IANS on phone. "The mission payload has 12 instruments. We will decide on the next launch date by this month-end after a review meeting," he said.

Srinagar : Calls, SMS and internet services on mobile phones were on Saturday suspended in Jammu and Kashmir as a security precaution on...

By DPA, Mainz (Germany) : Most daily e-mails are not sent between friends or even business partners. Instead, 92 percent of e-mails sent between January and March 2008 were spam. This was revealed by Sophos, a Mainz-based information technology security firm that regularly monitors internet mail. The United States remains the world champion when it comes to spam as more than 15 percent originated there, the firm said. Sophos, however, did not track the number of spams actually reaching the mailboxes of internet users.

By NNN-APP New Delhi : India has planned to launch its maiden mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I on April nine next year. Media reports said the mission planned by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Hyderabad. Quoting Mylswamy Annadurai, Project Director of Chandrayaan-I, the reports said “a launch windows are available for the next two days in case the launch does not happen on that day.”

By IANS, London : The GigaGalaxy Zoom project has captured a mind-boggling, magnificent, 800-million-pixel panoramic view of the vast glittering sky. This 360-degree starscape, covering the entire celestial sphere, reveals the cosmic landscape that surrounds our tiny blue planet. This staggering panorama serves as the first of three extremely high-resolution images featured in the project, launched by European Organisation for Astronomical Research (ESO).

By DPA, Lisbon : Portugal's Economy Minister Manuel Pinho Wednesday inaugurated what was described as Europe's biggest wind energy park in the northern region of Viana do Castelo. The Alto Minho I park began generating energy already a year ago, gradually increasing its production to the full potential Wednesday. The 120 turbines divided between five sub-stations will produce 530 gigawatts annually or one percent of Portugal's energy. The park, which cost 400 million euros ($520 million), was expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 370,000 tonnes annually.

By RIA Novosti, Moscow : Russia will launch two European satellites Nov 2 from the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia, a report said Tuesday. The dry run of the launch began early October at the space center as per schedule. "The launch is scheduled for Nov 2. A deal to launch Rockot with the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) spacecraft [primary payload] and the Proba-2 mini-satellite was concluded between the ESA (European Space Agency) and Eurockot Launch Services GmbH (a joint venture of the Khrunichev center and EADS Astrium)," a Khrunichev center report said.

By IANS Brussels : The selling of domain names has been receiving a bit of an image makeover with the launch of dot-asia. "As a not-for-profit organisation from Asia and for Asia, we want to create partnerships that will drive awareness and promote community benefits. One of the core mandates of the DotAsia Organisation is to contribute surpluses (of funds) back into community projects for Asia," Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia, told EuAsiaNews Tuesday night. Since its launch Feb 20, DotAsia has received 350,000 applications.

By IANS, Thiruvananthapuram: The Indian Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks (STEPs) and Business Incubators' Association (ISBA) will open its new headquarters in the Technopark-TBI here.

By IANS, Washington : A device designed by John Hopkins undergraduates enables ICU patients to get back on their feet with minimum fuss while still being connected to life-support systems. The invention will also help doctors figure out whether carefully supervised rehabilitation, as against continuous sedation and bed rest, can speed up their recovery. Known as the “ICU Mover”, the device has been designed by bio-medical engineering students Swarnali Sengupta, Erica Jantho and Hanlin Wan.

By IANS Ahmedabad : Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams, on a week-long visit to Gujarat, Saturday advised students to study space science for the exciting opportunities it offers and also to "break my records". Speaking at a felicitation programme in her honour by Gujarat University, Sunita said space science was increasingly concerned with making the earth safe from the "effects of vacuum, a darkness that is beyond black and the massive temperature deviations in space".

By IANS, Abu Dhabi : A United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company has unveiled a new generation humanoid robot that can converse with humans. Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan attended a function organised by the Abu Dhabi-based Pal Technology Wednesday night to launch the next generation humanoid robot Reem B, the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported. Reem B is the evolution of the first humanoid robot Reem A, created by Pal Technology Robotics.

By Xinhua Beijing : New spacecraft images show a lake that may have filled a crater for a long time on early Mars might once have been habitable. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the images that suggest the debris-strewn Holden Crater once held a calm body of water that could have harbored life. There is so far no convincing evidence life does or ever did exist on Mars, however. The crater debris includes a mix of broken boulders and smaller particles called megabreccia.

