Spiders which eat together, stay together and multiply
By IANS,
Washington : The ability to work together and capture larger prey has allowed social spiders to flourish beyond the strength of their numbers, according to a new study.
The surface area of the three-dimensional webs social spiders use to capture prey does not grow as fast as the number of spiders in the nests. So the number of incoming prey per spider declines with colony size.
Yahoo to spend $100 mn to promote its brand
By Xinhua,
San Francisco : Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday it will spend $100 million to promote its brand globally.
"Our vision is to be at the centre of people's online lives - to be at the place where their world meets the larger world," Yahoo said in a statement quoting the company's chief marketing officer Elisa Steele.
"This is much more than an advertising campaign," Steele added. "It's about how Yahoo delivers its promise to the market in everything we do. Our brand strategy shows our commitment to delivering personally relevant online experiences."
Climate change killed mammoths, suggest their DNA
By IANS
Sydney : Global warming might have wiped out ancient species like mammoths and bison, warning us about the potential impact of climate change.
Study of ancient DNA indicates that extinction of such species from the northern hemisphere 11,000 years ago was largely due to climate change. Human impact through hunting and overkill were only incidental, said lead researcher Alan Cooper.
He retrieved remains of genetic material from a variety of sources, including bones and teeth, preserved seeds and sediments, to examine evolution and environmental change, reports Sciencedaily.
Chinese astronauts test suit for spacewalk mission
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou VII spacecraft Friday finished assembling a spacesuit for tests before carrying out the country's first spacewalk mission.
Two of the three astronauts unpacked the Chinese-made suit inside the orbital module of the spacecraft as the third astronaut waited in the re-entry module.
The spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), slated for 4.30 p.m. Saturday will last about 30 minutes, Wang Zhaoyao, spokesperson of the manned space programme said Friday.
Cassini to experience close encounter with Saturn
By Xinhua
Los Angeles : The Cassini spacecraft on Wednesday will skirt the edges of Yellowstone-like geysers erupting at the south pole of Enceladus during a flyby that will bring the craft to within 30 miles (about 48 km) of the Saturnian moon, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said Tuesday.
Indian spacecraft enters lunar orbit, makes history
By IANS,
Bangalore : India Saturday made history by firing its first unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 into the lunar orbit, breaking away from the earth's gravitational field for a rendezvous with the moon.
"The complex lunar orbit insertion manoeuvre was conducted perfectly. We have created space history by doing it for the first time. It shows our planning was precise and all calculations were on dot," a beaming Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters here after the successful operation.
Advantage India after Israeli satellite launch
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Bangalore : India has a cost advantage among the five nations that can make commercial launches of satellites in polar orbit, a top Indian space agency official said after the successful launch of an Israeli "spy satellite" Monday.
"India is now one among the five countries in the world to commercially launch any kind of satellite into polar orbit at around two-thirds of the international cost," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told IANS on phone from Sriharikota.
Google to insert automated captions on YouTube
By DPA,
San Francisco: Google is to add automatic captions to the tens of millions of English-language videos it hosts on YouTube, the web search giant said Friday.
The move will make the videos more accessible to deaf viewers but will also help Google index the content and supply relevant ads alongside it, analysts said.
U.S. finds new clues to search for life on Mars
By Xinhua
Washington : The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced on Thursday that its Mars Odyssey orbiter has found evidence of salt deposits on Mars, giving hope that the environment could have supported primitive life.
These deposits point to places where water once was abundant and where evidence might exist of possible Martian life from the red planet's past, said NASA on its website.
Scientists isolate genes that imbue us with uniquely human traits
By IANS,
Washington : Humans and chimpanzees are genetically very similar yet clearly distinct in many ways. Scientists have isolated genes that evolved in humans after branching off from other primates, making us uniquely human.
The prevailing wisdom in molecular evolution was that new genes could only evolve from duplicated or rearranged versions of pre-existing genes. It seemed highly unlikely that evolution could produce a functional protein-coding gene from what was once inactive DNA.
