IIT alumnus takes software to battlefront and beyond
By Frederick Noronha, Indo-Asian News Service
Bangalore, May 13 (IANS) An Indian expatriate trained at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kharagpur is playing a crucial role in taking software to the battlefront.
San Jose-based LynuxWorks is chaired by Inder Singh, the IIT alumnus, and produces embedded operating systems and tools for industrial, networking and military and aerospace uses.
Half a billion Android devices activated: Google
By IANS,
San Francisco : Google Wednesday announced that 500 million devices running on its Android operating system have been activated so far.
Google Street View also copied people’s emails, passwords
By IANS,
London : In a major privacy breach, internet search giant Google copied computer passwords and entire emails from households across Britain.
Four South Asian countries agree to improve information communication
By TwoCircles.net news desk
New Delhi: Senior officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal have agreed to collaborate on a subregional information communication technology (ICT) project to improve connectivity among the four countries.
The agreement by the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) countries was reached at the fourth ICT working group meeting to discuss the proposed SASEC Information Highway Project in New Delhi, India on 8-9 October 2007.
Some soil bacteria act as clean-up agents too
By IANS,
Washington : Not all soil bacteria are bad. Some of them act as good Samaritans as they "inhale" toxic metals, strip them of their toxicity and then "exhale" them, say researchers. In the foreseeable future, they might potentially clean-up toxic chemicals left over from nuclear weapons production decades ago.
Using a unique combination of microscopes, researchers at Ohio State University were able to glimpse how the Shewanella oneidensis bacterium breaks down metal to extract oxygen.
India’s first high-security lab on infectious organisms coming up
By K.S. Jayaraman, IANS
Bangalore : After debating for over two years, the Indian government has approved construction of the country's first high-security facility for handling and doing research with highly infectious organisms causing diseases in humans.
"The government has sanctioned Rs.1 billion ($25.4 million) for establishing the Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) facility," Lalji Singh, director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), told IANS. Singh had mooted the proposal in 2005.
NASA completes `brain transplant’ on Curiosity rover
By IANS,
Los Angeles : NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has announced that it has completed "brain transplant" on Mars rover Curiosity.
First earth-like planet seems to be volcanic wasteland
By IANS,
Washington : The first Earth-like planet spotted outside our solar system seems to be a volcanic wasteland.
The rocky planet CoRoT-7b was discovered circling a star some 480 light years from Earth. It is, however, a forbidding place and not likely to harbour life.
That's because it is so close to its star that temperatures might be above 2,200 Celsius on the surface lit by its star and as low as minus 210 Celsius on its dark side.
Google encrypts all emails for a spy-free Gmail
Washington: In a bid to stop snooping on its users, Google has overhauled its Gmail service in a big way - encrypting every single...
Protein discovery to hasten biofuel production
By IANS,
Washington : A new protein necessary for chloroplast development, identified by researchers, is likely to pave the way to tailor plant varieties for biofuel production.
Chloroplasts, specialised compartments in plant cells, convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen during photosynthesis.
The newly discovered protein, trigalactosyldiacylglycerol 4, or TGD4, offers insight into how the process works.
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.
Preparations begin for lunar mission countdown
By IANS,
Bangalore : Preparations for the countdown to launch India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 Oct 22 has begun at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, a top space agency official said here Sunday.
"Launch rehearsal exercises are nearing completion. Preparations for the 52-hour countdown Monday from 02:20 a.m. have been initiated despite inclement weather and heavy rain since morning at Sriharikota (about 80km from Chennai) off the Bay of Bengal," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish told IANS.
Robot kills worker in Germany
London: In a bizarre incident, a robot crushed a worker to death at a Volkswagen car plant in Germany, the media reported on Thursday.
The...
Interstellar dust darkens the universe
By Xinhua,
Beijing : The universe is dustier than previously thought, which is why astronomers now suggest it is twice as bright as it appears.
Astronomers have known about interstellar dust for a while, but they haven't been able to quantify just how much light it blocks. Now a team of researchers has studied a catalogue of galaxies and found that dust shields roughly 50 percent of their light.
Now websites can track your IP address
By IANS,
London: A new online tracking system will allow websites to pinpoint your location to within a few hundred metres, without your permission.
Japan launches communication satellite
By Xinhua
Tokyo : Japan Saturday launched a high-speed data transmission satellite, the nation's space agency said.
A H-2A rocket carrying the satellite 'Kizuna' lifted off at 17.55 p.m. from the space centre on the island of Tanegashima off the southern tip of Kyushu Island in southern Japan.
A spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said the launch went smoothly.
The initial launching was successful despite a delay due to bad weather and an unexpected ship entry in restricted waters near the space centre, the official said.
India-Malaysia To Electronically Link Up Their Customs Network
By P. Vijian, Bernama,
New Delhi : Impressed with the Royal Malaysian Customs Department's comprehensive computer network for clearance and administration, India will soon sign a pact to electronically link up with the department.
Department director-general Datuk Seri Abd Rahman Abd Hamid said that China and Japan were also keen to connect with Malaysia.
"They are impressed with us...India wants to learn our system and interface with our Customs...so do China and Japan.
India to launch three satellites next month
By IANS,
Chennai : India will launch three satellites next month and two more by the end of this year, said a senior official here.
Camera with ability to “see” under clothes
By Xinhua
Beijing : A British company has developed a camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25 meters away, according to British media reports Monday.
The T5000 camera, created by a company called ThruVision, uses what it calls "passive imaging technology" to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays -- known as Terahertz or T-rays -- that they emit.
MIT improves fuel cell output 50 percent
By IANS,
Washington : An improved fuel cell, developed by MIT engineers, not only delivers 50 percent greater output, but is also substantially cheaper than older counterparts.
"Our goal is to replace traditional fuel-cell membranes with these cost-effective, highly tunable and better-performing materials," said Paula T. Hammond, who led the research team.
The Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team focussed on direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), in which the methanol is directly used as the fuel and reforming of alcohol down to hydrogen is not required.
No funds for Malaysia’s space programme
By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Six months after sending its first man into space, Malaysia says it has no funds for the second phase of its ambitious space programme.
It is "zero cash" for the moment till the entire programme is re-evaluated in terms of knowledge and cost-benefit, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Maximus Ongkili told the media Monday.
In the first phase of the programme, Sheikh Muszaphar Sheikh Shukor and two other astronauts blasted into space in a Russian-built Soyuz 11 rocket from Baikonour in Kazakhstan Oct 10, 2007.
