Wi-fi in homes can be hacked in five seconds
By IANs,
London : Wireless internet networks in millions of homes can be hacked in less than five seconds.
Nano water filter kills 98 pc bacteria within seconds
By IANS,
Washington : A new low cost filtering system kills up to 98 percent of deadly bacteria like E. coli in water within seconds.
Rise of Google Chrome threatens Internet Explorer, Mozilla
By IANS,
London : Web browser Google Chrome, which emerged in mid-2008, has hit Internet Explorer hard and stalled the rise of Mozilla Firefox.
Google Voice: The next killer app?
By Jay Dougherty, DPA,
Washington : Google releases so many products - most of them free - that it's easy to overlook one that's really special. Google Voice qualifies.
1969 moon landing remastered video shown for first time
By IANS,
London : After six years of searching and digital restoration, scientists have finally completed remastering footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
China launches two satellites
By IANS,
Beijing : China Wednesday launched two satellites to carry out experiments in space, Xinhua reported.
Toy Story 2010: Lower prices, higher tech
By Andy Goldberg, DPA,
Los Angeles : That age old question of what to get a kid who has everything has finally been answered - and the good news is that it only costs $30.
Our oceans home to 750,000 undiscovered species
By IANS,
London : The oceans are bustling with far greater diversity of life than previously thought, says the first Census of Marine Life -- 10 years in the making.
Microsoft sues Motorola over Android phones
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: Microsoft Corp has filed a lawsuit against Motorola, saying the smartphone maker had infringed on nine patents in its Android-based devices.
China’s second lunar probe blasts off
By IANS,
Beijing : China Friday launched its second unmanned lunar probe, Chang'e-2. This was the second of the country's three-phase moon mission which will culminate in a landing on the moon.
Google launches Latin translation tool
By IANS,
London : Google Translate, a service that can instantly translate entire web pages or chunks of text in another language, has added Latin to its list.
Chinese people to select country’s 10 best scientists
By IANS,
Beijing : The Chinese public will help select the country's 10 best scientists and technicians in a vote that will show "respect for knowledge and innovation".
Google Earth helps discover massive meteor crater
By IANS,
London : Google Earth has helped spot a meteor crater in Egypt that lay undiscovered, which could help scientists size up risks of potentially catastrophic impacts.
Facebook, gadgets galore… Indian children take to ‘multi-tasking’
By Madhulika Sonkar, IANS,
After TCS, Oracle to set foot in Kerala
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram: It is now official -- software and hardware systems company Oracle would be the next IT major to set up shop in Kerala, a top IT official said here Friday.
Indian IT firms will consolidate, focus on Europe, Asia-Pacific
By Gyanendra Kumar Keshri, IANS,
China to go to moon, Mars, Venus and beyond
By IANS,
Beijing : China has now set its sight on planet Venus, where it hopes to land a space probe by 2015. A probe to Mars and the country's first moon landing have also been chalked out.
21,000 respond to teen’s party invite on Facebook
By IANS,
London : A teenager in Britain set up a Facebook group for his birthday party, but was left stunned when 21,000 people confirmed themselves as guests.
4,000 year-old temples found in Peru
By IANS/EFE,
Lima : Peruvian archaeologists have discovered two ceremonial temples believed to be buried since more than 4,000 years.
Apple to offer newspaper subscriptions for iPad
By DPA,
San Francisco : Apple is ready to launch a subscription service for newspapers on its Pad tablet computer, according to a report by a Silicon Valley newspaper Wednesday.
NASA buys life-like humanoid as tour guide
By IANS,
London : A life-like robot, which speaks more than a dozen languages and has a pawky sense of humour, has been bought by NASA to become a robotic tour guide.
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.
World’s first humpback dinosaur discovered
By DPA,
Madrid : Spanish scientists said Wednesday they have discovered the world's first humpback dinosaur.
Asteroids to fly by Earth Wednesday: NASA
By DPA,
Washington : Two asteroids are to zip close by Earth within hours of each other Wednesday, the US space agency said.
Data from Chandrayaan moon mission to go public
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.
China launches new satellite
By IANS,
Beijing : China successfully launched a new satellite into space Sunday, which will improve television and radio broadcasting signals in the country.
The "SinoSat-6" was launched at 12:14 a.m. from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The Long March 3B rocket took SinoSat-6 into a geostationary transfer orbit 26 minutes after the launch, Xinhua reported.
China’s new computer does 1,000 trillion jobs per second
By IANS,
Beijing : China has installed the country's first domestically-made supercomputer capable of doing 1,000 trillion operations per second.
Tianhe-1 is scheduled to begin operations this month, according to the National Supercomputing Centre in Tianjin.
The supercomputer, developed by the National University of Defence Technology in 2009, enabled China to become only the second country after the US capable of developing a device with a speed of 1,000 trillion operations per second.
India to build world’s largest solar telescope
By IANS,
Bangalore : India is inching closer towards building the world's largest solar telescope in Ladakh on the foothills of the Himalayas that aims to study the sun's microscopic structure.
The National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) project has gathered momentum with a global tender floated for technical and financial bidding by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).
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 priority inbox, unveils spam killer
By IANS,
London : A new feature for its Gmail service will automatically filter the most important messages from spam, Google has announced.
Priority emails will be placed at the top of the inbox - while others will drop to the bottom.
The ‘Priority Inbox’ function is designed to help users manage hundreds of emails received daily, reports the Daily Mail.
The new application splits the inbox into three sections: 'Important and unread', 'Starred' and 'Everything Else'.
5,000-year-old village ruins found in China
By IANS,
Beijing : Archaeologists in China have found the ruins of two 5,000-year-old villages in Mongolia.
