New Indian research chair at UCLA to study consciousness
By IANS
Los Angeles : The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) here will soon have another Indian chair.
The chair - to be named Dr Mani Bhaumik Chair of Consciousness Study - will be set up at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology of the UCLA.
The university already has the Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair in Indian History, set up by Los Angeles-based millionaire Navin Doshi in 1999.
Beverly Hills-based physicist Mani Bhaumik, who co-invented the laser technology that made LASIK surgery possible, will fund the new chair, named after him.
Scientists develop sensor for homemade bombs
By IANS
New York : In a small but significant step in the battle against terrorism, scientists have developed an inexpensive chip capable of detecting hydrogen peroxide, the chemical used in the most common form of homemade explosives.
Hydrogen peroxide-based explosives were used in the 2005 bombing of the London transit system.
Researchers at the University of California at San Diego say the penny-sized electronic sensor, capable of sniffing out even tiny amounts of hydrogen peroxide, could also have industrial applications by monitoring toxic hydrogen peroxide levels in factories.
Microsoft, Yahoo meeting on takeover ends without results
By DPA
New York : Key officials from US software giant Microsoft and internet company Yahoo failed to reach agreement in talks over a multi-billion takeover bid, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported Friday.
Microsoft had launched a takeover bid of originally $45 billon more than two months ago, which was rejected by Yahoo for being too low.
According to the paper, officials were unable to solve their differences of opinion during the meeting, which took place this week at Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnydale, California.
Texas University unveils world’s most powerful laser
By IANS
New York : The world's most powerful laser, more dazzling than sunlight on the sun's surface, has been unveiled. Its output is 2,000 times the combined energy generated by all US power plants.
Known as Texas Petawatt laser, it will enable University of Texas researchers to create and study matter at some of the most extreme conditions, including gases at temperatures greater than those in the sun and solids at pressures of many billions of atmospheres.
Israel successfully launches communications satellite
By SPA,
Tel Aviv : Israel says it has launched a new communications satellite, the Associated Press reported.
According to the satellite's operator, Spacecom, the AMOS-3 lifted off Monday from Russia's main space facility, the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. Later in the day, it is to enter orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers (22,500 miles).
The $170 million (¤109 million) satellite is designed to offer increased capacity, expanded coverage and improved links between the Mideast and Europe and the eastern U.S.
3.2 million rendered homeless by Nargis: study
By IANS,
Washington : Cyclone Nargis rendered as many as 3.2 million Burmese homeless, according to geographic risk models developed by researchers.
Relying on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), researchers calculated the likely distribution of the population and developed maps of the regions at greatest risk from the storm's effects.
NASA’s Phoenix lifts first scoop of Martian soil
By Xinhua,
Washington : One week after landing on far-northern Mars, NASA Phoenix spacecraft lifted its first scoop of Martian soil as a test of the lander's Robotic Arm, NASA reported on Monday.
The practice scoop was emptied onto a designated dump area on the ground after the Robotic Arm Camera photographed the soil inside the scoop. The Phoenix team plans to have the arm deliver its next scoopful, later this week, to an instrument that heats and sniffs the sample to identify ingredients.
Using AI to track visual bugs in 3-D games
By IANS,
Sydney : Artificial intelligence will soon replace the tedious and time-consuming -- but highly complex -- process of testing how good or bad 3-D computer games are.
Alfredo Nantes of Queensland University of Technology is building intelligent tools that will detect “visual anomalies” in a 3-D computer game.
“Visual anomalies are things like incorrect shadowing or lighting, texturing problems and all artefacts that corrupt the realism of the game scene,” Nantes said.
Discovered: a new species of robin
By IANS,
Washington : Smithsonian Institute scientists have discovered a new species of bird in Gabon, Africa, that was unknown to the scientific community.
The newly found olive-backed forest robin was named by scientists for its distinctive olive back and rump. Adult birds measure 4.5 inches in length and average 18 grams in weight.
Males exhibit a fiery orange throat and breast, yellow belly, olive back and black feathers on the head. Females are similar, but less vibrant. Both sexes have a distinctive white dot on their face in front of each eye.
Now a TV with an inbuilt Quran
By IANS,
Dubai : A leading global consumer electronics major Tuesday launched what it claims to be the world's only television with the holy Quran built in.
LG Electronics unveiled the new plasma series TV with the built-in Quran in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to mark the ongoing Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
The TV allows viewers to read the Quran, search and bookmark passages and listen to scriptures, an LG statement said.
It also includes LG's 'Time Machine DVR' technology for recording and playing back TV shows.
Moon mission is not expensive, says ISRO
By NNN-PTI,
Bangalore, India : Dismissing suggestions that Chandrayaan-1 was an expensive mission, ISRO today said the moon odyssey will enable India to upgrade technological expertise for exploration of outer space and ultimately help in setting up a base on the earth's natural satellite.
"Moon mission cost is less than Rs 400 crore, which is just ten per cent of annual budget of ISRO spread over many years," ISRO spokesperson S Satish said, countering critics who questioned the need for such a venture when other countries have already explored the moon.
India’s moon mission rides on basketballer turned rocket scientist
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : As a Kerala state player, George Koshy used to shoot the ball into the basket during his college days. Today, as a rocket scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the tall, 58-year-old M.Tech from IIT-Bombay is the project director for Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden unmanned moon mission, and on his broad shoulders rests the venture's success.
Waterloo rated as Canada’s top research university
By IANS,
Toronto : The University of Waterloo, based in the city of Blackberry near here, has been rated as the top research institution in Canada.
In the annual ``Canada Top 50 Research Universities,'' Waterloo edged out many top universities in a survey which tracks sponsored research at these institutions. The university is quite popular with Indian students. It has some prominent Indians on its faculties also.
In a release before the publication of the survey at the weekend, the university said its total research ranked in the ``elite $100 million club'' in 2007.
Two more Chandrayaan instruments to be activated in mid-December
By IANS,
Bangalore : Two of the 10 remaining scientific instruments onboard India's first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 will be activated in mid-December for conducting experiments while the spacecraft orbits over the moon during next two years, a top space agency official said Saturday.