Attack paralyses China’s largest web search engine
By IANS,
Beijing : China's largest Internet search engine, Baidu.com, said that its website was paralysed Tuesday morning after coming under a cyber-attack. The search engine later resumed operation.
"The reason why Chinese users could not log on to the website was that our domain name server (DNS) in the United States was illegally attacked," Xinhua reported.
The company said it was still investigating the problem.
"It is rare for Baidu.com to be down for so long as the company boasts high security protection," said Li Tiejun, an IT security engineer of Beijing Kingsoft.
Largest ever dino footprints found in France
By IANS,
Washington : Footprints from sauropod dinosaurs, giant herbivores with long necks, were found in Plagne, near Lyon, France.
The dinosaur footprints in Plagne are circular depressions surrounded by a fold of limestone sediment. These depressions are very large, up to 1.50 metre in total diameter, suggesting that the animals were larger than 40 tonnes and 25 metres in length.
Found: Second smallest planet outside solar system
By IANS,
Washington : Astronomers have detected an extrasolar planet with a mass just four times that of Earth.
The planet, which orbits its parent star HD156668 about once every four days, is the second-smallest world among the more than 400 exoplanets (planets located outside our solar system) that have been found to date.
It is located approximately 80 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hercules.
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.
Intel, Micron develop new high speed flash memory chips
By Xinhua
Beijing : Intel and Micron Technology have developed technology for a high-speed solid-state drive that's five times faster than current products used in consumer and professional devices, like notebooks and digital cameras, media reported Saturday.
The NAND flash memory chips developed jointly by the two companies can reach speeds of up to 200 MB per second for reading data and 100 MB per second for writing data. Current memory chips have maximum read-write speeds of 40 MB and 20 MB, respectively.
Chang’e-1 photographs dark side of the moon
By Xinhua
Beijing : The charge-coupled device (CCD) camera on Chang'e-1, China's first lunar orbiter, has started imaging probes on the dark side of the moon and captured photos of parts of this region, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced Tuesday.
The CNSA said that the orbiter is operating normally in terms of flying, probing, land control and communication, as well as data transmitting and processing.
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.
Roads are the biggest threat to tropical rainforests
By IANS,
Sydney : Roads, the most visible symbols of progress, are the biggest threat to the world's tropical rainforests, says a new study.
"Clearing wide paths in any forest has a strong effect on the ecosystem, but these impacts are particularly acute in tropical rainforests," said William Laurance, study co-author and biology professor at the Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
US launches spy satellite
By IANS,
Washington : The US Wednesday launched a spy satellite into space.
After US tests, India to get first e-passport in June
By Devirupa Mitra, IANS,
New Delhi : India's first e-passport, which will make travel easy, is expected to be issued next month.
It will be issued to diplomats and officials first. Others may have to wait for about 10 months -- or even more.
If all goes well, the first e-passport will be issued around June 15 to President Pratibha Patil or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- or both.
The e-passport project is on a roll. A recent test conducted in a US government laboratory was so impressive that American officials remarked that they would need to study the Indian technology.
India launches Oceansat-2, six European satellites
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : India Wednesday successfully launched its 16th remote-sensing satellite, Oceansat-2, to study oceans and climate, and six small Europeans satellites on board a rocket that blasted off from here.
Under a clear blue sky, the 44.4-metre tall, 230-tonne Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) freed itself from the launch pad at the spaceport, 70 km from Chennai, at 11.51 a.m. and soared upwards with a deep throated growl lugging the 960-kg Oceansat-2 and the six nano satellites all together weighing 20 kg.
Microsoft wants to be part of unique identity project: Gates
By IANS,
New Delhi : Terming the unique identity project as a "great initiative", Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates Friday said the software giant wanted to partner with India in the ambitious project that will give a unique identity number to each of its citizens.
"Microsoft wants to be a part of the unique identification project," Gates told a conference organised by the IT industry lobby, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).
Not all forests act against global warming
By IANS,
Washington : The notion that forests remove carbon dioxide from the air and prevent global warming has some complications, says a new study. There's a kind of forest that does remove carbon dioxide, but does not help prevent global warming because it heats up so much itself.
Forests can directly absorb and retain heat, and, in at least one type of forest, these effects may be strong enough to cancel out a good part of the benefit in lowered carbon dioxide, says a discovery by chemistry researchers at the Weizmann Institute (WI), Israel.
India, US to enhance cyber security cooperation
Washington : India and the US have committed to robust cooperation on cyber issues to increase global cyber security and promote the digital economy.
They...
Brain operates own ‘satellite navigation’ system
By IANS,
London : The human brain possesses a unique navigation system, much like satellite navigation, with in-built maps, grids and compasses, according to neuroscientist Hugo Spiers.
This mechanism resides in the brain's hippocampus area, which is responsible for learning and memory, famously shown to be different in a London taxi drivers' study carried out by Eleanor Maguire at University College, London.
The study showed that a region of the hippocampus was enlarged in London taxi drivers compared to the general population.
Report: iPhone system hacked, made usable in Israel
By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Three Israeli computer engineers have managed to hack Apple's iPhone system, and made it available for use through Israeli carriers, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its website on Sunday.
According to the report, the three were also able to lend the iPhone a Hebrew interface, thus breaking Apple's restriction on using the phone only through the AT&T company in the United States.
Jerusalem : Three Israeli computer engineers have managed to hack Apple's iPhone system, and made it available for use through Israeli carriers, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its website on Sunday.
According to the report, the three were also able to lend the iPhone a Hebrew interface, thus breaking Apple's restriction on using the phone only through the AT&T company in the United States.
Google’s black ribbon tribute to Kalam
New Delhi : Google on Thursday paid tribute to former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, with a black ribbon on its homepage.
Kalam died...
Pluto’s moons tumbling in absolute chaos: NASA
Washington : NASA's Hubble space telescope has provided the first glimpse of Pluto's moons that wobble unpredictably, tumbling in absolute chaos.
It means if you...
Comet McNaught closest to Earth next week
By IANS,
New Delhi : If you look towards the northeastern sky before sunrise June 15, the recently discovered comet McNaught will be closest to Earth and visible to the naked eye.
The comet will appear as a dim and diffuse circular patch of light gliding through the constellation of Perseus in the northern sky.
It has been brightening rapidly as it approaches Earth for a 100-million-mile close encounter.
Apple becomes largest mobile phone vendor in US: Report
By IANS,
San Francisco: Apple overtook Samsung to become the largest mobile phone vendor in the US in the fourth quarter of 2012, a report said Friday.