The ruins in Hamin'aile village in Tongliao city in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have been identified as possibly originating from Hongshan culture, dating back 5,000 years, said Ji Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Cultural and Historical Relics and Archaeology.
About 1,200 square metres have been excavated, and houses and tombs had been found, China Daily reported.
230-year-old champagne found off Finnish coast
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Bottles of world's oldest champagne, believed to have been made in 1780s, have been found in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea off Finland's Aland archipelago.
"Approximately 70 bottles of exclusive champagne will be lifted from a 200-year-old shipwreck near (the island of) Foglo in the south of the Aland archipelago. The well-preserved bottles, which lie on the seabed at the depth of about 50 meters, are now being lifted to surface," Aland authorities said in a statement.
NASA experts arrive in Chile to help in miners’ rescue
By DPA,
Santiago : Experts of the US space agency NASA arrived in Chile Tuesday to contribute to the rescue of 33 miners trapped 700 metres under the Atacama desert in northern Chile.
The experts were met at the airport by Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich. They are set to help rescue efforts in psychological, operational and health-related aspects, among others.
ISS austronauts contacted from ancient Incan city
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Buenos Aires : The ancient Incan civilisation city of Machu Picchu in Peru made history Thursday when a radio contact was established from there with the Intetrnational Space Station (ISS).
The Russian and Peruvian delegations talked with the ISS crew for 10 minutes Thursday.
The conversation was made in three languages -- Russian, Spanish and the Peru Indian language of Quechua. ISS Commander Alexander Skvortsov said it was the first time Quechua had ever been heard on the ISS.
Quechua is spoken by some 10 million native South American Indians.
Google opens new line to internet phone calls
By DPA,
San Francisco : All the fuss about tweeting, texting, Facebook pokes and various other cutting-edge forms of communication can obscure the fact that old-fashioned telephone calls are still a pretty effective way of conveying information.
But the 560 million people who are registered users of internet phone pioneer Skype have never forgotten the value of talk, and now it seems that Google is realizing it, too.
‘Dry water’ that soaks up carbon faster
By IANS,
London : Scientists have created 'dry water' that soaks carbon three times better than water, and hence help combat global warming.
Each particle of dry water, a substance that looks like powdered sugar, contains a water droplet surrounded by a sandy silica coating.
Ben Carter from the University of Liverpool who presented his research at the American Chemical Society in Boston, US, said: "There's nothing else quite like it."
"Hopefully, we may see dry water making waves in the future," he was quoted by the Telegraph as saying.
Kepler telescope finds new planetary system
By DPA,
Washington : The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found a new planetary system orbiting a distant star that could include a planet nearly the same size as Earth, NASA scientists said Thursday.
In findings to be published in the journal Science this week, the scientists report the discovery of two large planets about the size of Saturn orbiting a star similar to the sun. A third small object orbiting the star could be a much smaller planet, just a bit larger than Earth, but more work must be done to confirm it is actually a planet.
Gmail allows phone calls from computers
By IANS,
New York : Google Inc. Wednesday said its Gmail service will add a feature that allows users to call any phone directly from their computers.
"Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail," Robin Schriebman, a software engineer at Google, wrote on the company's blog.
"We've been testing this feature internally and have found it to be useful in a lot of situations, ranging from making a quick call to a restaurant, to placing a call when you're in an area with bad reception," Schriebman wrote.
Vast solar system detected 127 light years away
By IANS,
London : A vast solar system orbiting a sun-like star has been detected 127 light years from the earth.
The planetary system is believed to be the largest ever found beyond the sun.
Astronomers have confirmed the presence of five planets and have tantalising evidence of two more, reports the Telegraph.
The distance of the planets from their parent star follows a regular pattern, similar to that seen in our own solar system. The study is scheduled for publication in the journal Astronomy And Astrophysics.
Argentina aims at free wireless internet access
By IANS/EFE,
Buenos Aires : The Argentine government has said it is working to create areas of free public access to the internet across the country through wireless networks.
"We're going to have extensive areas with free internet," Planning Minister Julio de Vido said.
President Cristina Fernandez has given instructions to "work hard" in order to "install within the next 120 days a strong application of the WiFi system in public places", the minister said.
Installation of the service is quick and easy, De Vido told Radio Continental Monday.
Yahoo’s search migrates to Microsoft
By DPA,
San Francisco : Yahoo has completed the migration of its web and mobile search functions to Microsoft's Bing search engine as the two companies hope that their combined market power may prove a more significant threat to the dominance of Google.
The integration comes more than a year after Yahoo and Microsoft announced their 10-year search deal under which Microsoft will power Yahoo's search site, while Yahoo manages sales for both companies' premium search advertisers.
Rover technology could improve solar power efficiency
By IANS,
London : Technology designed for Mars exploration could hold the key to solving the world's energy problems by boosting solar power efficiency.
A self-cleaning system developed for NASA's Mars rover robots could keep solar panels free of dust and grime which hampers energy output.
The devices exploring Mars have sensors which detect dust build-ups and zap the surface of their solar panels with an electrical charge to keep them shiny, reports the Telegraph.
Company claims it can clean up Bhopal toxic waste for cheap
No collateral damage to environment or people living nearby, claims PEAT International Co.
By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: Cheer up. There is some good news for the survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, including the NGOs working for them and the Madhya Pradesh Government as far as disposing off the toxic waste lying in the erstwhile killer Union Carbide pesticide plant, which has become an enigma for one and all, is concerned.
New software that identifies unnamed faces to go public
By IANS,
London : A new software which can identify unnamed faces and then collate photographs of that individual on the net will go public soon.
The software works by scanning a person's configuration of eyes, nose and mouth and claims to be 90 percent accurate.