Polaris Software to invest Rs.350 mn for expansion
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : At a time when the domestic software sector is going slow on hiring of personnel and expansion, the city-based Rs.11-billion Polaris Software Lab is taking a contrarian path.
The company has decided to construct a new 1,500-seat facility at Siruseri near here with an outlay of Rs.350 million.
"Construction activity will start next quarter. We have 10 acres there," Polaris chairman and managing director Arun Jain told IANS.
Super computer inaugurated in Meghalaya
By IANS,
Shillong : PARAM Sheersh, a supercomputing facility for bio-informatics and computational biology, was formally inaugurated at the North Eastern Hill University here Monday.
Inaugurating the facility, renowned scientist Prof M.G.K. Menon hoped that the new technology, specifically developed for the northeast, would usher in new benefits for the region.
Fast breeder reactor has quite a few firsts
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : The 500-MW prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) fast coming up at Kalpakkam, 80 km from here, has several firsts to its credit.
"For the first time in the country's nuclear power plant construction history, components are being fabricated on site owing to their huge size and weight," Prabhat Kumar, project director, Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited (Bhavini) told IANS.
Bio-scientists, curators pool expertise to preserve world’s art, heritage
By IANS,
Washington : Biotech scientists have teamed up with curators to stem the decay of world's art and cultural heritage, hastened by the depredations of climate change.
Many of the world's cultural treasures are created out of organic materials like paper, canvas, wood and leather which, in prolonged warmth and dampness, attract mould, micro-organisms and insects, causing decay and disintegration.
Molecular machines drive plasmonic nanoswitches
By IANS,
Washington : Plasmonics may open the way to the next generation of computers that operate faster and store more information than electronically-based systems and are also smaller.
"If plasmonics are realised, the future will have circuits as small as the current electronic ones with a capacity a million times better," said Tony Jun Huang, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State University.
"Plasmonics combines the speed and capacity of photonic (light based) circuits with the small size of electronic circuits," he added.
Sick zooplanktons affecting whole food chain in the Ganga: Scientist
By IANS,
Patna : All along the stretch of India's holiest river Ganga, the zooplanktons that play a critical role in its food chain are developing tumours, says a biologist.
M. Omair from the University of Michigan in the US has collected zooplankton samples from Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, and Kolkata. He found that many of the zooplanktons that are eaten by the small fish have tumours.
The small fish are in turn eaten by the bigger fish and so on, so the ill zooplanktons are getting into the entire food chain, including humans who eat fish from the river.
Shuttle Discovery returns safely to Earth
By DPA,
Washington : The space shuttle Discovery landed safely at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Saturday.
Commander Lee Archambault guided the shuttle to a picture-perfect landing at 1914 GMT, ending the shuttle's 13-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
"Welcome home after a mission to bring the ISS to full power," the NASA ground crew said, adding a special welcome to astronaut Sandra Magnus, who returned to Earth after spending 129 days living aboard the ISS.
"Thank you very much. It's good to be back home," Archambault replied.
Scientists isolate genes that imbue us with uniquely human traits
By IANS,
Washington : Humans and chimpanzees are genetically very similar yet clearly distinct in many ways. Scientists have isolated genes that evolved in humans after branching off from other primates, making us uniquely human.
The prevailing wisdom in molecular evolution was that new genes could only evolve from duplicated or rearranged versions of pre-existing genes. It seemed highly unlikely that evolution could produce a functional protein-coding gene from what was once inactive DNA.
India to launch two satellites to study climate change
By IANS,
Bangalore : India will soon join a select space club by launching two dedicated satellites in polar orbit to study climate change through atmospheric research and detection of greenhouse gases, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said Sunday.
"The satellites will be launched in 2010 and 2011. The first will be a 50 kg micro-satellite to conduct atmospheric research. The second will be a remote sensing satellite to monitor emission of greenhouses gases like methane and carbon dioxide," Nair told reporters here.
Windows 7 and Vista offer best file search
By DPA,
Hamburg : Ever wonder where you stored a certain file on your computer? If you have the new Windows 7 or even Windows Vista on your computer, you won't need any extra software to answer that question. The functionality already built into Windows 7 and Vista beats the performance offered by four free search programmes, the experts at Germany's Computer Bild magazine found.
Firefox celebrates five years
By DPA,
San Francisco : The open source internet browser Firefox marked its fifth anniversary Monday, celebrating its rise from an unknown challenger to Microsoft's Internet Explorer to a formidable competitor that has been downloaded over one billion times by 330 million users around the world.
"Over the last five years we've been setting ourselves up for the next five. The web is moving faster, not slower, and modern browsers are set to handle it," said Chris Blizzard of the Mozilla Foundation.
India unveils ambitious solar power mission
By IANS,
New Delhi : India's ambitious mission to ramp up its solar power hundredfold in the next 13 years and reduce dependence on fossil fuels was unveiled here Monday.
The mission anticipates achieving parity with cost of electricity on the grid by 2022 and parity with coal-based thermal power by 2030. The plan is to produce 20,000 MW through solar power by 2022, up from just 200 MW now.
A year of tweets, smartphones and green tech
By Andy Goldberg, DPA,
San Francisco : Any review of the major technology developments of 2009 would inevitably include copious copy on the Googles, Microsofts and other giants of the tech world.
But it was also a year in which the tiny company called Twitter became a major communications force, and when political, economic, social and technological trends combined to put green technology at the forefront of innovation.
Chilean quake was so strong, it shortened days: NASA
By DPA,
Washington : The massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday was so strong that it may have shortened the length of a day, NASA scientists said.
Using a computer model, Richard Gross, a scientist at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, found the earthquake likely shifted the Earth's figure axis by about 8 centimetres.
The shift of the axis on which the planet's mass is balanced slightly changes the length of time it takes the Earth to make a complete rotation, meaning each day is now about 1.26 microseconds shorter.
Nuclear bill in Lok Sabha likely Monday
By IANS,
New Delhi: With less than a month to go before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to the US, the government is planning to introduce the contentious Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill in the Lok Sabha Monday.