Researchers deluged with online information, but seldom use it
By IANS,
Washington : Although the Internet provides scientists an instant access to thousands of academic journals and research papers, they are citing fewer papers and that too from more recent publications.
This trend may be limiting the creation of new ideas and theories, said James Evans, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, who, focussing on the nature of research, analysed a database of over 34 million articles.
He compared their online availability between 1998 and 2005 to the number of times they were cited from 1945 to 2005.
Cooling of unique arctic biodiversity vault begins
By IANS
Geneva : Work on cooling an underground vault that will preserve seeds of vital food crops from around the world for up to 1,000 years has begun in an arctic archipelago off Norway.
Refrigeration units Friday began pumping cold air deep into a mountain on the Svalbard archipelago that lies midway between Norway and the North Pole so as to speed up the opening of the fail-safe repository of vital crops.
Russia launches US satellite
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia Saturday launched a Proton-M rocket to put a US telecommunications satellite into space, the defence ministry said.
The rocket blasted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 11.19 GMT. The satellite was due to separate from the carrier rocket at around 20.19 GMT.
The 2.6-tonne satellite has a lifespan of about 15 years. The satellite will provide digital television services for customers in the US and the Caribbean.
This was the fifth Proton-M rocked launched by Russia this year.
Many Malaysian leaders turn bloggers
By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Blogging is the new buzzword in Malaysia with more and more politicians and others in public life taking to it.
The number is growing since the government last week announced that it would take on bloggers using cyberspace to vent their grievances.
The country's long-time Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad remains the most prominent blogger: his blog scored one million hits in May.
Mahathir raised a political storm earlier this month by resigning from the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) that he helped found in 1946.
Google co-founder books space flight in 2011
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Google co-founder Sergey Brin has put down a 5 million U.S. dollar deposit to book a flight into space with the space tourism company Space Adventures.
The company announced Wednesday that Brin will be the founding member of its Orbital Mission Explorers Circle, a group of six individuals who will each make a 5 million dollar down payment to book a seat on a future orbital space flight.
"We believe 99 percent of people want to experience space," Eric Anderson, the head of the Virginia-based company, told a press conference in New York.
Integrated web-based system being developed to ensure population data update
By NNN-APP
Islamabad : Ministry of Information Technology (MOIT) is in process of providing e-services for Ministry of Population Welfare to eliminate the redundant steps of collecting the information from the districts and provincial offices of the Ministry.
Under the project which is expected to be completed by October this year, an online integrated web-based MIS is being developed, sources at Electronic Government Directorate, MoIT said here Saturday.
Islamabad : Ministry of Information Technology (MOIT) is in process of providing e-services for Ministry of Population Welfare to eliminate the redundant steps of collecting the information from the districts and provincial offices of the Ministry.
Under the project which is expected to be completed by October this year, an online integrated web-based MIS is being developed, sources at Electronic Government Directorate, MoIT said here Saturday.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine aims to rival Google
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft stepped up its efforts to cut into the search dominance of Google, launching a public preview version of its widely praised Bing search site Monday.
The site offers several features that are not automatically available on Google such as instant excerpts that allow users to see the contents of a page without actually clicking on it and a sidebar detailing related searches.
Astronauts install experiments, observer on Columbus lab
By DPA
Washington : Europe's newest and most important addition to the space station, the Columbus laboratory, was dressed up with added experiments and observatories during a space walk.
US astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love spent nearly seven and a half hours outside of the International Space Station (ISS) in the third and final outing of the Atlantis shuttle crew Friday.
Atlantis is due to undock from the ISS Monday and return to Earth Wednesday.
Smart solar panels, energy tech to light up building
By IANS,
Toronto : The John Molson School of Business, Montreal, shows - for the first time - how solar heat panels integrated with power technology on its top two floors will help the building light up itself.
Spread over 300 square metres, the solar panels will generate power for the building and heat fresh air during the warm season.
This new approach is the first in the development of futuristic buildings that not only meet it own energy needs, but provide excess power to the power grid, transforming buildings from passive consumers to energy producers.
Lunar polar craters likely to be live with electricity
By IANS,
Washington : Polar lunar craters may be live with hundreds of volts of electrical energy, potentially triggered by solar winds blowing over natural obstructions.
Polar lunar craters are of interest because of resources, including water ice, which exist there.
The moon's orientation to the sun keeps the bottoms of polar craters in permanent shadow, allowing temperatures there to plunge below minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit, cold enough to store volatile material like water for billions of years.
Google India launches text messaging service
By IANS
Bangalore : Google India, the Indian subsidiary of the world's largest search engine, Tuesday launched the beta version of its short messaging service (SMS) for mobile users in India for accessing information on the move without an Internet-enabled phone or a computer.
The company said in a statement that through the service (GoogleT search), users could get business listings, movie show timings and more by sending a text message to 54664 from their mobile phones.
Watch that big, bright Jupiter tonight
By IANS,
New Delhi : As the sun goes down Monday, Jupiter, the largest celestial body after the Sun in the solar system, can be seen in the sky with naked eye.
Yahoo Unveils Voice Search Service For Mobile Device Users
By Bernama
Los Angeles : Yahoo has become the first major search engine to let people search the Internet by talking to a mobile device, China's XINHUA news agency quoted a newspaper, as saying on Thursday.
Through the technology from a Massachusetts start-up, Yahoo's mobile search engine, known as oneSearch, could allow users of popular PDAs like BlackBerry Curves, Pearls or the 8800 series to scour the Web with their voice, the San Jose Mercury News daily reported.
China criticised for serving dog meat to astronauts
By DPA,
Hong Kong : A Hong Kong-based animal welfare charity Thursday criticised China's space programme for serving dog meat to its astronauts.
Yang Liwei, China's first man in space, revealed in his recent autobiography that dog meat was included in the special diet for astronauts preparing for missions.
The Hong Kong-based charity Animals Asia Thursday hit out at the revelation by Yang, who made history when he orbited earth in the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft in October 2003.
Lowly scrap iron can detoxify pollutants in wastewater
By IANS,
London : A Chinese researcher has used scrap iron to do the unthinkable - clean up and detoxity pollutants in industrial wastewater.
Wei-xian Zhang, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tongji Univesity, Shanghai, concluded a five-year research project with the help of colleagues to detoxify pollutants.
The project, carried out in Shanghai, used iron, called zero valent iron (ZVI) because it is not oxidized. They obtained it in the form of shavings or turnings from local metal-processing shops for about 30 cents a kg.