First rehearsal of moon mission Chandrayaan goes off fine
By IANS,
Chennai : India's first lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 was fitted to the launch pad for rehearsals late Saturday night and they "went off well", a top space agency official said Sunday three days ahead of the final launch.
"The launch rehearsal was held at 10 p.m. and everything went off fine. It is like a dress rehearsal ahead of the Oct 22 launch," a scientist said declining to be named.
mPire of Hasan Ahmad wins Lockheed Martin Innovation Award
(Hasan Ahmad is a Bangalore-based young software engineer whose company mPower has recently won the prestigious Lockheed Martin India Innovation 2008 Award from U.S. aerospace major Lockheed Martin for a software automation product called mPire. In this interview with our Assistant Editor Tariq Anwar, he talks about his company and the award.)
China launches satellites to monitor environment
By Xinhua,
Taiyuan (China) : China Saturday launched two satellites into orbit for monitoring the environment and forecasting natural disasters.
The two satellites, launched from the Taiyuan satellite launch centre in the northern province of Shanxi and carried by a Long March 2C rocket, were expected to enhance the country's ability to forecast natural disasters, according to Bai Zhaoguang, designer of the satellites.
The satellites, called "Environment-1", are China's first ecology monitors in space.
Cars still drive China’s development-first strategy
By DPA
Beijing : Giant power plants belching out clouds of filthy coal smoke often spring to mind when people mention China's worsening air quality. But the exponential growth of the car industry over the past 10 years has also added enormously to the noxious mix of pollutants swirling across urban centres.
As hundreds of new vehicles take to China's roads every day, the government is left in something of a bind between enforcing new environmental policies and its long-term development of the economically vital auto industry.
Jupiter possibly hit by object, NASA says
By DPA,
Washington : Jupiter appears to have again been hit by a speeding celestial object that left a giant dark scar in the giant gaseous planet's atmosphere, NASA astronomers said.
The US space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received a tip early Monday from Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley who had spied the spot near the planet's south pole. Scientists then pointed NASA's infrared telescope in Hawaii at the planet and detected signs - including particles in the upper atmosphere and a warming of the lower atmosphere - that it may have been struck by a comet.
Snip of hair can nail criminal now
By IANS,
Sydney : A snip of human hair, recovered from a crime site, would now be enough to nail its perpetrator, thanks to a new technique developed by researchers.
Called Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS), the portable tool has the advantage of being readily available and could be used for forensic analysis.
Sarina Brandes, a chemistry masters researcher at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) who adapted this technique, said it was independent of analysis of DNA, which could break down quite quickly, especially during disasters.
Facebook trains self-help groups in Telangana
Hyderabad: Facebook on Friday launched a training programme for rural self-help groups (SHGs) in Telangana to equip them with technological knowledge to promote their...
MIT to hold emerging technologies conference in Bangalore
By IANS,
Washington: About 100 leading business and tech visionaries from around the world would discuss innovative ideas and market ready incubated technologies at the annual emerging technologies conference, EmTech 2010, in Bangalore next month.
The two-day conference from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT's) Technology Review is being held in India for the second year in succession, in association with CyberMedia, from March 8.
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.
Saudi prince buys into Twitter
By IANS,
London: Saudi billionaire prince Alwaleed bin Talal has invested $300 million in the microblogging company Twitter, becoming its latest major investor.
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.
Goojje not to change logo despite Google objection
By IANS,
Beijing : Chinese web portal Goojje has said it "will not change" its logo despite US search giant Google's threat to sue it over copyright infringement, according to a media report Wednesday.
Goojje's logo resembles the logo of Google Inc and also bears a paw print sign like that of Baidu Inc, the biggest Internet search engine in China and Google Inc's arch rival in the country.
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.
China’s IT giants to hedge against Windows XP shutdown
By IANS,
Beijing: Tencent will join hands with other IT giants to "build a hedge" for Chinese users against potential internet attacks on them after...
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.
Russia launches US satellite
By IANS,
Moscow : Russia launched a 5,600-kg US communications satellite Sunday from a seaborne launch platform in the Pacific Ocean, Xinhua reported.