The bill is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha Monday, said government sources here.
The passing of the bill, which seeks to limits damages to American nuclear companies in case of an accident, is a crucial step India is required to complete under the 123 civil nuclear agreement with the US.
Aliens exist on Saturn’s moon: NASA
By IANS,
London : Scientists at US space agency NASA have found vital clues that primitive aliens could be living on Titan, one of Saturn's biggest moons.
On the basis of chemical composition found on Titan's surface, the experts believe that life forms have been breathing in the planet's atmosphere and also feeding on its surface's fuel.
The research based on the analysis of data sent from NASA's Cassini probe has been detailed in two separate studies.
Spurt in nano satellites to benefit Indian space agency
By D. Balaji, IANS,
Berlin : Increasing use of nano and pico satellites in near-earth orbits will benefit the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which has a competitive edge with its cost-effective polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV), says a study.
The international market for nano and pico-satellites is set to witness about 40 percent in increase next five years, the study by the American aerospace consultants Teal group says.
Google cuts ties with Chinese advertisers
By IANS,
Beijing : Google Inc has cut commercial ties with two of its Chinese advertising agents, raising concerns that the internet giant's recent standoff with the government may scare away more domestic advertisers.
The search engine ended partnerships Monday with the Universal Internet Media and the Xi'an Weihua Network, major advertising agents for Google in east and northwest China, Marsha Wang, spokesperson for Google China, was quoted as saying by China Daily Tuesday.
The two are among 25 of Google's authorised advertising agents in the country.
Powerful solar storm disrupts communications
By IANS,
Washington : A powerful solar flare has triggered the largest space weather storm in four years, disrupting some ground communications on earth.
2013 will be challenging, uncertain for Indian IT industry
By IANS,
Hyderabad: The information technology industry in India has a challenging and an uncertain year ahead, feel the business leaders in the sector in this technology hub.
Infosys bags Australian CSR award
Bangalore: Indian IT bellwether Infosys Ltd won the 2013 Ian Kiernan award for enhancing its corporate social responsibility (CSR), becoming inclusive and meaningful to...
China launches new search engine
Beijing: A new Chinese-language online search engine --Chinaso.com -- was launched Friday, marking China's first search service set up by the country's major news...
India test fires Akash missile
Bhubaneswar: India Wednesday test fired its Akash surface-to-air missile from a defence base in Odisha, an official said.
The indigenously developed missile, with a 27-km...
Experimental flight of GSLV Mark 3 in December: ISRO chief
New Delhi : India will conduct an experimental test of its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark 3 in mid-December, Indian Space Research Organisation...
Telangana to develop national repository of smart technologies
Hyderabad: With the central government set to launch its ambitious 100 smart cities project later this month, Telangana plans to develop a national repository...
Scientists mine Twitter to discover drug side-effects
Washington: Using Twitter data, scientists have invented a new technique for discovering potentially dangerous drug interactions and unknown side-effects.
The results can help build a...
Microsoft slashes 7,800 jobs, mostly in phones unit
By Arun Kumar
Washington : Indian-American CEO Satya Nadella-led Microsoft on Wednesday announced it is laying off 7,800 people primarily in the phone business...
Now, Smart City app for Kolkata suburb
Kolkata: Say goodbye to confusing roadmaps and guidebooks! A new app will ensure residents and visitors to West Bengal's New Town suburb -- nominated...
Cell phones to protect from lightning
By IANS
Helsinki : Mobile phone giant Nokia has developed a technology by which it claimed cell phones could protect you from lightning strike.
World record: Artificial insemination of blackbuck
By IANS
Hyderabad : Scientists here have succeeded in artificial insemination of a blackbuck by using a non-invasive method, leading to the birth of a live fawn. Encouraged by the feat, they now plan to implement it for saving other endangered species also.
Scientists at the Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) of the prestigious Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CCMB) here are excited about the success achieved for the first time in the world.
Indian navigation systems to guide rockets in 2008
By IANS
Chennai : Rocket navigation systems developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are all set to guide a satellite launcher slated for launch next year.
The geo-synchronous launch vehicle (GSLV), which will launch INSAT-type satellites into geostationary orbit, is to be launched in 2008, guided by avionics designed by ISRO.
ISRO tested its new avionics on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that was launched in April. The vehicle had a second equipment bay - apart from the primary one - housing the navigation and telemetry systems.
Google Earth enables views into the universe
By DPA
Hamburg : A new function in Google Earth has opened up the cosmos to Internet viewers.
The new "sky" portion of the software allows users to view the starry skies, navigating through the galaxies with the click of a mouse, says Google spokesman Stefan Keuchel from the company's Hamburg offices.
Constellations, planets, and nebulae are all offered alongside information about their position, size and orbits.
Mars rover Opportunity takes dip into giant crater
By Xinhua
Washington : NASA's Mars rover Opportunity entered Victoria Crater for the first time to explore the richest science trove of its long mission.
On the rover's 1,291st Martian day, Opportunity radioed home information via a relay by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, reporting its activities for the day, according to NASA mission updates Tuesday.
Symantec to unveil new security solutions
By IANS
Bangalore : Symantec Corp, the $5.2-billion leading security and information management solutions provider, will showcase its latest Norton anti-virus software products to technology stakeholders at a vision summit in Mumbai Thursday.
The US-based firm's experts will demonstrate benefits of security infrastructure in enterprises and organisations using IT tools in their operations on local, national and global scales.
All India Science Conf. concludes in Bhopal with emphasis on promoting traditional scientific knowledge...
By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: Curtain was drawn on the three-day Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan (All India Science Conference) 2007 with 10-point recommendations that emphasized on promoting traditional scientific knowledge along with modern science and increased community participation for balanced and sustainable development here on Sunday.
NASA postpones spacewalk due to ‘health issues’
By DPA
Washington : A planned Sunday spacewalk to attach an expansion to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed to Monday due to unspecified "health issues", officials at the US space agency NASA announced.
The spacewalk by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, docked late Saturday with the ISS, has been rescheduled.