It can then comb the net for more photographs of the same person and, in tests, locate untagged picture which had not previously been seen by some of the people in them, reports the Telegraph.
The managers of Face.com, which created the software, told the Sunday Times that 5,000 developers were already using it.
Telescope captures galactic super volcanic explosion
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.
Facebook raises row over revealing user’s location
By IANS,
London : Controversy shrouds Facebook over revealing user's location in a new feature that it has launched.
Called Facebook Places, the application uses satellite tracking technology to permit people to ‘check in’ their current location and share it with friends.
But critics voiced concern that the facility exposes users to the risk of burglary, stalking and harassment, reports the Daily Mail.
They also asserted that many users did not fully understand the site’s privacy options and were clueless about potential dangers.
Moon may be shrinking
By DPA,
Washington : The moon is smaller than it used to be and could still be shrinking, NASA scientists said Thursday pointing to new evidence that the moon has contracted relatively recently.
New high-resolution images have turned up geographical features on the moon that indicate it has shrunk within the last 800 million years - or practically yesterday in astronomical terms, said Tom Watters, a scientist at the Centre for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Astronauts become as weak as 80-year-olds in space
By IANS,
London : The US researchers have found that astronauts in the prime of life, spending months in space, become as weak as 80-year-olds.
The researchers made the discovery after examining muscle tissues of crew members on the International Space Station (ISS).
The calf biopsy samples revealed that after six months in space, the physical work capacity of astronauts fell by 40 percent, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Google, HTC and Verizon set to challenge iPad
By DPA,
San Francisco : Google is teaming up with Taiwanese phone-maker HTC and the largest US cellphone carrier Verizon to launch a challenger to Apple's iPad in time for the holiday season, PC World reported Wednesday.
The as-yet-unnamed tablet would run on Google's Chrome operating system, and is likely to be heavily subsidized for buyers who opt to purchase the device along with a monthly data plan from Verizon, the report said.
China tests space module for 2011 launch
By IANS,
Beijing : China has finished construction of its first module of an unmanned space station and is testing it for a launch in 2011, a military official has said.
The 8.5-tonne Tiangong-1 space module will be put into orbit in 2011 and experts are testing its electronic, mechanical and thermal properties, the unnamed official was quoted as saying by China Daily.
A carrier rocket named Long March II-F will launch the Tiangong-1 into space, the official said, adding that a group of Chinese astronauts, including two women, is undergoing training for the purpose.
Delhi Wakf Board unable to keep its website up
By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: A world of information might be available on internet but Delhi Wakf Board (DWB) is not. Delhi Wakf Board has a website but due to their cheaper plan it is inaccessible to everyone.
Scientists find 635-million-year-old animal fossils
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists may have discovered the oldest ever fossils of animal bodies, primitive sponge like creatures that lived in ocean reefs about 635 million years ago.
The shelly fossils, found beneath a glacial deposit in south Australia, represent the earliest evidence of animal body forms in the current record, predating other evidence by at least 70 million years.
A cactus took 52 years to bloom
By IANS,
London : A British couple are elated after their cactus began to bloom - a good 52 years after it was planted.
John, 90, and his wife Barbara Long, 85, patiently waited all these years for the cactus to bloom. They had bought the plant in 1958.
The cactus is outside their home in Hitchin, and has reached a height of 10 feet. "I can't describe the excitement," The Sun quoted Barbara as saying.
Scientific breakthrough in creating synthetic blood
By IANS,
London : Scientists have created red blood cells for the first time from spare IVF embryos cells in Britain as part of a multi-million pound project to manufacture synthetic blood on mass-scale.
IVF or In-vitro fertilisation is a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the womb.
Researchers relied on more than 100 spare embryos left over from treatment at fertility clinics to establish several embryonic stem cell "lines", reports the Telegraph.
Fake ‘dislike’ button spreads across Facebook
By IANS,
Washington : Social networking website Facebook, which offers its subscribers only a "like" button for anyone's updates, is now faced with a fake "dislike" button, which is spreading like a virus across the site.
The fake dislike button is followed with a link that takes people to a fake application. Instead of installing a dislike button, the application uses the person's network to continue spreading the fake programme.
Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos wrote in a blog that the fake dislike buttons "are going viral" on Facebook.
India’s death threat for the BlackBerry
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
So the die is cast. In a meeting on Thursday, India's home ministry asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to read the riot act to mobile operators running BlackBerry services: Either provide full access to Indian law enforcement, or face a shutdown on Sep 1.
Now satellites to monitor global fires
By IANS,
United Nations : The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) has created a new system that will use satellites to monitor devastating fires around the world.
"The control of these fires has become an issue of high importance, not only because of the increasing number of casualties and the huge area burned but also because of the relation with issues of global interest, like climate change," Pieter van Lierop, FAO forestry officer, was quoted as saying by Xinhua Thursday.
Astronauts remove faulty pump outside ISS
By DPA,
Washington : Two US astronauts successfully removed a stubborn cooling pump outside the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday.
Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson returned to the station after their 7-hour-26-minute spacewalk, where they were confined a bit longer in a secure airlock to make sure no dangerous ammonia had clung to their spacesuits.
India to launch satellite to monitor sea water levels
By IANS,
New Delhi : India will launch a satellite to monitor sea water levels in collaboration with the French space agency, Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan said Wednesday.
The satellite, called Saral, will carry an altimetre (ALTIKA) for studying the sea surface heights and an ARGOS payload, which is a satellite-based data collection platform.
India launches satellite-based navigation system
By IANS,
New Delhi : India Tuesday launched a satellite-based navigation system to aid air traffic in the region and joined a select club of nations which have similar capabilities.
Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel launched the Global Position System Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) based on a constellation of 24 satellites positioned in six earth-centred orbital planes.
NASA could land probe on asteroid hurtling towards Earth
By IANS,
London : NASA is considering plans to land a probe on an asteroid that is on a potential collision course with the Earth.
The plan mirrors the plot of the 1998 Hollywood film "Armageddon", in which the White House sends a spaceship to land on an asteroid which is hurtling towards the Earth.
Asteroid 1999 RQ36, which has a 1-in-1,000 chance of hitting the Earth before the year 2200, would cause an explosion equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs detonating at once, reports the Telegraph.
India is wasting its time chasing BlackBerry
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
You're a Delhi-based wannabe terrorist needing to communicate with your handlers. What do you do? Invisible-ink notes are passe, as are carrier pigeons. You will, of course, use electronic options.
Like e-mail. Walk into a cyber cafe, log into a G-mail or Yahoo account. Don't use an account in your own name. And don't send e-mail. Simply read instructions left for you in an unsent mail, saved as a draft in your account. Then, to reply, just edit the unsent e-mail, and save it back as a draft. If e-mail isn't travelling, it can't be intercepted.
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.
Sunlight can damage your eyes
By IANS,
London : Sunlight doesn't just damage your skin, it can also ruin your eyes and increase the risk of cataract and damage to the retina.
The best way of protecting eyes is always to wear quality sunglasses, reports express.co.uk.
A research in Britain has, however, found that over 60 percent of Britons are influenced by fashion and price rather than whether or not the glasses are effective.
Protecting children's eyes is especially important, yet nearly half of parents put cost ahead of protection.
Google, Verizon close to deal to end ‘net neutrality’
By IANS,
London : Search engine giant Google and US broadband and telecom company Verizon are said to be close to making a deal that could bring an end to 'net neutrality'.
The new agreement between the internet giants, if it gets through, would allow the telecom company to prioritise the order and speed in which it delivers content to users, The Guardian reported Friday.
Haryana scientists develop milk-testing kit
By IANS,
Chandigarh : An innovative 'milk urea detection kit' has been developed by the scientists of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) in Haryana's Hisar town, the university's vice chancellor K.S. Khokhar announced Friday.
Khokhar said that with this kit, milk could be checked for the presence of urea in it - even at home.
Android set to overtake iPhone
By DPA,
San Francisco : Phones running Google's Android operating system are selling at the rate of 200,000 a day, according to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
Schmidt made the comments at the Techonomy Conference Thursday, in a video of his talk posted on YouTube.
Schmidt said that the success of Android has more than made up for the huge amounts of money the company poured into its development.
"Trust me that revenue is large enough to pay for all of the Android activities and a whole bunch more," he said.
Your mobile phone can also be a credit card
By IANS,
Istanbul : Imagine swiping a mobile phone to pay for all the things that you buy! This has just been made possible by latest technology that allows bank information to be stored in your mobile phones' memory cards.
Global credit card giant Visa has entered a partnership with a Turkish bank to launch this technology, the first of its kind in Europe.
This technology is used to store bank information in memory cards placed in mobile phones and allow them to be waved in front of credit card payment points, Visa Europe, which has collaborated with Turkey's Akbank, said.
Britain secret file says massive UFO spotted
By IANS,
London : A spaceship that was "20 times the size of a football field" was spotted hovering over Britain's Manchester airport nearly 15 years back, says a secret defence ministry file that was released Thursday.
The huge spacecraft was seen by a UFO expert in 1995 and its sketch was sent to the defence ministry, The Sun reported Thursday, citing the secret files.
The UFO was described as oblong with a curved front and a series of small nozzles at the rear.
That's not the only UFO sighting.
425 mn-year-old sea creature revealed in 3D
By IANS,
London : It might not look like much, but a bizarre green blob that lived in the ocean approximately 425 million years ago was one of the earliest living creatures on earth.
A 3D computer mode of a primitive Drakozoon has been created from the only known fossilised specimen of the creature for the first time, reports the Daily Mail.
The model will help researchers understand what primitive species on early earth looked like and how they might have evolved into the types of creatures that are around, according to journal Biology Letters.
420 mn Chinese now use the internet
By IANS,
Beijing : The number of Chinese internet users has reached a staggering 420 million, authorities said.
Website sina.com.cn citing a report published by China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) reported that 277 million people access the internet via cell phones.
The population of China's internet users climbed to 420 million as of June 2010, 36 million more than at the end of 2009.
China Daily Wednesday reported that broadband was the most popular way to access the internet, instead of a wired connection.
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.
Chinese astronomer predicts appearance of UFO in 2011
By IANS,
Beijing : Unidentified flying objects (UFO) may appear in 2011 or 2012, a Chinese astronomer has predicted.
Wang Sichao, an astronomy and minor planet scholar, made the forecast under recently-heated speculations about UFOs, as some unidentified flying objects have been spotted in several Chinese regions of Zhejiang, Hunan, Chongqing and Xinjiang since last month, the China Daily reported.
Dinosaur museum in China sets new world record
By IANS,
Beijing : Guinness World Records has confirmed that a dinosaur museum in China's Shandong province is the largest of its kind in the world.
The Shangdong Tianyu Museum of Nature, which opened in 2004 and is devoted to dinosaur and other prehistoric fauna, applied for a Guinness World Record entry in June and received the confirmation Monday, said Yin Shiyin, deputy curator of the museum.
Microsoft issues emergency flaw fix
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft issued an emergency patch Monday to correct a critical Windows bug that had allowed attackers to gain control of infected machines via program shortcuts.
Microsoft usually issues patches to fix software flaws just once a month. But the seriousness of the bug forced the software giant to issue an emergency patch outside the normal schedule.