Russian rocket sends Germany spy satellite into orbit
By Xinhua
Moscow : A Russian rocket sent a Germany spy satellite into orbit on Thursday night, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The Russian carrier rocket Kosmos-3M lifted off from the Plesetsk space center in the north of European part of Russia at 20:15 Moscow Time (1715 GMT), carrying into orbit the Germany spy satellite SAR-Lupe-4.
Lieutenant-Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, a spokesman for Russia's Space Troops said the satellite is expected to get to the designated orbit at 20:43 Moscow Time.
British team building car to run at 1,600 km an hour
By IANS,
London : A team of British engineers plans to build a car that will run at the speed of 1,600 km an hour, outracing a handgun bullet.
The ambitious project comes from the team that holds the world's land speed record and has the full backing of the Science Minister Lord Drayson, who believes it will be an inspiration to young people looking for a career in science or engineering, The Independent daily reported Thursday.
Fossil throws up oldest example of insect-parasite cooperation
By IANS,
Washington : A termite, entombed for 100 million years in amber, has helped researchers unravel the oldest example of insect-parasite cooperation or 'mutualism'.
Mutualism is a natural process in which two species help each other. In this case, it has established termites as one of the most successful, even if despised, insect groups in the world.
The findings were made by George Poinar, an Oregon State University (OSU) researcher and international expert on life-forms found in amber.
Chemicals in consumer products likely to cause premature births
By IANS,
Washington : A common contaminant present in consumer products, including cosmetics, may be causing an alarming rise in premature births, according to a new study.
Phthalates are commonly used compounds in plastics, personal care products, home furnishings (vinyl flooring, carpeting, paints etc.) and many other consumer and industrial products.
Researchers at the University of Michigan School of Public Health (SPH) found that women who deliver prematurely have, on average, up to three times the phthalate level in their urine compared to women who carry to term.
NASA obtains best images of moon’s south pole
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA said Wednesday that it has obtained the best images of the moon's rugged south polar region, with a resolution to 20 meters per pixel, according to media reports Thursday.
NASA's scientists also said that the region, a possible future landing site for human or robotic lunar missions, is far more rugged than has been thought, with towering peaks and deep craters.
NASA's scientists also said that the region, a possible future landing site for human or robotic lunar missions, is far more rugged than has been thought, with towering peaks and deep craters.
Nitrogen dioxide level exceeds limit in 10 cities
By IANS,
New Delhi : Air pollution is increasing at an alarming rate in the country with the national capital being one of the 10 cities where nitrogen dioxide levels have exceeded prescribed standards, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has said.
"Nitrogen dioxide levels are exceeding the prescribed standards in 10 cities, namely Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Asansol, Bengaluru, Jamshedpur, Faridabad, Meerut, Patna and Pune. There is an increasing trend of nitrogen dioxide levels in Asansol and Bengaluru," Ramesh said.
Nitish Kumar excited about solar eclipse at Taregana
By IANS,
Patna : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is upbeat about watching the total solar eclipse Wednesday along with scientists from across the world at Taregana village, one of the best places in India to view the celestial spectacle.
"I am really upbeat to watch the total solar eclipse along with astro-physicists, scientists and researchers ... a lifetime opportunity," Nitish Kumar said here Monday.
Dinosaur footprints found in New Zealand
By IANS,
Hamilton (New Zealand) : Seventy million-year-old dinosaur footprints have been found in New Zealand, a geologist said.
The footprints were found in the South Island region of Nelson - the first evidence of the dinosaur's existence in the country.
Geologist Greg Browne of the New Zealand government-owned research organisation, G.N.S. Science, found the footprints while he was investigating rock and sediment formations in Whanganui inlet at Golden Bay, said a press release of Tourism New Zealand here.
Indians wary of planning vacations on the Internet
By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : Indian travellers are still not confident of planning their holidays online.
Call it the fear of the intangible or the chip of technology on their shoulder, Internet travel portals are yet to instil confidence in the Indian globe trotter, who prefers to fall back on offline support networks - the travel agents, says Himanshu Singh, managing director of Travelocity.