A NASA spokesman refused to clarify the nature of the health issue or identify any astronaut suffering problems.
Microsoft Sharing Secrets to Increase Interoperability
By SPA
Washington : Microsoft Corporation said Thursday it would share more information about key technology elements of some of its best-selling software products to increase interoperability of its software with that of competitors and customers.
The world’s biggest software maker said it will publish on its website key software blueprints, known as application program interfaces, to make it easier for its high-volume products to be used with third-party software.
Erotic Emails Tricks Computer Users Into Downloading Virus
By Bernama
Los Angeles : Junk e- mails that promise erotic pictures of celebrities are spreading a virus to personal computers, said a Los Angeles-based IT security company.
The e-mails generally have subjects such as "Naked Shakira Clip," "Rihanna Exposed" or other suggestive messages, which lure computer users to click a link, according to Panda Security, a leading provider of IT security solutions, was quoted by China's XINHUA news agency as saying.
ISRO must market aggressively for global contracts
By R. Ramaseshan, IANS,
The success of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Monday in putting into orbit 10 satellites with a single launch is certainly a commendable achievement marking as it does the second largest number of satellites launched at one go. Now it needs to push aggressively for more contracts in this niche market.
Besides ISRO's own two primary satellites, Cartosat-2A (690 kg) and IMS-1 (83 kg), Monday's payload included seven nanosatellites (1-10 kg class) and one microsatellite (10-100 kg class) from foreign customers, which together weighed about 50 kg.
Mystery dinosaur may be a new species
By IANS,
Toronto : A 70 million-year-old dinosaur, whose fossil was discovered in British Columbia more than 37 years ago, may have been a
hitherto unknown plant-eating species, says an expert.
The fossil - the most complete set of bones ever found globally and the first dinosaur discovery in Canada - had been discovered in the Sustut Basin way back in 1971.
The bones were recently re-examined by a University of Alberta researcher.
Water on moon: new evidence an impetus to Chandrayaan
By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS,
Dubai : New research findings about evidence of water on the moon give fresh impetus to Chandrayaan, India's maiden moon mission.
According to K. Kasturirangan, the man responsible for putting together the team for Indian space science's most ambitious project, if the mission manages to find evidence of water on the moon, that would count among its biggest achievements.
World’s fastest search engine ‘Cuil’ launched
By IANS,
New York : Pitched as the world's latest, largest and swiftest search engine, Cuil was launched Monday with 120 billion pages or 'thrice' the volume of the Google index.
Described as a 'super-stealth search project', it has been founded and developed by the highly respected husband-wife duo of Stanford professor Tom Costello and former Google search architect Anna Patterson.
6,000-year-old skeletons of camels found in UAE
By IANS,
Abu Dhabi : A team of archaeologists from the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) has discovered the skeletons of at least 40 ancient wild camels dating back to over 6,000 years.
The team made the discovery at a place called Al Gharbia in the western region of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
Duck-billed dinosaurs outgrew predators to survive
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.
Iran building new submarine: Report
By Xinhua,
Tehran : Iran has started building a new submarine that is expected to give its navy larger capability, Press TV satellite channel has reported.
Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar Sunday inaugurated the production line of the new submarine Qaaem, which is capable of carrying and firing various torpedoes and subsurface missiles with a special operation crew onboard, according to the report.
"The Islamic republic has become self-sufficient in manufacturing all types of military vessels," Mohammad-Najjar was quoted as saying during the inauguration.
Russia’s carrier rocket blasts off with sixth space tourist
By RIA Novosti,
Baikonur : A Soyuz-FG carrier rocket lifted off Sunday from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan with a crew of three, one of them the sixth space tourist, to the International Space Station (ISS).
The three-stage carrier rocket was launched at 11.01 a.m. Moscow time (701 GMT) as planned, with the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft subsequently removing from the rocket.
Nano coating ensures near perfect absorption of sunlight
By IANS,
Washington : A nanoengineered reflective coating on silicon solar cell, which otherwise absorbs only two-thirds of the sunlight, boosts it by another third to tap the valuable energy.
This huge gain was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from ultraviolet to visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward towards economic viability.
The new antireflective coating developed by Rensselaer Institute researchers thus helps overcome two major hurdles blocking the progress and wider use of solar power.
Colours of Indian flag on moon Friday
By IANS,
Bangalore : The saffron-white-green of the Indian flag will adorn the moon from Friday night when the tricolour-painted moon impact probe (MIP) of Chandrayaan-1 lands on its surface to begin a two-year investigation of the earth's only natural satellite.
The 375 mm x 375 mm x 470 mm MIP is a honeycomb structure housing the subsystems and three instruments - radar altimeter, video imaging system and mass spectrometer. It weighs 35 kg.
Recession’s long reach – Moon and Mars missions of US
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS,
New Delhi : The global financial crisis will severely affect the US manned mission to the Moon and then to the red plant Mars, says Jerry Linenger, a renowned astronaut of American space agency NASA, while lauding India's growing role in space.
"It will affect the space programmes. The economic recession will certainly affect the missions to Mars and the Moon," Jerry Linenger told IANS. Linenger was here to attend the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.
Keeping distributed families together through technology
By IANS,
Hyderabad : Buddibot, a web applications company, has developed a web-based communication tool to keep distributed families connected.
This tool, comprising a mobile webcam, will help elderly people remain in touch with their children studying and working abroad through video and audio streams.
Buddibot Thursday launched the subscription-based communication tool, targeting non-resident Indians (NRIs).
India to become CTC free by year end
By NNN-PTI,
Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India : India will become free of Carbon Tetra Chloride (CTC), an ozone depleting substance, by the year end, a NGO involved in implementing the National CTC phase-out plan has said.
Efforts had been taken to stop complete usage of CTC, used as a solvent and cleaning agent in various industries, and it would be totally phased out before December 31 this year, Susanta Deb, Field Consultant representing German NGO, GTZ-Proklima, that is implementing the phase-out plan in the country in coordination with the Government, told PTI here.
Gmail,Yahoo hit by phishing scheme
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.