Widely publicized last month, the flaw was used to attack industrial control systems in manufacturing and utility control systems via the so-called Stuxnet worm.
Huge river discovered flowing on Black Sea bed
By IANS,
London : A massive underwater river flowing along the bottom of the Black Sea has been found by scientists - a discovery that could help explain how life manages to survive in the deep oceans away from the nutrient-rich waters found close to land.
It is estimated that if on land, the undersea river would be the world's sixth largest in terms of the volume of water flowing through it.
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.
China launches new navigation satellite
By IANS,
Beijing : China successfully launched a fifth orbiter into space Sunday as a part of its indigenous satellite navigation and global positioning network.
The satellite was launched at 5.30 a.m. from the Long March 3I carrier rocket, Xinhua reported.
The satellite will join other four satellites in orbit to form a network that will eventually consist of 35 satellites.
Cutting soot emissions best hope for saving Arctic ice
By IANS,
Washington : Soot from the burning of fossil fuels contributes far more to global warming than has been thought. But, unlike carbon dioxide (CO2), soot lingers only a few weeks in the air, so cutting emissions could have a significant and rapid impact on the climate.
If soot emissions were eliminated, more than 1.5 million premature deaths from soot inhalation could be prevented worldwide each year, reports the Journal of Geophysical Research.
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.
Google cleared of grabbing personal data
By IANS,
London : Internet giant Google "did not grab" personal details but it happened "accidentally" when it was collecting data from wi-fi networks, Britain's top information office has said.
The Information Commissioner Office (ICO) reviewed some of the data Google collected from unsecured networks and came to the conclusion that Google "mistakenly" gathered them while logging on to wi-fi to help with location-based services, the BBC reported.
The world’s first robot with conscience
By IANS/EFE,
Madrid : Spain has designed the world's first robot with its own "conscience" and "life", which will "entertain, teach and be a companion" to humans who purchase it.
The AISoy 1, which will go on sale in August, is the first social android developed by Spanish firm AISoy Robotics, which is now bringing its creation out of the laboratory.
"It almost seems like science fiction, but it's a reality," said Diego Garcia, one of the "fathers" of the robot and head of AISoy's product engineering and development division.
Massive asteroid could hit Earth in 2182
By IANS,
London : A massive asteroid might crash into Earth in 2182, scientists have warned.
The asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, has a one-in-thousand chance of actually hitting the Earth at some point before the year 2200, but is most likely to hit on Sep 24, 2182.
The asteroid was first discovered in the year 1999 and is more than 1,800 feet across. If an asteroid of this size hits the Earth it would cause widespread devastation and possible mass extinction, reports the Daily Mail.
Profiles of 100 mn Facebook users leaked online
By IANS,
London : The personal details of 100 million users of social networking website Facebook are now available for download after they were leaked online.
Ron Bowles, an online security consultant, used a code to scan Facebook profiles, collected data not hidden by users' privacy settings, and compiled a list, which is now available as a downloadable file, containing the URL of every "searchable" Facebook user's profile, their name and unique ID, the BBC reported Thursday.
World’s first 3D camcorder for home movies unveiled
By IANS,
London : The 3D revolution has so far been all about Hollywood blockbusters and major sporting events. But now, the cutting-edge technology is coming closer to home.
Treasured moments such as a child's first steps or a university graduation can be captured in 3D with the arrival of the first camcorder - capable of filming in more than two dimensions, says the Daily Mail.
Unveiled by Panasonic Wednesday, the 1,300 pound HDC-SDT750 3D model works using a sophisticated double lens.
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.
How Wikileaks became an effective whistle-blowing site
By IANS,
London : It has just released thousands of confidential documents that shed light on the war in Afghanistan, including on alleged involvement of Pakistan's spy agency in terror activities in that country and India. But how has Wikileaks become one of the most important whistle-blowing sites on the web?
The news that the largest leak in American military history came via the website Wikileaks will not surprise long-term watchers of the controversial, multi-award-winning site, The Telegraph newspaper reported here.
Humans survived ice age by sheltering in ‘Garden of Eden’
By IANS,
London : The Garden of Eden, a strip of land off Africa's southern coast, had provided shelter to a handful of humans who survived mass extinction on earth during the ice age, say scientists.
Researchers believe the small patch of land at 384 km east of Cape Town was the only place that remained habitable during the devastating ice age 195,000 years ago when sudden change in earth's temperature wiped out many species.
Some scientists believe the population of human race may have fallen to a few hundred who managed to survive in one location, according to Daily Mail.
NASA camera yields most accurate Mars map
By IANS,
Washington : A camera on board NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever.
Researchers and the public can access the map via several websites and explore and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet.
The map was constructed using nearly 21,000 images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System, or THEMIS, a multi-band infrared camera on Odyssey, says a NASA release.
Hands-free technology for twiteratti while driving
By IANS,
London : British motorists would soon be able to use online blogging network Twitter while driving with new hands-free technology from car company Ford.
The system, called AppLink, allows applications on iPhones and BlackBerries to be voice-controlled, reports dailymail.co.uk.
It reads 'tweet' updates out loud while the car is on the move - but does not allow the driver to respond.
Why India’s $35 computer joke isn’t funny
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
Here we go again! India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has "launched" a $35 computer, evidently a "dream project" of his. The touch-screen, Linux-based device looks iPad-inspired, but we know little about how it works.
It emerged from a student project with a bill of material adding up to $47, a price that the minister wants to bring down to $10 "to take forward inclusive education". It promises browser and PDF reader, wi-fi, 2GB memory, USB, Open Office, and multimedia content viewers and interfaces.