The use of e-portals is still restricted to a niche segment, the young and the Internet-savvy.
Scientists unearth wound-healing genes
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists have closed in on 68 regions of the genome, tied to blood platelet formation, potentially opening the way to better diagnosis of bleeding disorders.
NASA hails new era in space
By IANS,
Washington : NASA head Charles Bolden has hailed a "new era" in exploration after the launch of the first cargo delivery to the space station Tuesday by a private company, BBC reported.
Airbus announced further delays of A380 program
By Xinhua,
Paris : European aircraft manufacturer Airbus on Tuesday announced further delays in the delivery of its A380 super-jumbo jet, saying that the projected production timetable was "not entirely feasible," according to reliable sources.
"Airbus has completed a review of the A380 program and would now like to inform its customers of changes in the timing of the deliveries," Airbus, a subsidiary of the European aerospace group EADS, said in a statement.
Why close kin keep their distance in animal kingdom
By IANS,
London : Mammals cannot share their habitat with closely-related species because the need for the same kind of food and shelter would lead them to compete to the death, a new study has said.
The finding - the best evidence so far for an old Darwinian prediction - is important because habitat destruction and climate change could inadvertently force closely-related species to live closer together than before.
Oriya portal offers free breaking news on mobile phone
By IANS
Bhubaneswar : An Oriya news portal is offering free news briefs to all its readers through SMS.
The portal, www.odisha.com, has introduced the service after a tie-up with SMSGupShup, a free group messaging service provided by Mumbai-based Webaroo Technology India Pvt Ltd.
The portal already introduced last month a premium local breaking news service for mobile subscribers. It has now said it would also provide the news for free. The free news would contain advertisements.
Armoured Mist Frog resufaces 17 years after ‘extinction’
By IANS,
Sydney : Researchers have stumbled on a frog species not seen for the past 17 years in a remote location in far North Queensland.
Ross Alford of the James Cook University informed it was feared that the Armoured species had been lost in the devastating outbreaks of amphibian chytrid fungus that started in the Wet Tropics 20 years ago.
"But Jame Cook PhD student Robert Puschendorf working with myself and its Amphibian Disease Ecology Group has found a healthy population of the Armoured Mist Frog well outside the areas it used to inhabit," Alford said.
Future robots will perform surgery in remote locations
By IANS,
Washington : Robots may possibly play more complex roles in future such as performing surgeries in remote or dangerous locations like the battlefield or in space.
Duke University engineers have taken the first concrete step towards realising this space age future, based on feasibility studies conducted in their lab.
On a more immediate level, the technology that they have developed could make existing medical procedures safer and better for patients.
Indian-American detects black holes with 10 billion times sun’s mass
By IANS,
Washington : There are limits to how big super gigantic black holes can grow, according to the latest research led by an Indian-American astrophysicist of Yale University.
These "ultra-massive" black holes have been shown to have masses upwards of one billion times that of our own Sun, which is where they have set the limit on themselves.
Priyamvada Natarajan, associate professor of astronomy at Yale and Ezequiel Treister, a postdoctoral fellow at Hawaii University, have shown that even the biggest of these gravitational monsters can't keep growing forever.
Navy gets lab-on-wheels to test radioactivity
By IANS
New Delhi : An environmental survey vehicle (ESV) - a radiological laboratory on wheels - developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was formally handed over to the Indian Navy here Monday.
DRDO chief M. Natarajan handed over the ESV to the Indian Navy vice-chief, Vice Admiral Nirmal Verma.
Designed and developed by the Defence Laboratory at Jodhpur, the ESV is equipped with state-of-art instruments to measure radioactivity levels in solids, liquids and in the air.
Genome of destructive plant parasite sequenced
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have sequenced and mapped the genes of an ubiquitous and extremely destructive plant parasite, known as the northern root-knot nematode.
The research could help open the way to a new generation of eco-friendly tools to manage the microscopic soil-dwelling worm which, along with other nematodes, causes an estimated $50 billion in crop and plant damage yearly, said Charles Opperman, professor of plant pathology at North Carolina (NC) State University and co-author of the report.