Tarang Software expanding India operations
By IANS,
Bangalore : Leading e-payment solutions provider Tarang Software Technologies is expanding its operations in the country to serve its growing list of customers across verticals, the city-based company said Monday.
"We are setting up a 250-seater second development centre here to meet our growth requirements. Our new customer wins include Frese International, Global Refund, Hypercom, ING Vysya, Volvo and Teligence Communications," the company said in a statement.
Dinosaur footprints found in New Zealand
By IANS,
Hamilton (New Zealand) : Seventy million-year-old dinosaur footprints have been found in New Zealand, a geologist said.
The footprints were found in the South Island region of Nelson - the first evidence of the dinosaur's existence in the country.
Geologist Greg Browne of the New Zealand government-owned research organisation, G.N.S. Science, found the footprints while he was investigating rock and sediment formations in Whanganui inlet at Golden Bay, said a press release of Tourism New Zealand here.
India to launch first manned spaceship in 2013
By NNN-Bernama,
Moscow : India would launch its first manned space flights by sending two astronauts in an orbit in a Russian spaceship in 2013, Press Trust of India (PTI) said Wednesday quoting local media reports.
For this, the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) is to finance the acquisition of a Soyuz spaceship and train its astronauts by a Russian commander.
The Russian cosmonaut would lead the two-member crew on an independent space flight lasting several days, 'Voice of Russia' radio reported.
Google takes on Facebook and Twitter with new Buzz
By DPA,
San Francisco : Google Tuesday launched a set of social networking tools for Gmail users, hoping to coax them to share photos, links and status updates without the need to visit sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Called Google Buzz, the new features were rolled out to a small number of Gmail account holders Tuesday and to the majority of users within the week.
It allows users to share photos, videos, web links, conversations with "friends" - defined as pre-existing Gmail contacts. Google said it may open Buzz up to outside users in the future.
Atlantis starts home journey
By DPA,
Washington : The US space shuttle Atlantis separated from the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday to prepare for its home journey on the shuttle's last-ever mission before being retired.
The Shuttle with its crew of six astronauts eased away from the ISS at 1522 GMT for the return flight and its scheduled landing in Cape Canaveral, Florida Wednesday.
The shuttle had brought new Russian research equipment and a docking module to the ISS in the ongoing construction of the international station.
Ammonia leak causes trouble on spacewalk
By DPA,
Washington : Two astronauts spent more than eight hours outside the International Space Station (ISS), but were unable to make much progress fixing a broken cooling system after part of it proved difficult to disconnect and leaked dangerous ammonia.
Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were to replace the broken 350-kg ammonia cooling loop with a spare part stored about 10 metres away outside the ISS during the spacewalk that began at 1119 GMT.
Russia launches navigation satellites
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia Thursday launched a rocket carrying three navigation satellites from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
The Proton-M carrier rocket with three Glonass satellites blasted off from the space centre at 4.53 a.m. Moscow time (0053 GMT), said Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin, spokesman for Russian Space Forces.
Glonass - the Global Navigation Satellite System - is the Russian equivalent of the US Global Positioning System (GPS) and is designed for both military and civilian use.
Google launches ‘Instant’ service
By IANS,
London : Google search is now faster than before as the company has launched a live-updating service that will save surfers 2-5 seconds of online search time.
‘Wireless’ humans could backbone new mobile networks
By IANS,
London : People could form the backbone of powerful new mobile internet networks by carrying wearable sensors.
Humans first covered their nakedness 170,000 years ago
By IANS,
Washington : A research suggests that humans first covered their nakedness some 170,000 years ago, something which helped them move out of Africa.
Glaciers melting 100 times faster
By IANS,
London : The world's glaciers are melting up to 100 times faster than any time during the last 350 years.
Camera captures comet’s fiery end as it grazes sun
By IANS,
Washington: NASA's solar observatory caught for the very first time on camera a comet's fiery end as it flew too close to the sun's blazing surface.
Russia, France to develop armoured vehicle
By IANS,
Moscow: Russia and France will jointly develop a new armoured vehicle soon, Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said.
Russia launches Proton-M rocket with Dutch telesat
By IANS,
Moscow: Russia conducted the launch of a Proton-M rocket with a telecommunications satellite late Monday.
China launches communication satellite
By IANS,
Beijing : China Wednesday night successfully launched a communication satellite into space.
Happy Birthday Google!
By IANS,
New Delhi: Google turned 14 Thursday and celebrated its birthday with a doodle of a rich chocolate cake.
Hackers attack Swedish websites
By IANS,
Stockholm: Several Swedish websites including those of banks and armed forces were attacked Monday, causing their servers to crash.
130 websites blocked in Tajikistan
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Dushanbe: Over 130 websites have been blocked in Tajikistan in connection with "technical repair work", the country's telecom agency said.
N-bombs to destroy earth-bound asteroids in space!
By IANS,
Washington : Nuclear bombs - itself a threat to the humanity - to save the earth from dangerous space rocks?
Sounds like a new...
HCL to run Norwegian bank’s IT operations
Bangalore: India's fourth largest IT bellwether HCL Technologies bagged a $400-million (Rs.2,400 crore) deal to run the IT operations of DNB Bank ASA, Norway's...
Facebook users dial 911 over outage, cops frown
New York : Will you call 911 if Facebook goes off the radar? This is exactly some users in Los Angeles did when the...
Martian orbit on Indian spacecraft’s radar Wednesday
Bangalore : India's tryst with Mars begins early Wednesday when its inter-planetary spacecraft readies to enter the Martian orbit in a maiden attempt to...
Arabian Sea humpback isolated for 70,000 years
New York : In the Arabian Sea, the usually migratory humpback whale has stayed isolated for approximately 70,000 years, says a study.
The findings provide...
Bharti Airtel now third-largest mobile operator globally
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it has become the third-largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers.
As per the latest...
BSNL, MTNL merger decision in 4-5 months
New Delhi: The decision on merging state-run BSNL and MTNL will be taken in the next four-five months, Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg said on...
India needs strong cyber infrastructure: Rajnath
New Delhi: Pitching for a strong cyber infrastructure in the country, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday stressed that India should work towards developing...