Yahoo! hosting 24-hour ‘hacking’ event in India’s tech hub
By IANS,
Bangalore : Global search engine Yahoo! is hosting a non-stop 24-hour "hacking" event from Saturday noon in this tech hub where about 300 whiz-kids will use its web tools and services to develop new applications, a company official said Friday.
"About 300 developers across India will participate in the 24-hour hacking event, which involves using our web tools, services and application programming interfaces (APIs) to innovate new solutions for our global netizens," Yahoo! India Research and Development Head Shouvick Mukherjee told IANS here.
Scientists spot largest molecules in space
By IANS,
London : Scientists in Canada have spotted the largest molecules existing in space called buckyballs.
The roughly spherical molecules consist of a "third type of carbon", after graphite and diamond, which occur widely on earth.
Buckyballs, on the other hand, have only been created in labs and have never before been proven to exist elsewhere, reports The Telegraph.
The BBC reported that a research group used an infrared telescope owned by Nasa to spot the buckyballs in "a cloud of cosmic dust surrounding a distant star".
Universe’s biggest star discovered
By IANS,
London : The biggest star, with a mass 320 times greater than the sun's, has been discovered at the edge of our galaxy by British astronomers.
Scientists at the University of Sheffield found the stellar giant - named R136a1 - using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile and data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The star is located in the Tarantula Nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small "satellite" galaxy which orbits the Milky Way, the Telegraph reported.
1,000-year-old sea creatures found
By IANS,
Toronto : Canadian and Spanish scientists have discovered rare species of marine life, with some creatures more than 1,000 years old.
According to the scientists, these creatures found off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador hold clues to the secrets of ancient underwater ecosystems.
These rare marine creatures have been spotted by researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and scientists from three Canadian universities and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography.
US team finds evidence of water in moon minerals
By IANS,
Washington : A team of US geologists has found structurally bound hydroxyl groups in a mineral in a lunar rock returned to earth by the Apollo programme.
Geologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), working with colleagues at the University of Tennessee, found the water in a calcium phosphate mineral, apatite, within a basalt collected from the moon's surface by the Apollo 14 astronauts, Xinhua reported.
Facebook reaches 500 mn users
By DPA,
San Francisco : Social networking site Facebook officially has 500 million users, the company announced Wednesday.
The milestone means that the six-year old website now reaches eight percent of the planet's population, just 18 months after it passed the 150 million user mark.
Last month Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said there is a "good chance" that the social networking site could boast one billion users within three to five years.
Arctic to be ice-free in summer by 2050
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The Arctic will have no ice during the summer by the mid-21st Century, says the head of the Russian Meteorological Centre.
"In 30-40 years, the Arctic may have no ice in the summertime, including the North Pole," Alexander Frolov said, quoting data from an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.
Frolov said levels of ice reduction in 2010 could exceed the record levels of 2007.
NASA ‘elated’ after ‘previously invisible space objects’ uncovered
By IANS,
London : An array of previously "invisible" space objects have been discovered by one of NASA's newest space telescopes, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), in just six months.
In what has left scientists at the space agency "elated", the $320 million sky-mapping spacecraft has for the first time identified previously thousands of unseen space objects including stars, asteroids, dust clouds, comets and even a new galaxy.
Soon, solar-powered camera straps to charge batteries
By IANS,
London: Photographers will soon be able to charge their camera batteries with the rays of the sun.
A team of Chinese researchers are developing solar panels to straps that would make the charging easy. Inventor Weng Jie’s idea, of which a prototype may be ready in months, could spell the end of wall-socket charging, reports dailymail.co.uk.
But there is a downside: In case there is not enough sunlight, regular batteries can not be used as a substitute.
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.
PSLV: Workhorse of ISRO (Factfile)
By IANS,
New Delhi : Since its first launch in 1994, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has so far placed 41 satellites (19 Indian and 22 foreign) into orbit - making it one of the most successful launch vehicles ever worldwide.
* The PSLV was originally developed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into orbit with the help of Russia. It was then used for launching a variety of satellites.
PSLV’s success shows India’s proficiency: Chavan
By IANS,
New Delhi : The successful launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), carrying five satellites, is proof of the country's proficiency in space science, Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan said Monday.
Congratulating the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists, Chavan said the launch was "textbook perfect".
"It is the proof of our increasing proficiency in the space science," he said.
ISRO to launch more satellites this year
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : After successfully placing five satellites in orbit Monday, India's space agency ISRO said it will launch more satellites this year and efforts were on to put two Indians in space orbit.
"We will launch GSat-5, a communication satellite, using GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket. The other launch will be Resourscesat-2, a remote sensing satellite, using the rocket PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan said here.
Remote sensing system can sniff out hidden explosives
By IANS,
Washington : A remote sensing technique could sniff out hidden explosives, chemical, biological agents and illegal drugs from afar.
The new system, using terahertz (THz) wave technology, can also "see through" clothing and packaging materials that might conceal explosives or other dangerous materials.
In the event of a chemical spill, for instance, remote sensing could identify the composition of the toxic mix. Since sensing is remote, no one will be harmed, reports Nature Photonics.
ISRO touches milestone in foreign payload launches
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : Indian space agency ISRO Monday crossed a new milestone Monday in launching third party satellites by slinging three foreign satellites into orbit, reaching a total of 25 satellite launches.
Mexico creates pest resistant wheat
By IANS/EFE,
Mexico City : Mexican scientists have developed a new variety of wheat that is more resistant to disease.
It is expected to reduce the use of fungicides and boost grain production, the Agriculture Secretariat said Sunday. It is resistant to leaf rust (a fungus that attacks the plant).
Scientists from the National Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP) developed the wheat.