Shenzhou VII locks in for return to earth after space walk
By Tham Choy Lin, NNN-Bernama,
Beijing : The Shenzhou VII space mission that pulled off China?s first spacewalk has entered into the journey back to earth and can expect a euphoric welcome on Sunday evening.
The return capsule carrying astronaut Zhai Zhigang, who performed the historic feat, and two other astronauts will touch down at about 5.40pm in the steppes of central Inner Mongolia, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Real Death Star might blast Earth with death rays
By Xinhua
Beijing : A beautiful pinwheel in space might one day blast Earth with death rays, according to a report in Astrophysical Journal March quoted by media Tuesday.
The blazing spiral could destroy the world from thousands of light-years away, which is far more powerful than the moon-sized Death Star, which has to get close to a planet to blast it as we see in Star Wars.
Solar system’s 3rd plutoid named Makemake
By Xinhua,
Beijing : A dwarf planet orbiting outside Neptune has been designated the third plutoid in the solar system and named Makemake, the International Astronomical Union said on Saturday.
The red methane-covered dwarf planet formerly known as 2005 FY9 or "Easterbunny" is named after a Polynesian creator of humanity and god of fertility.
Just last month the IAU, which names planets and other heavenly bodies, decided to create a new class of sub-planets called plutoids.
India test-fires Akash missile twice
Bhubaneswar: India Saturday successfully test-fired its Akash surface-to-air missile twice from a defence base in Odisha, an official said.
The indigenously-developed missile, with a 27-km...
Khamenei congratulates Iranian scientists on satellite launch
By IANS,
Tehran : Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has complimented Iranian scientists for their success in sending the first domestically-produced satellite into orbit, IRNA reported.
In a message Tuesday in response to a letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei expressed appreciation for the efforts of Iranian officials and scientists "for their efforts which made such a praiseworthy move possible".
"This is another sign that the hope that the Islamic Revolution has brought to hearts is true," he stated.
Agra based firm launches free astrology software for mobiles
By IANS,
Agra : Star gazers and those interested in astrology can now prepare their horoscopes on their mobile phone itself, and that too free of cost.
A free software developed by Ojas Softech's research wing in Agra, was Wednesday launched by Surendra Sharma of the Brahmin Maha Sabha.
"With the number of star gazers going up and the younger generation getting hooked to astrology, the new software will prove a useful tool," Sharma said.
For those who follow Jyotish (astrology) personally and professionally, Ojas has launched free Jyotish software for mobile phones.
Robot performs world’s first surgery to remove brain tumour
By IANS,
Toronto : Canadian doctors have created history by performing the world's first robotic surgery to remove brain tumour.
In the landmark surgery, neurosurgeons at Calgary's Foothills Medical Centre guided a newly developed robotic system - called NeuroArm - to remove an egg-shaped tumour from the brain of a woman.
Twenty-one-year-old Paige Nickason was discharged from the hospial two days after the nine-hour-long surgery performed Monday.
``I was happy to help by being a part of this historical surgery,'' she said in a statement at the weekend.
Soon, solar rickshaws for Delhi’s Chandni Chowk
By IANS,
New Delhi : Come Gandhi Jayanti (Oct 2), solar rickshaws will replace man-pulled pedicabs in the Chandni Chowk area of old Delhi.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, who also represents the constituency in parliament, Friday advised Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to introduce these green vehicles from Oct 2.
The rickshaw would weigh 210 kg and would be able to run at a speed of 15 to 20 km per hour.
It would be run by a solar battery, which would suffice for a journey of 70 km.
NASA postpones spacewalk due to ‘health issues’
By DPA
Washington : A planned Sunday spacewalk to attach an expansion to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed to Monday due to unspecified "health issues", officials at the US space agency NASA announced.
The spacewalk by astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, docked late Saturday with the ISS, has been rescheduled.
A NASA spokesman refused to clarify the nature of the health issue or identify any astronaut suffering problems.
India test fires Akash missile
Bhubaneswar: India Wednesday test fired its Akash surface-to-air missile from a defence base in Odisha, an official said.