Vodafone M-Pesa joins hands with Walmart India
New Delhi: Vodafone India has entered into a strategic tie-up with Walmart India that will enable its business members of six Best Price Modern...
Indian Army readies for Prithvi-1 trial
By IANS
Balasore (Orissa) : The Indian Army is all set to test the surface-to-surface medium range Prithvi-1 missile next week, officials said.
Indian social activists leverage free software
New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Indian voluntary groups are being offered solutions in free software - with training and support thrown in - to give them options to using illegally copied software for their work and campaigns.
A series of workshops are being held across India over the next two years, and each participant organisation will enjoy free software support until 2009.
The first workshop was held in Lonavala, Maharashtra, and drew participants working on a diverse range of issues from HIV/AIDS to water resource management.
Global space congress begins amid tight security
By IANS
Hyderabad : The 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) began Monday amid tight security at the international convention centre in this hi-tech city, with about 2,000 delegates, including heads of global space agencies.
The five-day event, being held for the first time here, was inaugurated by Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state in the prime minister's office (PMO), in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair and a host of dignitaries from 45 countries.
Just ten minutes of talking may improve memory
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.
Holiday cleaning can boost speed of PCs
By DPA
Hamburg : Most people have a little free time between Christmas and New Year. If you take 15 minutes to clean up your PC, you will probably be rewarded with a computer that runs faster and has space available for any new games you might find under the Christmas tree this year.
Checking your computer's pre-installed software is a good starting point when looking for ways to free up hard drive space. Many computers come with redundant versions of programmes - for example, several different photo processing programmes even though most computer users use only one.
China automaker develops engine for new ethanol type
By Xinhua
Beijing, Jan 1 (Xinhua) Dongfeng Motor Corporation, one of China's largest auto makers, has developed technology to use a new type of ethanol as fuel in cars.
The new technology could produce combustible gas, mainly hydrogen, from hydrous ethanol that contained 65 percent ethanol. The present ethanol-fuelled vehicles need pure ethanol blended with gas, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
Global chipmaker opens second facility in Hyderabad
By IANS
Hyderabad : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), an US-based global supplier of integrated circuits and processing solutions for computing, strengthened its India operations by opening its second research and design (R&D) facility here.
AMD President and Chief Operating Officer Dirk Meyer launched the facility, which is the firm's fourth in India.
The new 30,000-sq ft centre will accommodate 450 R&D employees focusing on AMD's graphics and computing solutions.
Nanoscience will overtake all present forms of technology
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Visakhapatnam : All forms of technology, including information technology and biotechnology, will become passé with the advent of nanoscience, says Nobel laureate Robert Curl Junior.
It is a precursor to the next wave of pervasive technology, he says.
Strange as it may seem, nanoscience and its manifested form, nanotechnology, the latest buzzword in the 21st century, is not something new.
"Nanotechnology is as old as humankind, having evolved over billion years as a natural phenomenon," Curl says.
Thailand tree apes use song as warning
By DPA
Hamburg : Humans aren't the only "big apes" who use songs to impress one another. German researchers have found that gibbons in Thailand have developed an unusual way of scaring off predators - by singing to them.
Literally singing for survival, the gibbons appear to use the song not just to warn their own group members but those in neighbouring areas.
Japanese astronaut to test underwear in outer space
By Xinhua
Beijing : A Japanese astronaut will don special boxer shorts and gym wear during his upcoming mission to see if the newly developed high-tech clothing can increase comfort levels on the International Space Station, Japan's space agency said Friday.
The seamless, stretchable boxer shorts, gym wear and socks are made of lightweight fabric woven from anti-bacterial and antistatic fibers to give "high levels of deodorant, antiseptic and antistatic effect" in space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
Spanish discovery sheds light on early humans in Europe
By Sinikka Tarvainen, DPA
Madrid : More than a million years ago, a group of early humans lived in a cave in a lush green area in northern Spain, making stone tools and eating small herbivores and other animals.
Their presence in what is now the fossil site of Atapuerca near Burgos has become known thanks to the discovery of a lower jawbone with teeth, lithic tools and animal remains.
ISRO readies for manned mission by 2014
By IANS
Bangalore : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has finalised its project report for a manned mission by 2014-15, a top space official said here Friday.
"The report is being submitted to the government for approval and budgetary allocation. The Space Commission, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will meet next week or so to review the report and take a decision. We plan to launch a manned mission in the next seven-eight years," ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters here.
Meteorite that killed dinosaurs was six km wide: study
By IANS
Washington : The meteorite linked to the mass extinction of dinosaurs and other life forms 65 million years ago was four to six kilometres in diameter.
That's the conclusion of a team of Hawaii University researchers who have evolved a mechanism to measure the size of meteorites that have rammed into earth over millennia.
François Paquay and his team used isotopes of the rare element osmium in sediments at the bottom of the ocean to estimate the meteorite sizes and also the frequency with which they hit earth.
Three decades of circling the sky
By IANS,
New Delhi : Thirty-one years back India's first satellite Aryabhatta was launched via Russian space vehicle Intercosmos. Monday India's own rocket created history by placing 10 satellites including eight from other countries in orbit around the earth.
India's space odyssey started in April 1975 as an experiment. Today, it is a multipurpose commercial programme.
Here are the high points of India's space programme:
1975: First Indian satellite Aryabhatta launched on April 19, 1975. It provided technological experience in building and operating a satellite system.
U.S., Japan to conduct joint research on sonic boom modeling
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) intend to conduct joint research on sonic boom modeling, the U.S. federal space agency announced Thursday.
Sonic Boom is the shocks caused by the supersonic flight of an aircraft. Sonic booms can generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding a lot like an explosion.
‘ICT the DNA of modern warfare’
By IANS,
New Delhi : Information and communications technology has become the DNA of modern day warfare, making the development of appropriate technology to ensure information dominance over the adversary a very pertinent issue for India's armed forces, Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju said here Tuesday.