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.
Indian rocket blasts into space
By Xinhua,
New Delhi : An Indian rocket blasted into space on Monday, carrying a cluster of 10 satellites, according to local media reports.
The PSLV-C9 rocket lifted off at 09:20 a.m. local time (0350 GMT) from the Sriharikota space station in Andhra Pradesh in southern India.
The rocket is carrying an unprecedented payload including an Indian remote-sensing satellite, a mini satellite and eight so-called nanosatellites developed by German and Canadian research institutions.
Last tune-up for Hubble telescope before space shuttle launch
By IANS,
Washington : From a fuzzy beginning nearly 20 years ago, Hubble Space Telescope has now revolutionised astronomy, its stunning images stirring global imagination.
But as the International Year of Astronomy dawns, the renowned telescope is preparing for its final chapter, starting with the scheduled May 12 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis for NASA's fifth and final service mission to the telescope.
British eclipse chaser robbed, still leaves Taregna smiling
By IANS,
Patna : Peter Toby, who had come to Bihar's Taregna village from Britain to watch the century's longest solar eclipse, lost his passport, money and all other valuables but still left with a smile after getting unexpected help from a priest who had given him shelter in his school.
The London-based computer programmer was unhappy Wednesday morning as thick clouds hid the celestial spectacle that he had come so far to see. He was in for further disappointment when he returned to his room at the St. Mary School.
Morgan unveils zero-emission hydrogen car
By DPA
Malvern (Britain) : The British sports car manufacturer Morgan is to unveil a zero-emission hydrogen car powered by a fuel cell at the Geneva Motor Show.
The LIFECar, based on an initial concept by a specialist company investigating new ideas in environmentally sound transport solutions, comes in a retro-design of the original Morgan two-seater sports car.
Russia’s Progress cargo spacecraft ‘buried’ in Pacific
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The Progress M-65 cargo spacecraft, which undocked from the International Space Station on September 17 and served as a temporary space lab, has been "buried" in the Pacific Ocean, Russia's Mission Control said Sunday.
"The cargo spacecraft's remaining fragments fell into the ocean after re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere is 11:49 a.m. Moscow time [8:49 GMT] on Sunday," Mission Control said.
Have you experienced a vague feeling of familiarity in a new place?
By IANS,
Washington : You might be overcome with a vague yet familiar feeling when you find yourself in an entirely new place.
Somehow you sense that you have been there before, but when and how, you have not the remotest idea. You are also dead sure that it is your first visit. But something is missing and the experience keeps nagging you.
For a long time, this eerie sensation has been attributed to everything from paranormal disturbances to neurological disorders.
Do urban ‘green’ spaces contribute to global warming?
By IANS,
Washington : There is some disquieting news about urban green spaces, which instead of mitigating global warming, might actually contribute to it, says a new study.
Turfgrass lawns help remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air through photosynthesis and store it as organic carbon in soil, making them important "carbon sinks".
However, greenhouse emissions from fertiliser output, mowing and other lawn management practices are four times greater than the amount of carbon stored by ornamental grass in parks, a University of California-Irvine (UC-I) study shows.
China Announces 186-mph Bullet Train
Beijing, Dec 22 (Prensa Latina) China announced on Saturday its first 186-mph bullet train, wholly designed and built in this Asian country.
China thus joins Japan, France and Germany as the fourth country worldwide in position to build state-of-the-art high-speed trains, a spokesman for the Railway Ministry said.
Be careful when accessing your computer from afar
By Nabeel A. Khan, IANS,
New Delhi : Be careful when you access your computer over the Internet. Here are some safety tips:
* Install file-sharing software carefully, so that you know what's being shared.
* Person to person (P2P) file-sharing applications will, by default, share downloads in your "save" or "download" folder - unless you set it not to.
* You should also restrict users' ability to write files to the file server.
* Limit guests or anonymous accounts sharing so none can upload files.
Partial lunar eclipse to be observed in Saudi Saturday night
By NNN-KUNA,
Riyadh : Saudi Arabians will observe later tonight a partial eclipse of the moon, which will be the second and last one this year, according to a professor at King Fahad University on Saturday.
In a statement to the local "Al-Watan" newspaper, physics professor Dr. Ali Al-Shukri explained that a lunar eclipse occurred when the moon passed through the earth's shadow.
Thus, the sun, earth, and moon must be aligned with the earth between them, he said.
ISRO-built satellite fails after five weeks
By K.S. Jayaraman, IANS,
Bangalore : The very first communications satellite sold by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to the European operator Eutelsat has failed abruptly after five weeks in orbit, in a setback to ISRO which just celebrated the 100th day of its successful moon mission.
"Scientists at ISRO are analyzing the anomaly in the hope of reviving the satellite," ISRO spokesman S. Satish told IANS.
CNN claim of hologram use not true: scientist
By IANS,
Toronto : A Canadian scientist has contested CNN's claim of showing three-dimensional holograms during its coverage of the US election.
CNN made this claim Tuesday night when anchor Wolf Blitzer in New York announced at 7 p.m. that he was now speaking live to the network reporter Jessica Yellin in Chicago "via hologram".
As the fuzzy-looking reporter appeared a few feet in front of Blitzer in the studio, he said, "You are a terrific hologram".
Google to sell e-books to challenge Amazon.com
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington : Seeking to find common ground with authors, who have complained about copyright violations through search services, Google plans later this year to begin distributing and selling e-books on behalf of its publishing partners.
"We've consistently maintained that we're committed to helping our partners find more ways to make their books accessible and available for purchase," Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said Monday confirming the move first reported by the New York Times.
Exposed to sunlight, cotton fabric cleans itself
By IANS,
Washington: Scientists from China are developing a cotton fabric that can clean itself of stains and bugs when exposed to ordinary sunlight.
U.S. Launches Gamma-Ray Telescope into Orbit
By SPA,
Washington : A U.S. gamma-ray telescope was launched into space Wednesday on a Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The orbiting Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) will probe the most energetic form of light. Gamma rays are millions to hundreds of billions of times more powerful than what can be seen with the human eye.
Radioactive iodine found in Tokyo tap water
By DPA,
Tokyo : High levels of radioactive iodine were detected in tap water in Tokyo, authorities said Wednesday.
Versatile new micro-sensors to sniff out explosives
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have discovered a way to detect explosives based on the physical properties of their vapours and are readying the technology, which utilises micro-sensors, for field testing.