The study was conducted from 2006-2009 in Yaqui Valley in northern Sonora state. The output from the new variety was similar to that of common wheat strains.
PSLV rocket launch successful, five satellites put into orbit
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : Five satellites, including the advanced high resolution cartography satellite Cartosat-2B, were placed in orbit Monday after India's space agency ISRO successfully launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from here.
"I am extremely happy to say PSLV 16 was a successful flight. All the satellites were injected precisely," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said.
Failure of imported components behind loss of satellites?
By V. Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : The recurring loss of Indian satellites because of power supply glitches may be due to the failure of imported components, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists.
ISRO has lost two of its satellites earlier -- Chandrayaan in 2009 and INSAT-2D in 1997 -- and INSAT-4B partially now.
Scientists of the Indian space agency are working to fix the power snag that switched off 12 transponders of the INSAT-4B communications satellite Wednesday night.
India to miss total solar eclipse
By IANS,
New Delhi : This year's total solar eclipse on Sunday will be missed by sky gazers in India as the celestial phenomenon will not be visible in Asia.
The eclipse will be visible from parts of the South Pacific Ocean area and South American countries like Argentina and Chile. A total solar eclipse occurs every 18 months.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, and the moon fully or partially covers the sun as viewed from the earth.
Effective way found to produce anti-flu vaccines
By IANS,
Washington: A rapid and effective way to produce vaccines against new flu strains has been developed by scientists.
The virus that causes flu frequently changes its genetic code, making it difficult for scientists to think up an effective vaccine.
But now, University of Miami computer scientist Dimitris Papamichail and researchers from Stony Brook University have developed a way to produce shots against new strains.
Power supply snag hits Indian communication satellite
By IANS,
Chennai : Scientists of the Indian space agency are working to fix a power snag that switched off 12 transponders of the INSAT-4B comunication satellite Wednesday night, affecting services of some television channels and telecom operators.
"An expert team is looking at the possibilities of partial utilisation of some of the transponders that were switched off. The team is working to restore the services at the earliest," S. Satish, director (Publications and Public Relations), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told IANS from Bangalore over phone.
New species discovered in Atlantic Ocean
By IANS,
London : In a major breakthrough, scientists have found over 10 new species under the Atlantic Ocean, including creatures close to the missing evolutionary link between backboned and invertebrate animals.
The bizarre creatures, oddly-shaped, brightly-coloured or even transparent, that scientists have uncovered during a new study has "revolutionised" thinking about deep-sea life.
Scientists believe they have discovered more than 10 new marine species by using the latest diving technology, Daily Mail reported.
CGNet Swara: Voice of the unheard
By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net
Between Arundhati Roy’s walk with the comrades and corporations-backed government war machine mowing down the jungles in Chattisgarh, there are millions of tribals whose voices remain unheard. Not that they cannot speak but there is a barrier to access because of language and remote areas. Knight International Journalism fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary intends to change that by using technology as a platform to make news & information easily accessible to all.
Watch an asteroid eclipse a star over Europe
By IANS,
London : In a rare celestial event over Europe, skywatchers will be able to see an asteroid briefly block out the light from a star as it passes in front of the star Thursday night.
It may be the only asteroid eclipse that will take place this century, observable with the naked eye.
A similar situation like a solar eclipse can happen with asteroids - the sun-orbiting, rocky or metallic objects that are left over from the formation of the solar system.
Smart cars with black boxes
By IANS,
London : Computer scientists in the US are developing technology that will transform cars into intelligent vehicles fitted with aircraft-style black boxes that can record information about driving behaviour during accidents.
The car, which is being developed by researchers at computer chip giant Intel, will record information about the vehicle speed, steering and braking along with video footage from inside and outside the vehicle, The Telegraph reported.
TV signals caused Russian rocket to miss ISS: NASA
By DPA,
Moscow/Washington : Television signals caused a Russian cargo rocket to miss its rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS), NASA officials said Saturday.
The engineers indicated they would avoid activating the system during Sunday's second attempt to dock, NASA officials said.
The Progress 38 cargo rocket missed its rendezvous with the ISS by three km late Friday. A new effort to dock is to be made at 1600 GMT Sunday and be broadcast life on NASA television.
US scientists create HIV-resistant cells
By IANS,
Los Angeles: American scientists have created HIV-resistant cells that could one day pave the way for controlling the virus without using harsh anti-retroviral drugs.
Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine, at the University of Southern California, used mice to test the cells that target one of the two "gateway" molecules that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) uses to enter human cells, Meghan Lewit, spokeswoman for the team of researchers, said.
Brain regulatory gene identified
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have identified a gene that seems to be a master regulator of human brain development.
The human brain is a marvel of nature with more than 100 billion neurons and billions of other specialised cells.
A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) have identified a gene - known as Pax6 - which guides undifferentiated stem cells to tightly defined pathways in becoming different types of cells in the brain.
Russia builds world’s largest telescope in Antarctica
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The construction of the world's largest telescope, worth $271 million, will be completed in 2011, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
"The telescope's size exceeds the overall height of the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Shanghai World Financial Centre," Roscosmos said.
The IceCube telescope designed by researchers and engineers from the University of Wisconsin and sponsored by the National Science Foundation will be inserted into the ice near the South Pole.
Scientists devise ‘pacemaker’ for brain
By IANS,
Washington : Disorders such as depression or Parkinson's may be helped by stimulating certain areas of the brain with controlled precision, says a study, encouraging scientists to create a pacemaker for the brain.
But because controlling that stimulation presently lacks precision, over-stimulation is a serious concern -- losing some of its therapeutic benefits for the patient over time.