Net savvy 96-year-old blogs to share ideas in online world
By Shubha Singh, IANS,
At an age when people begin to lose interest in many aspects of the world around them, 96-year-old Randall Butisingh not only mastered the intricacies of the internet but also began his own blog, which describes him as one of the world's oldest bloggers and shows him as a man with a remarkable catholicity of interests.
The grandson of indentured workers who were taken to Guyana to work on sugar plantations, Butisingh has watched the world transform many times over in the past nine decades and has adjusted himself to the changes.
UAE firm develops robot that can talk
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.
AIIMS performs India’s ‘first’ robotic chest surgery
By IANS,
New Delhi : Ela Srivastava had been suffering from double vision, chewing problem and weakness in the nervous system, but no more - thanks to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) doctors and a four-arm robot.
“It's the first robotic chest surgery in India,” claimed Arvind Kumar, professor of surgery at AIIMS.
“In the last four days (since Saturday) we have performed chest surgeries on seven patients using the robot and have achieved complete success. This is a milestone for Indian medical fraternity,” Kumar told IANS.
Watch out for brightest Jupiter on July 9
By IANS,
New Delhi : Keep your telescopes handy for a wonderful celestial activity - Jupiter will shine at its brightest when it aligns directly with the Sun and Earth Wednesday.
“It is an interesting phenomenon as Jupiter and Earth would be in a straight line. Both the planets come closest at this time of the year and Jupiter, in turn, shines at its brightest,” said Nehru Planetarium director N. Ratnashree.
Ratnashree said if we could see Earth from Jupiter then it would be passing in front of the Sun.
Newton’s invention may lead to greener TV screens
By IANS,
Washington : Engineers in the US have developed TV displays based on a telescope design invented by Isaac Newton to reduce the display's electricity consumption.
The rear layer of a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) used in televisions produces light (backlight), whose brightness is controlled by small liquid crystals that swing round like tiny shutters. However, most of this backlight is wasted and never reaches the viewer.
New technique to compress light opens doors to optical computing
By IANS,
Mountain View (California) : Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have devised a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever thought possible, potentially opening doors to new technology in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers and optical computers.
Scientists use bacteria to find oil, natural gas
By IANS,
Bangalore : Vengannapalli, a nondescript village in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, may be sitting on a reservoir of gas or oil, say scientists who have been able to make the discovery with the help of soil bacteria that live exclusively on a diet of hydrocarbons like methane, ethane and propane.
A high concentration of these bacteria is an indication that gaseous hydrocarbons are seeping out to the surface from oil or gas reservoirs below the ground, says Anurodh Dayal, a scientist at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad.
Will the Big Bang test end the world on Wednesday?
By Venkata Vemuri, IANS,
London : If critics are to be believed, the end of the universe will begin coming Wednesday when a Welsh miner's son launches the world's biggest scientific experiment to know how the universe was born.
The well-known Welshman physicist, Lyn Evans, dubbed Evans the Atom, will this week switch on a giant particle accelerator designed to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang.
On Wednesday, Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.
China to broadcast spacewalk live
By Xinhua,
Beijing : China will broadcast live the spacewalk by one of its astronauts aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft now in orbit, according to Wang Zhaoyao, spokesperson of the manned space programme.
The spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), slated for 4.30 p.m. Saturday will last about 30 minutes, he told a press conference here Friday.
One of the three astronauts aboard the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, will undertake the spacewalk, Wang said.
‘How did you feel in space?’ President Hu asks spacewalker
By Xinhua,
Beijing : China's President Hu Jintao asked Chinese astronauts what it was like walking in space after the trio successfully realised the country's first space walk Saturday.
"How did you feel like in space after exiting the module?" Hu asked the astronauts on board the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft, by telephone from the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre (BACC) in a conversation with them.
3G auction won’t be delayed by global meltdown: Minister
By IANS,
New Delhi : Auction of 3G spectrum for telecommunications operators is on schedule and will not be delayed on account of a funds crunch following the global meltdown, the government said here Wednesday.
“We are not delaying the 3G auction process as of now,” Minister for Communication and IT A. Raja told reporters on the sidelines of a conference. “We are looking at the liquidity crunch in the market, we will discuss the matter with the finance minister.”
Emphasising that “no changes have been planned", Raja added: “The timeline remains the same”.
Chandrayaan to look for water on the moon
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : Is there water on the moon? India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to find out by peeking into the moon's dark corners and sending an American probe to dig there.
When Chandrayaan heads for the moon Oct 22, it will carry on board a 6.5-kg mini synthetic aperture radar (MiniSAR) developed by the Johns Hopkins University applied physics laboratory and the Naval Air Warfare Centre. It will look for water-ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles by digging a few metres into the surface.
Bush ‘shoe attack’ leads to explosion of online games
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Online games inspired by the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at US President George W. Bush in Baghdad last week have taken the Internet by storm.
Ever since Muntazer al-Zaidi, a reporter for the Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV, threw both his shoes at the outgoing US president Sunday, online games have begun to spring up giving players the chance to succeed where the Iraqi journalists failed.
Ariane lifts-off with Indian-built satellite
By IANS,
New Delhi : An Ariane 5 rocket carrying Indian-built European satellite W2M was launched early Sunday from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, South America, a TV channel reported.
The satellite was launched at around 4.00 a.m. IST, DD News reported.
The 3,462-kg W2M was designed and built at the satellite centre of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bangalore at $80 million (Rs.4 billion) for the European satellite operator (Eutelsat) under the ISRO-EADS-Astrium alliance formed in 2006.
Astronomy fair at Jantar Mantar Sunday
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Nehru Planetarium is organising a fair at Jantar Mantar here Sunday to educate people on the astronomical instruments at the 17th century heritage site.
The fair is a part of several activities planned during the International Year of Astronomy, being observed globally this year.
"The fair will highlight and spread awareness about the usage of Jantar Mantar observatory instruments among people in the country," Nehru Planetarium Director N. Rathnasree said.
The fair will start at 11 a.m. Sunday and will go on till sunset.