The indigenously developed missile, with a 27-km...
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.
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.
Kangaroos to be put on the pill
By DPA
Sydney : Australian scientists have come up with a contraceptive suitable for kangaroos that they claim could do away with the controversial killing of the nation's emblem, news reports said Saturday.
Koala colonies are already on the pill to keep numbers down.
The breakthrough comes after a standoff between sharpshooters and animal rights activists over a plan to kill the 3,000 kangaroos that have over-run a military base in Canberra.
The worst drought in a generation has raised Canberra's kangaroo population to epidemic proportions.
AMD sets up silicon design facility in India
By IANS
Bangalore : Leading chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc Thursday expanded its research and development (R&D) operations in India by opening a silicon design facility in the country's IT hub.
AMD chairman and CEO Hector Ruiz, who inaugurated the new facility, told reporters that its Indian subsidiary plays a critical role in the company's global design network, including development of its most advanced, next-generation processing solutions.
Russian scientists revive plants frozen for 30,000 years
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A team of Russian biophysicists has successfully grown ancient plants from tissue material that stayed frozen in the Siberian region for about 30,000 years.
Launch of Mars lander delayed
By DPA
Washington : The planned launch of the Phoenix Mars lander has been pushed back, according to NASA.
Phoenix is now scheduled to be fired into space from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket Saturday at either 5.26.34 a.m. or 6.02.59 a.m.
Poor weather at the space centre kept NASA from fuelling the rocket Tuesday afternoon and led to the decision to delay the launch.
Washington : The planned launch of the Phoenix Mars lander has been pushed back, according to NASA.
Phoenix is now scheduled to be fired into space from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket Saturday at either 5.26.34 a.m. or 6.02.59 a.m.
Poor weather at the space centre kept NASA from fuelling the rocket Tuesday afternoon and led to the decision to delay the launch.
Endeavour docks with ISS
By DPA
Washington : Space shuttle Endeavour has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) but engineers said some damage was caused to the shuttle's heat shield during launch.
The Endeavour crew Friday positioned the shuttle alongside the ISS, where they will install a truss that is part of station's solar power system and will deliver supplies and equipment to the ISS crew.
"It was a flawless rendezvous," said NASA Flight Director Matt Abbott at a press conference in Houston, Texas. "Everything was from the book."
Robot system to test 10,000 chemicals for toxicity
By IANS,
Washington : A new high-speed robot screening system can test 10,000 different chemicals for potential toxicity.
Instant Messaging cuts workplace interruptions: Study
By IANS,
Washington : Instant messaging could be a way to reduce interruptions at the workplace, rather than cause them, as is popularly believed.
A new study has found that instant messaging, or IM, is now being often used as a substitute for more disruptive forms of communication like the telephone, e-mail and personal chats.
This finding flies in the face of earlier research which concluded that IM - along with phones and e-mail - was the cause of increased interruptions at work and resulted in reduced output.
Ice Age park? Scientists sequence mammoth genome
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have sequenced the genome of the woolly mammoth of the Ice Age, bringing to reality the possibility of an Ice Age park in the lines of the fictional Jurassic Park of Michael Crichton.
With four billlion DNA bases, the sequencing has been done for the first time, using new generation tools and a novel technique that reads the DNA bases far more efficiently.
Mammoths roamed the northern hemisphere during the last Ice Age.
How earthquakes happen
New Delhi : Most earthquakes originate from compressional or tensional stresses built up at the margins of the huge moving plates that make up...
Microsoft unveils voice activated Xbox Kinect
By IANS,
London : If you are always searching for your remote or running out of batteries, Kinect is just the thing for you as it allows you to play computer games without the handset.
Combined PCs beat second fastest supercomputer in mapping Milky Way
By IANS,
Washington : Legions of personal computers (PCs), engaged in a project to map the Milky Way, beat the world's second fastest supercomputer in sheer performance.
At this very moment, tens of thousands of PCs worldwide are quietly working together to solve the largest and most basic mysteries of our galaxy.