"Certain classes of explosives have unique thermal characteristics that help to identify explosive vapours in presence of other vapours," said Thomas Thundat, Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) and University of Tennessee researcher who conducted the study with colleagues at ORNL and the Technical University of Denmark.
Yahoo! reports loss but beats expectations
By DPA
San Francisco : Troubled Internet pioneer Yahoo! swung to a quarterly loss Tuesday because of severance pay and write downs on its European properties.
Despite recording a $303 million loss in the fourth quarter, the company's results beat expectations as its revenues and operating profit held up well in the dire economic climate.
German firms to collaborate with Andhra Pradesh in biotechnology
By IANS
Hyderabad : A high-level German delegation Saturday signed three agreements with the University of Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) for collaboration in the field of biotechnology.
Three Letters of Intents (LoIs) were signed in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy at his office here.
The LoIs were signed by the University of Hyderabad and BioM Biotech Cluster Development, Technologiepark Heidelberg GmbH and BioTOP Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany.
Argentina, Italy launch new satellite
By NNN-Prensa Latina
Buenos Aires : Argentina and Italy have launched the second of a group of six satellites for scientific use for monitoring natural disasters and agriculture, Telam official agency informed Friday.
Argentina is a pioneer in the use of satellites, allowing advanced scientific achievements in areas like health, particularly the detection of epidemiological diseases, affirmed Conrado Varotto, executive director of CONAE (National Space Activities Commission).
Solar Energy Corp to develop India-centric technology and products
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Kwt leadership places emphasis on scientific research — professor
By KUNA
Kuwait : The Kuwaiti leadership places much emphasis on scientific research and provides all means to enrich this important area, said Kuwait University's Deputy Rector for Scientific Affairs Dr. Nouriya Al-Awadhi on Saturday.
In a press release, she said that holding the fifth Euro-Asian conference on heterogeneous ring chemistry under the auspices of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and with the attendance of His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was proof of this support.
Spot five planets in night sky this week
By IANS,
New Delhi : Sky gazers are up for a treat this week as five planets of our solar system will be visible in the night sky for the next few days.
According to scientists, four planets - Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn - will be visible in the evenings while Jupiter can be seen in the morning.
"Mercury, which is always hidden in sun's glare would be visible up to April 10 whereas other four planets can be spotted for many months to come," said N. Sri Raghunandan Kumar, general secretary of Planetary Society of India.
IBM labs unveil digital transportation solutions
By IANS
Bangalore : The research division of the global IT major IBM has come out with a slew of innovations that have the potential to change the way people travel.
The next-generation transport innovations revolve around driver-assist technologies, intelligent traffic systems using sensor technologies, advanced mass transit systems connected to mobile phones, ultra sophisticated voice recognition systems and smart airport system.
CA develops enterprise smartphone management
By IANS
Hyderabad : The India Technology Centre (ITC) of Computer Associates (CA), one of the largest IT management software companies in the world, has developed a mobile device management (MDM) product, which can manage an entire corporate mobile infrastructure from a single consol.
MDM will provide large organisations with enterprise-level device management tools for the most popular smartphone platforms from companies such as Microsoft, RIM and Symbian.
Designed and developed entirely at ITC here, the product is scheduled for release next month.
Grid computing helping to solve cancer mysteries
By IANS,
Washington : In a unique venture, people across the globe are cooperating to fight cancer using a concept known as grid computing.
Grid computing - as opposed to local computing -- allows Internet users worldwide to contribute to a “virtual” supercomputer to solve a difficult problem.
This can be done by “donating” idle computer time to the effort.
The anti-cancer project, called Cellular Environment in Living Systems @Home or CELS@Home , is the brainchild of Muhammad Zaman of Texas University and comprises more than 1,000 computer users worldwide.
Unwrapping ideas at Mumbai’s latest ‘unconference’
By Ridhi D Cruz, IANS
Mumbai : They call it an "unconference", and it's a small but growing rage among techies wanting to share ideas in town. BarCamps are an international network of "user generated conferences" that involve open, participatory workshop events.
Some 200 people from diverse spheres took part in Mumbai's latest BarCamp, where content is provided by participants - often focusing on early-stage web applications, and related free software or open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats.
World’s first humpback dinosaur discovered
By DPA,
Madrid : Spanish scientists said Wednesday they have discovered the world's first humpback dinosaur.
Astronomers discover planet bigger than Jupiter
By IANS
New York : Astronomers in the US claim to have discovered a giant planet that is 20 times larger than the earth and 1.7 times the diameter of Jupiter - the biggest planet of our solar system.
The scientists also say they are working on the possibility of finding another bigger planet in the same constellation, said the online edition of Channel 4 television channel.
Solar powered rickshaws? India and UK set up energy hub
By IANS,
London : Rickshaws powered by solar energy could be your next mode of transport, courtesy of a Commonwealth initiative.
The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) has set up an incubation hub in partnership with the Indian government to develop cutting edge energy-saving technologies, it announced Tuesday.
The hub, which also involves the Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad, the UK Carbon Trust and British Petroleum's Alternative Energy Group, will work on technologies that will be designed for Indian city and rural living, as well as transport.
Arianespace Sends Its First Mission To International Space Station.
By Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : Arianespace, the launcher of Malaysia's Measat-I & -II, successfully launched the European Space Agencys first ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle), dubbed Jules Verne ATV to the international space station on Sunday, March 9.
In a statement today, Arianespace said the mission marked Arianespaces first mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Guiana Space Center from where the mission was launched has now joined the select club of launch sites serving the ISS, along with Baikonur and the Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral).
Twitter may allow app advertisers use video
New York: App ads on Twitter may soon have the option to be video-based, the microblogging site has announced.
In a blog post celebrating one...
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.
NASA’s Mars orbiter snaps color, 3-D Phobos photos
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured new color and 3-D imagery of Phobos, the larger of Mars' two minuscule moons.
The pictures were taken on March 23 by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, and released on Wednesday. Phobos is expected to be the focus of an ambitious Russian-Chinese space mission scheduled for launch next year.
China to launch second Olympic weather forecasting satellite on May 27
By Xinhua,
Beijing : China will launch a second Olympic weather forecasting satellite, the Fengyun-3 (FY-3), on May 27, said the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) on Friday.
The new satellite will provide accurate and timely information about weather changes to facilitate more precise weather forecasts during the Beijing Olympic Games set to open on Aug. 8, said a CMA official.
The official added that the new satellite, with a bigger payload, would provide medium-range weather forecasts up to 10 to 15 days.