Mongolia seeks increased links with India in IT, mining
By IANS,
New Delhi: Mongolia Monday said it was looking for increased trade and commerce with India in the fields of mining and information technology.
Mongolian leaders, including Prime Minister Sukhbaataryn Batbold and chairman of the Mongolian State Great Hural (Parliament) D. Demberel made known their wish list during their meeting with visiting Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
A parliamentary delegation led by the speaker is on a five-day day visit to Mongolia.
Software can sense ‘depression’ in blogs
By IANS,
London: Researchers have developed a software programme that can detect depression in blogs and online texts. The software is capable of identifying language that can indicate a writer's psychological state, which could serve as a screening tool.
Developed by a team headed by Yair Neuman, associate professor of education at Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev, Israel, the software was used to scan more than 300,000 english language blogs posted on mental health websites.
New medical weapons against anthrax attacks
By IANS,
London: The 2001 anthrax attacks in the US are fostering development of a new generation of vaccines and antibiotics to protect people against deadly bacteria in future bio-terrorist incidents.
Dimitrios Bouzianas, molecular endocrinologist, AHEPA University Hospital in Macedonia, Greece, notes that several existing antibiotics are available to combat an anthrax infection.
Andhra aims third place in IT exports
By IANS,
Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh is targeting the third place in Information Technology exports in the country, a state government official said Wednesday.
K. Ratna Prabha, principal secretary, IT, said the state, though started late in IT exports, has reached the fourth position.
"Next year the state will reach third position," she told a programme organised to announce that Hyderabad will host eINDIA 2010, India's largest event on Information and Communication Technology.
Karnataka tops in the IT exports in the country followed by Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
India to witness partial lunar eclipse June 26
By IANS,
New Delhi : Look towards the east after sunset Sunday and you will see upper part of moon's disk darkened as parts of India witness a partial lunar eclipse.
The lunar eclipse is visible in eastern Asia, Australia, Antarctica, parts of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean, a statement from Ministry of Earth Sciences said Wednesday. This eclipse would be the last one in 2010 for India.
"Visibility in India will be at the end of the eclipse. The ending of the eclipse is visible from the extreme northeastern states at the time of moonrise during the eclipse," it said.
Carbon dioxide dictates global climate pattern
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have found the apparent role of carbon dioxide in the intensification of the Ice Ages and corresponding temperature changes in the tropical oceans.
The research, led by a team of Brown University, has established that the climate in the tropics over the last 2.7 million years changed with the cyclical spread and retreat of ice sheets thousands of miles away in the Northern Hemisphere.
CO2 dictated global climate pattern
By IANS,
Washington : Carbon dioxide levels explain why temperatures in tropical oceans and arctic waters have changed together for the past 2.7 million years, says a study.
The findings led by a research team of Brown University appear to cement the link between the Ice Ages and temperature changes in tropical oceans.
The research has established that the climate in the tropics over the last 2.7 million years changed with the cyclical spread and retreat of ice sheets thousands of miles away in the Northern Hemisphere.
US, Russian astronauts arrive at space station
By DPA,
Washington : A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut arrived Thursday at the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz lifted off Tuesday from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan with Americans Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin aboard.
The 2221 GMT docking occurred over Argentina. It was the combined 100th flight to the ISS by US space shuttles and Russian Soyuz capsules.
Chemicals that fix one ecological problem worsen another
By IANS,
Washington : Chemicals that helped fix a global ecological crisis in the 1990s - the hole in Earth's protective ozone layer, for instance - may be raising another problem such as acid rain, says scientists.
Jeffrey Gaffney, chemist at the University of Arkansas, along with colleagues Carrie J. Christiansen, Shakeel S. Dalal, Alexander M. Mebel and Joseph S. Francisco point out that hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) emerged as chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) replacements because they do not damage the ozone layer.
Membrane to cut carbon dioxide emission from coal power units
By IANS,
Sydney : High-tech cling wraps that filter out carbon dioxide (CO2) from waste gases can help save the world, says the researcher who developed the technology.
The membranes can be fitted to existing chimneys where they capture CO2 for removal and storage. They are already being tested on brown coal power stations in Victoria’s La Trobe Valley, said Colin Scholes, a Melbourne University chemical engineer.
"The membrane material is specifically designed to separate CO2 from other molecules," he said.
Access to indiscreet Facebook updates a click away
By IANS,
London : Indiscreet updates posted by the users of social networking website Facebook for their small group of friends can now be read by anyone with the help of a new internet search engine.
The search engine Openbook scans all "public" updates left by members of the social networking site, making them available to anyone through internet.
The software has been created to highlight Facebook's complex privacy settings, which have been blamed for confusing users into disclosing personal information more than they intend.
Guidelines for solar plants released
By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Wednesday announced guidelines for off-grid solar applications, as well as roof top and other small solar plants.
"The guidelines that we have released today are meant to tap into the diverse and enormous potential of solar energy in all applications - rural, industrial as well as urban. The guidelines are flexible, simple and market friendly," union Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said here Wednesday.
Moon has more water than Great Lakes, Chandrayaan data shows
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Scientists have found Moon's minerals may have at least 100 times more water than previously indicated by remote sensing data from the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 and other lunar sample analysis.
In March 2010, a US space agency NASA radar experiment aboard Chandrayaan-1, India's first lunar spacecraft launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation in October 2008, found thick deposits of water-ice near the Moon's north pole.
Treat for sky gazers, comet closest to Earth Tuesday
by IANS,
New Delhi : Sky gazers in the capital are in for a celestial treat Tuesday as the recently discovered comet McNaught will be closest to Earth and visible to the naked eye.
Look towards the northeastern sky before sunrise Tuesday, the comet will appear as a dim and diffused circular patch of light gliding through the constellation of Perseus.