Enthusiastic volunteers from Africa to Australia are donating the computing power of everything from decade-old desktops to sleek new netbooks to help computer scientists and astronomers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute map our Milky Way.
NRI Muslims celebrate first Indian moon mission
By TwoCircles.net news desk,
New Delhi: The news of successful blast of India's first mission to moon was celebrated in India and overseas. Two Indian Muslim organizations based in US and UK have congratulated the Indian scientists who made this mission possible.
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.
X-rays to bring nanoscale materials and bio specimens up close
By IANS
New York : X-rays have taken pictures of broken bones for decades, but scientists have now refined them to capture images of ultra-small particles in nano and bio-materials, including cellular nuclei.
This development will facilitate understanding of how materials behave electrically, magnetically and under thermal and mechanical stress. Besides, its applicability to biology and biomedicine will also contribute to our understanding of disease and its eradication, healing after injury, cancer and cell death.
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.
Iran plans to send satellite in high Earth orbit
By IANS,
Tehran : Iran plans to send satellites in medium and high Earth orbits in two or three years, Iran's ISNA news agency reported quoting a senior official. On Feb 3, the country launched Omid light satellite in low Earth orbit, using the Safir 2 (messenger) rocket.
The chief of Organisation for Iranian Scientific and Industrial Research, Hossein Rahimi, said Sunday that Iran's next step in space technology was sending operational satellites in an orbit of 36,000 km.
New technique to stamp out microchip piracy, save billions
By IANS
Washington : A new technique developed by Rice University will block piracy of microchips, something that causes billions of dollars in losses to chipmakers every year.
The cutting edge technology will allow designers to lock and remotely activate chips with a unique ID tag. Only the patent-holder can decipher the key and activate the chip, rendering stolen chips worthless.
Hardware piracy has worsened as the skyrocketing costs of microchip production have led chip-design companies to get out of the manufacturing business.
Launch of UAE satellite postponed
By IANS,
Dubai : The launch of the United Arab Emirates' first remote sensing satellite DubaiSat-1, scheduled Saturday, has been postponed to July 29, WAM news agency reported.
The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) announced that the launch was postponed by the launching company -- International Space Company (Cosmotras) -- to undertake some safety and security tests.
Risk of autism linked with mercury emission: study
By IANS,
Washington : There is a significant link between mercury emissions and increased incidence of autism, according to latest research.
Researchers Raymond F. Palmer of the University of Texas, Stephen Blanchard of Our Lady of the Lake University and Robert Wood found that community autism prevalence is reduced by one to two percent with every 10 miles of distance from the pollution source.
"This is not a definitive study, but just one more that furthers the association between environmental mercury and autism," said Palmer.
NASA postpones launch of Dawn space probe
By DPA
Washington : The Dawn space probe's five billion km journey to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter will begin a day later than planned, the US space agency NASA announced.
The spacecraft's launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket has been postponed from Wednesday until Thursday morning. The blastoff is now scheduled for a launch window of 7.20 a.m. to 7.49 a.m. Thursday.
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.
New technique developed to ‘milk’ ostrich semen
By IANS,
Sydney : Australian researchers have developed what is being touted as the first “animal- and human-friendly” technique of masturbating an ostrich.
The new technique being used by researchers tasked with collecting semen and artificially inseminating the large and rather fearsome birds - as well as their cousins, the emus - relies on the use of a dummy female.
Russia postpones launch of navigation satellite
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia has postponed the launch of its new-generation navigation satellite Glonass-K until 2011, the defence ministry said.
Chandrayaan to look for water on the moon
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : Is there water on the moon? India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to find out by peeking into the moon's dark corners and sending an American probe to dig there.
When Chandrayaan heads for the moon Oct 22, it will carry on board a 6.5-kg mini synthetic aperture radar (MiniSAR) developed by the Johns Hopkins University applied physics laboratory and the Naval Air Warfare Centre. It will look for water-ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles by digging a few metres into the surface.
Wireless sensor EcoNet to monitor environment
By IANS,
Toronto : A wireless sensor network under development will not only collect data from remote environmental locations but also help monitor them anywhere in the world.