Next-gen antivirus system to offer better protection to computers
By IANS,
New York : A new "cloud computing" approach to malicious software detection, developed by the University of Michigan, is likely to replace ageing antivirus software on personal computers.
Cloud computing refers to seamless applications and services on the Internet.
Traditional antivirus software, installed on millions of personal computers worldwide, has been found to be increasingly ineffective, according to researchers.
New ‘space truck’ hailed as precursor to Mars mission
By DPA
Darmstadt (Germany) : A heavy-duty European spacecraft that will make its maiden flight Sunday has been hailed as a precursor to a spaceship that could one day carry robots to the planet Mars.
The Jules Verne, which will haul nine tonnes of food, fuel and other supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), then depart with the station's accumulated garbage, is the first automated transfer vehicle (ATV) in a series of five.
Thinning Himalayan glaciers may deprive half billion Indians of water
By IANS,
Washington : The absence of radioactive signals from all the three ice core drilled in a Himalayan glacier bodes ill for half billion people living downstream in India. They indicate that high-altitude glaciers are no longer accumulating ice due to climate change. This could hit future water supplies.
These missing markers of radiation are remnants from atomic bomb tests a half-century ago, as in the Naimona'nyi glacier in Tibet.
Seasonal runoff from glaciers like Naimona'nyi feeds the Indus, the Ganga and the Brahmaputra rivers.
Russia to launch space base for missions to Moon, Mars
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia plans to deploy an orbiting base for manned and unmanned missions to the Moon and Mars after 2020, the head of the space agency said Tuesday.
"After 2020, Russia plans to create and put into orbit a near-Earth experimental manned complex to ensure transport operations to the Moon and Mars," Anatoly Perminov said.
He also said Russia has tentative plans for manned missions to Mars, but since substantial technical and financial resources would be needed, a Mars expedition should be international.
Venezuela sends satellite to join space club nations
By Prensa Latina,
Caracas : Venezuela has joined the space club nations by launching its first satellite, built with Chinese technology, into orbit successfully earlier this week.
Named after Simon Bolivar, the hero of South American independence, the communications satellite Venesat-1 was launched from China Wednesday.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who monitored the launch along with his fellow leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales from the eastern town of Luepa, described it as a "construction of socialism" and a "symbol of Latin American integration".
World Champion Anand gets new technology to better his chess
Bangalore, Dec 22 (IANS) World champion Viswanathan Anand was honoured for defending his world chess title by his sponsors Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) with a top-of the line gaming computer here Monday.
The computer is powered by AMDs top of the line quad-core Phenom processor and the one teraflop ATI Radeon 4870x2 graphics card in a futuristic looking Asus chassis with specifications to match the need of the sporting giant.
Government approves release of 3G spectrum for BSNL and MTNL
By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Thursday approved the release of airwaves for two state-run companies for the launch of third generation (3G) mobile services in the country.
The airwaves, also referred to as radio frequency or spectrum, have been released for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) that offers telecom services in Mumbai and the national capital, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which operates in all other parts of the country.
"We have approved the release of one block to MTNL and another block to BSNL," Communications Minister A. Raja told reporters here.
NASA schedules final shuttle launches through 2010
By SPA,
Washington : The US space agency NASA issued a schedule Monday for the final 10 shuttle programme missions in 2009-10, DPA reported.
The list includes one launch to the Hubble Space Telescope, seven missions to continue construction on the orbiting International Space Station and two unspecified flights available for unspecified purposes.
Emirates Islamic Bank to use Infosys product
Bengaluru: Dubai-based Sharia-compliant Emirates Islamic Bank has selected Finacle banking software product of Indian IT bellwether Infosys for its operations across the Gulf region.
"Finacle...
Researchers create world’s first diamond laser
By IANS,
Sydney : Researchers in Australia have built the world's first diamond laser, harnessing its capability to transmit heat and light very effectively.
A research team led by Richard Mildren at Macquarie University in New South Wales built the first laser using a technique based on the Raman effect.
Besides demonstrating a more effective way of generating a powerful beam, it has also shown that synthetic diamonds are of the right size and quality to enable exploration of a new class of laser devices.
Low carbon electricity to power hybrid cars
By IANS,
Washington : Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming, but the benefits are highly dependent on how the power system changes in future.
"Plug-in hybrids represent an opportunity to reduce oil consumption, leverage next-generation bio-fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."
Scientists can predict if women are going to break their hip
By IANS
New York : Scientists have listed 11 factors that will help doctors predict if a postmenopausal woman is going to suffer hip fractures over a period of five years.
A hip fracture is a common injury for elderly people. A broken hip can lead to more serious problems, even death. For older women, a hip fracture can mean continuing ill health.
A device that measures ultra-cold temperatures
By IANS,
Sydney : Physicists have devised a thermometre that can potentially gauge temperatures as ultracold as tens of trillionths of a degree above absolute zero.
Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature, minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, in which all molecular activity ceases.
Scientists can currently cool atoms to a few billionths of a degree, but even this is too hot for certain applications.
For example, Richard Feynman of Harvard University dreamt of using ultracold atoms to simulate the complex quantum mechanical behaviour of electrons in certain materials.
US regulations restrict space industry growth
Hyderabad, Sep 28 (IANS) International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) of the US are a major hurdle in the growth of new space industry actors in the global market, said speakers from emerging space nations at the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2007) here.
They also made a strong case for change in the rules to facilitate cooperation and healthy competition in the global space industry.
The speakers were unanimous that both cooperation and competition were necessary to ensure growth of the space industry, especially among emerging nations and new players.
Sunita is like Shah Rukh in Swades, says US official
By IANS
New Delhi : One could not help comparing American-Indian astronaut Sunita Williams with Shah Rukh Khan, who played the role of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineer who came back to India to ignite the minds of people in the Hindi movie "Swades".
The metaphor may sound somewhat remote, but a senior US embassy official Monday drew a comparison between the two stars in a programme where Williams interacted with around 150 school students.
European cargo spacecraft blasts off for space station
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A European carrier rocket took off from French Guiana early on Sunday on a mission to bring supplies to the International Space Station (ISS), a spokesman for Russia's mission control said.
The Ariane-5 rocket lifted off at 04:03 GMT from the Kourou space center to bring a 20-ton unmanned cargo module into orbit.
Bummer: Wii no substitute for real exercise
By Xinhua
Beijing : What a bummer! A study by the British Medical Journal reveals that although the Wii game console offers more activity than passive videogames, Wii tennis is not an exercise substitute for real tennis.