By Xinhua Beijing : China will have a recoverable moon rover, which will carry back lunar soil samples, by 2017 if technical research "progresses smoothly," said the chief designer of Chang'e-1, the country's first moon probe, here Tuesday. China plans to land a probe on the moon in 2013, said Ye Peijian, chief commander and designer of probe's satellite system, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The milestone Chang'e-1 blasted off last October, marking the first step in China's ambitious three-stage moon mission.

By IANS, Washington : Scientists now have physical proof of how species evolve and the fittest survive, after a 21-year study in which they documented the evolution of single-celled E. coli bacteria over 40,000 generations. Richard Lenski, Hannah professor of microbial ecology at Michigan State University (MSU), said: "It's extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations."

By IANS, London : Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher was photographed by Google's new mapping service as he was having a beer. The 36-year-old Gallagher was having a drink at Street View, reported thesun.co.uk. He spotted the Google camera car taking his pictures and pointed at it. But his face was blurred since it is Google's policy to not reveal anyone's identity. A source said: "If there's one man you'd recognise having a pint, it's Liam Gallagher. He's often in The Queens. He must be the most high-profile celeb to be caught on Google Street View."

By IANS New York : Scientists have developed the mother of all laser beams - one that has focussed power equal to all the sunlight heading earth's way. Researchers at the University of Michigan recently created the record-setting beam, which measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimetre, Sciencedaily reported. "I don't know of another place in the universe that would have this intensity of light. We believe this is a record," said Karl Krushelnick, who was part of the team that created the laser.

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted the people on National Technology Day and said the use of technology should be...

Kharagpur : The Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp) will start a collaborative programme with Britain-based Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) to promote the 'Make...

By V. Jagannathan, IANS,

By IANS, London : The human brain possesses a unique navigation system, much like satellite navigation, with in-built maps, grids and compasses, according to neuroscientist Hugo Spiers. This mechanism resides in the brain's hippocampus area, which is responsible for learning and memory, famously shown to be different in a London taxi drivers' study carried out by Eleanor Maguire at University College, London. The study showed that a region of the hippocampus was enlarged in London taxi drivers compared to the general population.

By Xinhua, Washington : US scientists have created the smallest iron oxide nanoparticles to date for cancer detection by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The research team from Brown University created peptide-coated iron oxide nanoparticles, about 8.4 nanometers in overall diameter. They then injected the particles into mice and successfully tested their ability to locate a brain tumour cell called U87MG, the university announced Tuesday.

By IANS, San Francisco : Amazon has released a new version of its highly successful electronic book reader Kindle, just days after Google said it would make available large parts of its vast catalogue of scanned books to smartphone users. The new $359 Amazon device "Kindle 2" will hold up to 1,500 books, boasts 25 percent better battery life than its predecessor and includes a "talk to me" feature that reads books aloud.

By IANS, New Delhi : Unable to buy a solar goggle but keen on watching the century's longest solar eclipse, 25-year-old Anurag Gupta caught hold of an old x-ray scan of his chest and went to the Nehru Planetarium to have a glimpse of the celestial spectacle. Gupta was not the only one armed with an x-ray. Many others people were seen looking at the sun through scans of their legs, head, hands and other body parts.

By IANS, London : The battery, which has powered our lives for generations, may soon be consigned to the dustbin of history. British scientists say they have created a plastic that can store and release electricity, revolutionising the way we use phones, drive cars and even wear clothes. It means the cases of mobiles and iPods could soon double up as their power source - leading to gadgets as thin as credit cards.

By IANS, Washington : Scientists have found that petroleum can be formed under the very high pressure and temperature conditions found deep within the earth. The finding potentially multiplies underground oil deposits manifold. The oil and gas that fuel our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the earth and formed without organic matter.

By DPA, San Francisco: Google is to add automatic captions to the tens of millions of English-language videos it hosts on YouTube, the web search giant said Friday. The move will make the videos more accessible to deaf viewers but will also help Google index the content and supply relevant ads alongside it, analysts said.

By IANS, Washington : Ancient Egyptian mummies, some as old as 3,500 years, showed hardening of arteries, suggesting that heart attacks and stroke afflicted the ancients too. "Atherosclerosis, despite differences in ancient and modern lifestyles, was rather common in ancient Egyptians of high socio-economic status living," says Gregory Thomas, clinical professor of cardiology at the University of California-Irvine (UCI). "The findings suggest that we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand the disease," said Thomas, principal study co-investigator.