Kolkata couple invent fuel-less, battery-less auto engine
By Aparajita Gupta, IANS,
Kolkata : Kanishk Sinha, 30, and his wife Lipika, 25, chose to do something different from looking for jobs - they invented a fuel-less environment-friendly auto engine.
"This engine is switched on by a chemical reaction between zinc and oxygen; hence it is pollution-free. This technology also increases the durability of the engine," Kanishk Sinha, chairman of the Jasper Motor Vehicle company, told IANS.
He said the engine can be used in cars as well as other vehicles like three-wheelers, apart from water pumps.
Did you know you can access your computer from anywhere?
By Nabeel A. Khan, IANS,
New Delhi : Did you know that through the Internet you can access your computer from almost anywhere?
Relatively few of us have taken advantage of facilities like Google Document, Zoho Offline Office or Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia's Live Document.
These provide softwares like Word, Excel or Power Point. You can use them without having MS office installed in your PC.
MySpace ejects 90,000 convicted sex offenders
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.
Shuttle Discovery launch postponed until Feb 27: NASA
By RIA Novosti,
Washington : The US space agency NASA has set a new date for the launch of space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) due to technical reasons, an official said.
The launch has been postponed twice and is now tentatively set for Feb 27, following an assessment of shuttle flow control valve testing.
"More time was needed to complete analysis and testing," said Allard Beutel, a spokesman with NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Sun goggles sell like hot cakes in Taregna
By IANS,
Taregna (Bihar) : In the last three days specially designed sun goggles sold like hot cakes in Taregna village near the state capital, where the solar eclipse Wednesday will be best viewed.
"Thousands of the specially designed sun goggles were sold in Taregna area ahead of the total solar eclipse," an official of the Indian Red Cross Society at Masaurih said Tuesday.
India calls off Chandrayaan moon mission
By IANS,
Panaji : India Sunday decided to terminate its first unmanned moon mission as contact could not be re-established with the spacecraft Chandrayaan, a top space official said here.
"We are disappointed with what has happened, but we have managed to salvage a large volume of data," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters here.
"We are content with the result," he said.
New language protects home computers
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have developed a security language to protect home networks from cyber attacks.
Companies, banks and other organisations take internet security very seriously, erecting firewalls and IT departments to protect them from attacks. But domestic and small office networks are just as vulnerable to hacking, malicious computer code, worms and viruses.
Geon Woo Kim of the Electronics and Telecom Research Institute (ETRI) Korea and colleagues who developed the specific codes said home networks have only a single gateway from the internet.
Current carbon dioxide levels also prevailed 15 mn years ago
By IANS,
Washington : You would have to go back at least 15 million years to find carbon dioxide levels as high as they are today, say scientists.
Then "global temperatures were five to 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than they are today, sea level was approximately 75 to 120 feet higher than today, there was no permanent sea ice cap in the Arctic and very little ice on Antarctica and Greenland," said Aradhna Tripathi, who led the study.
500-year-old statues found in Peru
By EFE,
Lima : Peruvian archaeologists have found 12 wooden statues more than 500 years old in the archaeological complex of Chan Chan.
Cristobal Campana, director of one of the teams working at Chan Chan, told EFE Tuesday that the statues were discovered at the entrance to the �an An palace, the most modern building on the site.
Chan Chan, located near the southern city of Trujillo, was the capital of the Chimu kingdom, and had in its period of maximum splendour as many as 60,000 inhabitants in an area of 1,400 hectares.
Google unveils social search function
By DPA,
Hamburg : Google is testing a new social search function to make it easier for people find their friends' blogs and twitter feeds.
The only catch is that users of the service need to have an open profile with Google that includes personal contact data.
Once those conditions are met, the user can access the service at the Google Labs. Typing in "New York" will yield a list of friends in the user's social network who have posted items from the Big Apple. Settings can be altered so that only postings from close friends and acquaintances are included in the "social graph."
ISRO slow on internet?
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) symbolises nothing less than rockets, satellites and moon missions but when it comes to a professional need as simple as uploading contents on the website, the presitigious organisation seems to have bungled.
The 97th edition of the Indian Science Congress, organized by the ISRO and the Kerala University, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday.
Caveman’s 4,500-year-old doodle on rock discovered
By IANS,
London : Scientists have discovered what is believed to be one of the world's oldest doodles - an ancient scrawl carved onto a rock by a caveman 4,500 years ago.
Cambridge University experts believe the crudely etched circles are the Neolithic version of a modern office worker's scribbles on a post-it note.
The 17 square cm chunk of sandstone was discovered by an amateur archaeologist, Susie Sinclair, from the bottom of a deep quarry in Over, Cambridgeshire, during a university fun day, reports the Telegraph.
China leads in outer space pollution: Russian space agency
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : China has topped the list of the world's major polluters of the near-Earth space environment, followed by the US and Russia, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Friday.
All together, the three main space powers produce 93 percent of space debris, according to a statement published on the agency's website.
Twitter reaches another milestone with 20 billionth tweet
By IANS,
New York : Online social networking website Twitter set yet another milestone Sunday with a message posted by a Japanese user becoming the 20 billionth tweet of the four-year-old website.
User "GGGGGGo_Lets_Go" from Tokyo tweeted something hard to translate. The graphic designer said it was part of a conversation between him and someone else about a third party.
But moments later he was inundated with congratulations from Twitter users across the world soon after the website announced it surpassed the 20 billionth tweet, New York Daily News reported citing PC Magazine.
German scientists identify world’s oldest dog bone
By DPA,
Tuebingen (Germany) : German scientists have identified the world's oldest dog bone, proving that humans kept dogs more than 14,000 years ago, Tuebingen University said Tuesday.
The canine jaw was found in Switzerland in 1873, but has only just been analysed by researchers across the border in Tuebingen. The findings were reported in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
The dog lived between 14,100 and 14,600 years ago, according to archaeologists Hannes Napierala and Hans-Peter Uerpmann.
"At this time, humans were still hunter-gatherers," Napierala said.
Possible ice volcano found on Saturn moon
By DPA,
Washington : NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted what could be an ice volcano on Saturn's moon Titan, scientists said Tuesday.