A standard videogame only requires players ;move their thumbs and index fingers playing a standard video game, whereas the Wii actually requires players to move their hand or occasionally their entire arm to interact with the game, but that's not enough action to break a sweat for most couch potatoes.
Solar mission to start with 1,300 MW, reach 20,000 by 2022
By IANS,
New Delhi : India's solar mission will set up, in its first phase, 1,100 MW of solar power through the electricity grid and 200 MW off the grid, with the objective of making solar power as cheap as power from coal by the end of the mission, Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said here Monday.
Scientists turn animal waste into ‘bio-plastic’
By IANS,
Sydney : A new process developed by scientists converts low grade animal waste like feathers into plastic products that are bio-degradable.
The “bio-plastic”, as it is being called, would be suitable for agricultural plastic sheeting, seedling trays, plant pots and even biodegradable golf tees, ScienceAlert reported.
US firm announces plan to mine near-Earth asteroids
By IANS,
Los Angeles : A newly established US company, Deep Space Industries, Tuesday announced a plan to harvest near-earth asteroids.
Researchers to explore ‘lost world’ beneath Caribbean
By IANS,
London : Scientists are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a 'lost world' five kilometres beneath the Caribbean.
The team of researchers led by Jon Copley of University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science, will explore the Cayman Trough, which lies between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
This rift in the Caribbean seafloor plunges to a depth of more than 5,000 metres. It contains the world's deepest chain of undersea volcanoes, which have yet to be explored.
Aluminium-water propellant promising for future space missions
By IANS,
Washington : A new type of green rocket propellant, comprising frozen mixture of water and "nanoscale aluminium" powder, is being developed that could be manufactured on the moon, Mars and other water-bearing bodies, says a new study.
The aluminium-ice, or ALICE, propellant might be used to launch rockets into orbit and for long-distance space missions and also to generate hydrogen for fuel cells, said Steven Son, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.
9,000-year-old rhino remains found in Russia
By RIA Novosti,
Yekaterinburg (Russia) : Archaeologists in the Sverdlovsk region in Russia's Urals have discovered 9,000-year-old bones of a rhinoceros, a local museum worker said Monday.
The excavations during which the bones were discovered were carried out at a site on the bank of the Lobva River, said Nikolai Yerokhin from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology department.
It was generally assumed that rhinoceros last wandered the Urals some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago.
Youngsters use Facebook, MySpaceTeens to create flattering self-images
By IANS,
Washington : Youngsters are using popular networking websites like Facebook and MySpace to create flattering self-images, one that they would like to be but are not.
"People can use these sites to explore who they are by posting particular images, pictures or text," said University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) psychology graduate Adriana Manago, researcher with the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles (CDMCLA), and co-author of the study.
Polaris launches software testing lab in Sydney
By Neena Bhandari, IANS
Sydney : Polaris Software, a leading Indian software company, has launched its new software testing laboratory here that will inject Australian $5 million (US$4.5 million) into the state of New South Wales (NSW).
NSW Minister for State Development Ian Macdonald said Monday: "This is about attracting investment from India, instead of the other way around, where our jobs are outsourced to companies based there.
Remote sensing agency comes under ISRO
By IANS,
Bangalore : The autonomous National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) has become a state-run body and brought under the Indian Space Research Organsiation (ISRO), the space agency said Monday.
Renamed the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), the Hyderabad-based entity will be integrated with other ISRO centres for the development and operations of the ground segment under India's remote sensing programme.
“The society has been merged with ISRO in view of the allied activities carried out in aerial and satellite remote sensing,” ISRO said in a statement.
‘Primates fast disappearing off the face of earth’
By IANS,
London : Humankind's closest kin in the animal world - monkeys, apes and other primates - are disappearing from the face of the earth, warns a new report.
The first comprehensive review of 634 kinds of primates found almost 50 percent of them are in danger of extinction, according to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
No solution yet to BlackBerry security issue
By IANS,
New Delhi : A solution to the security concerns over BlackBerry services in India has still to be hammered out as its licensor Research-in-Motion (RIM) has sought more time from the Indian government to reach an agreement.
Executives from the Canada-based firm, senior government officials, representatives from security agencies and services met Tuesday here for the second time after India raised concerns that BlackBerry services may be used by terrorist outfits as the e-mails between these cannot be intercepted.
NASA reschedules shuttle launch for Sunday night
By DPA,
Washington : The US space agency NASA was confident that the repeatedly delayed launch of the space shuttle Discovery would lift off Sunday night for a mission to the International Space Station.
The launch was scheduled for 7.43 p.m. (2343 GMT) Sunday from the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Discovery will have seven astronauts on board, including Japanese crew member Koichi Wakata, who is slated to join the permanent crew on the orbiting space station.
Indian space agency to map the moon
By Venkatachari Jagannathan and Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : The Indian space agency will map the entire surface of the moon in two years, a top official said here Wednesday, hours after the launch of the country's first unmanned mission to the moon.
"The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft carries 11 instruments that would conduct varied tests about the moon," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told reporters here.
Chandrayaan-1, with a life expectancy of two years, is scheduled to orbit the moon from Nov 8 onwards.
U.S. pledges to compensate countries hit by satellite debris
By Xinhua
Geneva : The United States said on Friday that it would compensate countries whose territory might be hit by debris of an inoperable U.S. spy satellite that the Pentagon plans to shoot down.
Christina Rocca, U.S. ambassador for disarmament affairs, said the United States had recently modified three SM-3 missiles and three U.S. Navy ships to try to shoot down the satellite, which is currently in a decaying orbit.
Geneva : The United States said on Friday that it would compensate countries whose territory might be hit by debris of an inoperable U.S. spy satellite that the Pentagon plans to shoot down.
Christina Rocca, U.S. ambassador for disarmament affairs, said the United States had recently modified three SM-3 missiles and three U.S. Navy ships to try to shoot down the satellite, which is currently in a decaying orbit.
China to select taikonauts for space station
By Xinhua,
Beijing : China has started a new round of selection for taikonauts and five to seven of them will be part of the final list, said an official of the country's space programme Thursday.
"The new taikonauts will mainly take missions related to China's planned space station," said Zhang Jianqi, deputy chief commander of the manned space project, on the sidelines of the annual session of China's parliament.
New digital map reveals more secrets about Antarctica
By IANS,
Sydney: A new digital map configured by British and Australian scientists has revealed astonishing new geological facts about Antarctica, not known till now.