By IANS, New Delhi : A senior NASA scientist who has been arrested in the US for alleged espionage was one of the main investigators of an American scientific instrument that flew aboard India's lunar craft Chandrayaan-1. The Federal Bureau of Investigation Monday filed a criminal complaint against Steward David Nozette, 52, for "attempted espionage".

Bangalore: Indian IT bellwether Infosys Ltd won the 2013 Ian Kiernan award for enhancing its corporate social responsibility (CSR), becoming inclusive and meaningful to...

By IANS, Toronto : We might never know what evil lurks in the hearts of humans, but Prabir Bhattacharya's computers might. The Indian-American scientist at Concordia University is developing a computer image processing system that detects and classifies facial expressions. The system aims at taking and analysing photos of individuals, potentially in areas of high traffic where security is a primary concern, such as an airport.

By IANS, Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Wednesday congratulated Indian space scientists on the successful launch of the country's first unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-I. The chief minister, in his congratulatory message to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Madhavan Nair, said it was a truly historic moment for the entire country and "more so for Andhra Pradesh since it is from our soil that the Chandrayaan-I lifted off successfully".

By IANS, Austin: The new Formula one circuit being built here has got the FIA approval for the upcoming United States Grand Prix to be held Nov 18.

Kolkata : Female train commuters in distress can now seek immediate police assistance at the touch of a button -- courtesy a mobile...

By IANS, Beijing : China will upgrade its lunar probe spacecraft for Mars exploration in the future, the country's top space scientist has said.

By IANS,

By Bhargavi Kerur, IANS, Bangalore : Voluminous scientific data, including rare images of the moon, from India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 will be made public by the year-end. "People will have free access to the huge data obtained from our first moon mission on a web portal that will be launched by this year-end," a senior scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS here.

By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS, Chennai : One of the three "core alone" Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) to blast off Monday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh will carry the heaviest luggage - 824 kg - comprising the remote sensing Cartosat-2A satellite, the Indian Mini Satellite and eight nano satellites. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), core alone configuration means the main/core PSLV rocket minus the hugging six strap-on booster motors that powers the first stage.

By IANS, Bangalore : The Indian space agency has raised the orbit of its first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 to 200km from the lunar surface for further studies on orbit perturbations and gravitational field variations of the Moon. "With the successful completion of all the mission objectives from 100 km above the moon since November 2008, we have raised the height of the spacecraft to 200 km Tuesday to enable imaging lunar surface with a wider swath," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement here Wednesday.

By IANS Buenos Aires : A group of Argentine scientists has discovered a "master gene" that determines why carcinogenic tumours survive. Scientists of the Exact and Natural Sciences Faculty at the University of Buenos Aires and the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research of Argentina carried out the research, reported Spanish news agency EFE. For four years, the team studied tumours of the pituitary gland located at the base of the skull.

By IANS, Washington : The duck-billed hadrosaur with long limbs and a soft body had virtually no protection against predators like tyrannosaurs. But the latest research on the plant-eating dinosaur suggests that it grew into adulthood much faster than its predators, giving it superiority in size. Scientists compared growth rate data from the hadrosaur, Hypacrosaurus, to three predators: the tyrannosaur Albertosaurus and its gigantic relative Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as the small Velociraptor-like Troodon.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

New Delhi: India on Monday launched its satellite-based air navigation services, thereby joining a select league comprising the US, Europe Union (EU) and Japan...

By IANS New Delhi : India and the European Commission (EC), a governing body of the European Union (EU), will set up a corpus fund of euro 10 million (Rs.576.7 million) for research in nano-technology, a top EC official said here Wednesday. "We are for a joint call, which will focus on collaborative research. The effort will receive support of about euro 5 million (Rs.288.4 million) from each party," EC director general (research) Jose M.S. Rodriguez told reporters.

By IANS, New Delhi : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to accomplish 10 space missions in the next one year, parliament was informed Wednesday.

By IANS, London : A spectacular "super volcano" that erupted trillions of miles away from earth has been clicked by a NASA telescope. The staggering eruption was filmed by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array. Astronomers said shock waves between a giant black hole and cooling gas, caused the mind boggling explosion, reports the Telegraph. The explosion then blasted through the "massive" Messier 87 galaxy more than 50 million light years away. One light year is the equivalent of 5.9 trillion miles.

By IANS, New Delhi : Skygazers will get to watch the red planet Mars from close quarters as it comes closest to Earth and shines brightest Jan 27. It will not be so close or so bright over the next two years. Look towards the east an hour after sunset Jan 27 and Mars would be shining brighter than every other star in the sky except Sirius, which is slightly more dazzling in brilliant bluish white.

By DPA, San Francisco : Users of Google's Gmail and Yahoo Mail were also targeted in the large-scale phishing attack that harvested at least 10,000 passwords from Microsoft's Live Hotmail, according to reports Tuesday. Neither of the companies' US representatives responded to requests for information. But in Europe, where most of the Hotmail phishing victims appeared to be located, a spokesman for Google confirmed the targeting of Gmail users.

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

By IANS, Washington : A system of opposing genetic forces determines why mammals develop a single row of teeth, while sharks sport several, according to a study. When completely understood, the genetic programme described in the study may help guide efforts to re-grow missing teeth and prevent cleft palate, one of the most common birth defects. Gene expression is the process by which information stored in genes is converted into proteins that make up the body's structures and carry its messages.

By SPA, Los Angeles : NASA's Phoenix Mars spacecraft regained contact with Earth more than a day after falling silent, but its days operating on the red planet are still numbered, mission managers said, according to AP. Waning sunlight and a dust storm this week drained the lander's power, forcing it to go into safe mode. It failed to respond to two wake-up calls from Earth but sent a signal late Thursday when the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft passed overhead.

Shillong : The North East Space Application Centre (NE-SAC), set up by the Centre to develop high-tech infrastructure support for the northeastern states, is...

By DPA San Francisco : Google and IBM have announced that they are teaming up to promote research into cloud computing - a technology in which programmes and services are run on remote servers rather than on users' PCs. The two technology giants said they will contribute $20 million to $25 million each to build data centres that can be used by university researchers in the US.

By DPA, San Francisco : Social networking website MySpace.com has said that it had ejected more than 90,000 registered sex offenders following an agreement last year with state attorneys general to improve child safety. The figure, which MySpace provided to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, was more than double the number that MySpace had predicted that it would find when it launched the crackdown on online threats to minors.

By IANS, Washington : A new software, based on real clinical data, will give patients a more accurate 3D before-and-after picture, before the scalpel comes down in a cosmetic surgery.

By IANS, Sydney : Universities of Melbourne and Newcastle are jointly developing a computer programme to predict premature births. About 17,000 premature births occur in Australia each year. It accounts for 70 percent of deaths among newborns and 50 percent cerebral palsy cases. Roger Smith, professor, University of Newcastle, said identifying patterns in hormone levels could be the key to determining high risk pregnancies.

By IANS, Toronto : Hailing it as the beginning of a golden age of astronomy, researchers say the latest data beamed back to earth by the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO) is providing them a rare peep into distant galaxies. Herschel is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space.

By IANS Thiruvananthapuram : The state-run Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) Saturday launched Kerala's first Active Web Geographical Information System (GIS) service in public domain. The GIS has been developed using Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) technology. "The main objective of Active Web GIS is to make the dynamic geographical information available in a simplified, open Web interface," said IIITM-K Director K.R. Srivathsan, announcing the launch at the concluding session of three-day Free Map Workshop here.

By IANS New York : Talking to each other for just 10 minutes may boost intellectual performance and improve memory, a new study had found. The study found that short-term social interaction boosted intellectual performance of people as much as engaging in so-called intellectual activities for the same length of time, reported science portal ScienceDaily. "Socialising is just as effective as more traditional kinds of mental exercise in boosting memory and intellectual performance," Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the University of Michigan said.

By RIA Novasti Moscow : Russia's Reshetnev Applied Mechanics Production Association (NPO-PM) and France's Thales Alenia Space are developing a new multifunctional satellite platform, Russian officials said Wednesday. Thales Alenia Space, a major payload provider for the Russian telecom satellite market, and NPO-PM are closely working on a joint programme to build new multi-mission satellite platform, optimised for a direct injection in the Geosynchronous Orbit (GSO) and High-Elliptical Orbit (HEO) missions.

By IANS, Agra : Use of robots and computers for surgery on patients with urological problems will be discussed at an international conference on advances in urology, to be held in the city of the Taj Mahal beginning Feb 3. The five-day conference will be attended by over 1,000 Indian and 200 foreign specialists in urology. In the pre-congress workshop, specialists of the American Urological Association will highlight and demonstrate latest robotic assisted laproscopic techniques.

By Gulshan Luthra, IANS

Paris : India's state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is negotiating the acquisition of precision bomb technology from US arms major Raytheon.