Corn stover being evaluated as sustainable biofuel source
By IANS,
Washington : With galloping oil prices, the quest for efficient and sustainable biofuels has narrowed on corn stover, the leaves and stalks of corn plants that are discarded after harvesting the edible grain. The plant could meet a fourth of the biofuel crop requirement by 2030.
Scientists at the University of Nebraska examined the long-term sustainability of using corn stover as a biofuel crop.
When corn stover is not harvested as a biofuel crop, it can be left on the fields to restore vital nutrients to the soil. Full-scale harvesting of corn stover may deplete the soil.
World’s most advanced robot walks like a human
By IANS,
London : Researchers trying to make robots walk have so far met with limited success, but one developed by a university in Netherlands walks as naturally as humans do.
The robot, called Flame, is arguably the most advanced walking machine in the world, at least in the category that applies the human method of walking as a starting principle.
Since the robot, built at the Delft Technology University, mimics how people walk, it is likely to provide insights into problems associated with walking - and lead to better diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment.
India can send crew to space in seven years: ISRO chief
By IANS
Washington : The Indian government has been "sensitised" on the issue of manned space flights and India's space agency will be able to send crew to space in seven to eight years, G. Madhavan Nair, head of India's space programme, said here.
"We have sensitised the government on manned space flights. In seven to eight years, we will be able to carry crew to orbit and back," Nair, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and of the Space Commission, said here.
‘Block the sun, control global warming’
By IANS,
Toronto : Canadian and US scientists want to block the sun to cool the earth and limit global warming.
Research and field-testing on what they call "geo-engineering" of the earth's atmosphere to limit risk of climate change must begin quickly, say scientists from the University of Calgary in Canada, and the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University in the US.
Studies on geo-engineering or solar radiation management (SRM) should be undertaken collectively with government funding, rather that unilaterally by nations, argue the scientists.
Russian Pundit Says US Risks Planet
By Prensa Latina
Moscow : A US militarization of outer space will endanger security of the planet, affirmed Friday here an expert on that countrys policy.
Professor Pavel Zolotariov, deputy director of a Russian research institute on US and Canada, considered dangerous the initiative recently submitted by Colorado republican senator Wayne Allard at the Annual Space Symposium in that country.
The militarization of the cosmos began during the cold war and has never stopped, although after 1991 funding was reduced, explained Zolotariov.
Scientists gear up to tackle 15 million gigabytes of data
By IANS,
London : The four huge detectors of the new Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, when fully operational, are expected to generate up to a staggering 15 million gigabytes of data every year.
Andreas Hirstius, manager of CERN Openlab and the CERN School of Computing, explained how computer scientists have met the challenge of handling this unprecedented volume of data.
NASA’s Fermi telescope sees mother of all gamma-rays blast
By IANS,
Washington : The first gamma-ray burst to be seen in high-resolution from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the highest-energy initial emissions ever recorded.
"We were waiting for this one," said Peter Michelson, the principal investigator on Fermi's Large Area Telescope at Stanford University. "Burst emissions at these energies are still poorly understood, and Fermi is giving us the tools to understand them."
Russian academy honours Indian scientist
Moscow, Sep 28 (RIA Novosti) The Russian Academy of Sciences has given the title of honorary academician to Goverdhan Mehta, director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He received the title, which is rarely awarded to non-Russians, for "his outstanding achievements in applied chemistry".
The presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences gave Mehta a special diploma and a commemorative sign. The ceremony took place at the 18th Mendeleev Congress currently underway in Moscow. After the ceremony, the scientist gave a lecture on molecular synthesis.
How old is your oldest bulb? This one’s 70
By Asit Srivastava, IANS,
Lucknow : Seventy years old and still glowing. It's a light bulb, which has recently become the most prized possession of Lucknow resident Girish Chandra Gupta, who now aims to enter the record books, claiming to have a "rare bulb".
"It was only last month that I came to know the importance of the bulb after coming across an article in a Hindi daily," says Gupta, who runs a grocery shop from his small house located in a congested lane in the Hussainganj locality of this Uttar Pradesh capital.
NASA delays next space shuttle launch to May 31
By Xinhua
Washington : NASA's next space shuttle launch, Discovery's STS-124 mission, has been delayed until May 31 due to late fuel tank delivery, NASA announced here on Monday.
"NASA is targeting May 31 as the launch date for shuttle Discovery's STS-124 mission to deliver the large Japanese Kibo Pressurized Module to the International Space Station," NASA said in a statement. And the liftoff time is approximately 5:01 p.m. EDT (2101 GMT) on May 31.
Bajaj Auto, TVS feud over patent violation
By IANS
New Delhi : Two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto Saturday said that it would sue its rival TVS Motors for allegedly violating its patented digital twin spark ignition (DTSi) technology, even as the latter denied any such alleged infringement.
The charges by Bajaj, two days after TVS launched its 125 cc bike 'Flame' with controlled combustion variable timing intelligent (CCVTi) technology, said its intellectual property right (IPR) on a digital twin spark ignition technology had been infringed.
Nandan Nilekani confident of changing India with ideas
By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : Can ideas change a nation? Co-founder of Indian software giant Infosys and author Nandan Nilekani believes that they can, even if it takes a long time for them to become embedded in the collective psyche of the country.
US space shuttle Endeavour lands in California
By Xinhua,
Los Angeles : US space shuttle Endeavour landed in California Sunday afternoon after a 16-day trip, as unfavourable weather conditions in Florida prevented the shuttle from landing in its home base in Cape Canaveral.
Residents across Southern California heard the twin booms around 1.25 p.m. (2125 GMT), when Endeavour broke the sound barrier under the sunny sky as it was gliding into local airspace en route to Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles.
Chang’e I survives its darkest hour
By Xinhua
Beijing : Chang'e I, China's pioneering lunar probing satellite, came through its first lunar eclipse yesterday and has regained full operations.
The moon orbiter was temporarily hidden from solar rays and lost contact with Earth for two-and-half hours during a blackout that started at 10 am, Ye Peijian, chief commander and designer in charge of the satellite system, said.
Chang'e I had to switch off some of its equipment and rely on onboard batteries during this challenging time, when it was blocked from solar energy, Ye said.
‘Free software allows cheaper long distance phone calls’
By Frederick Noronha, IANS,
Panaji : Free software and open source solutions offer a huge potential to link your computer to the mobile phone and the inexpensive Skype networks -- that allows you to make international calls over the internet -- and for sending out SMSes too.
This could help significantly narrow the digital divide "at the social level between rich and poor and geographical levels, between city and village", says Giovanni Maruzzelli, an Italian expert in the field currently touring India.