A University of Alberta research team recently launched EcoNet, a functional model of a wireless sensor network (WSN) for environmental monitoring in the display house at the University's Agriculture/Forestry Centre.
Sea urchin holds key to getting minerals from animals
By IANS,
Washington : Mammal teeth and bones, protective shells of molluscs and needle-sharp spines of sea urchins are made from scratch by nature.
The materials of which shells, teeth and bones are composed are the strongest and most durable in the animal world, and scientists and engineers have long sought to mimic them.
Now, biomineralisation may be closer to reality. An international team of scientists has detailed a key and previously hidden mechanism to transform amorphous calcium carbonate into calcite, the stuff of seashells.
Bacterial innards glimpsed for first time in 3-D
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists glimpsed a detailed version of a bacterial cell wall, how it is made up of thin layer of carbohydrate chains, linked by peptides, wrapped around the microbe like a belt.
This first-ever glimpse of the structure in 3-D, was made possible by new high-tech microscopy techniques that enabled the scientists to visualise these biological structures at nanometre scales.
Online tool in battle against global poverty
By TwoCircles.net news desk
New York: The United Nations has teamed up with technology leaders Google and Cisco to launch a new online site to track global progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the set of ambitious targets the world has set itself for slashing poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy and other social ills by 2015.
MDG Monitor is a web application that tracks real-time progress toward the Goals in a number of categories in nearly every country in the world.
India second-largest wireless market in the world: study
By Frederick Noronha, IANS,
Bangalore : Mobile telephony has grown rapidly in India, especially during the last three years, with India becoming the second-largest wireless market in the world, says a World Bank study.
The number of wireless subscribers in the country has reached 250 million, making India the second-largest wireless market in the world, says the study, The Role of Mobile Phones in Sustainable Rural Poverty Reduction.
Google disregarding privacy, say officials from 10 nations
By IANS,
London : Google has violated the principle that "individuals should be able to control the use of their personal information", say officials from 10 major nations. They have demanded to know how the internet giant will meet concerns about its use of public data in future.
Britain's Information Commissioner Christopher Graham along with officials from Canada, France and Germany have signed a letter addressed to Google's chief exeutive, condemning the manner in which the firm has delivered its Streetview mapping service and its Buzz product, The Telegraph reported Thursday.
Meteor bombardment may have made earth more habitable
By IANS,
London : Large bombardments of meteorites nearly four billion years ago probably made earth and mars more habitable by modifying their atmosphere.
When a meteorite enters a planet's atmosphere, extreme heat causes some of the minerals and organic matter on its outer crust to be released as water and carbon dioxide before it breaks up and hits the ground.
Intel unveils Atom processors for mobile devices
By IANS
New York/Bangalore : Global chip major Intel Corporation has launched five small processors under Atom trademark for mobile Internet devices and Centrino Atom chip for embedded computing solutions, the company said Wednesday.
Each Atom processor has 47 million tiny transistors in 45 nanometer (nm) scale, measuring less than 25 square millimetres. Built on a micro-architecture for small devices and low power consumption, the new chip can support multiple threads for higher performance and quick system response, Intel said in a statement.
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.
British experts use Gurmukhi to aid forensic research
By Prasun Sonwalkar, IANS
London : In a unique scientific study, British researchers have used the Punjabi script Gurmukhi to help narrow down the identity of writers and develop a technique that could profile criminal authors of documents.
Forensic experts at the University of Derby believe that a Punjabi equivalent of the English pangram 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' could help profile the criminal authors of documents.
70-mn-year-old footprints shed new light on dinosaurs
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists have stumbled on the first ever dinosaur footprints in New Zealand, going back some 70 million years.
Geologist Greg Browne of GNS Science said the footprints shed considerable light on how fast dinos moved, how big they were as well as how soft the sediment was when they moved through the area.
Browne made the discovery while investigating the properties of the rock and sediment formations in the northwest Nelson region of the country.
Greenhouse gases increased sharply in 2007
By IANS,
Washington : Global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of climate change, increased by 0.6 percent or 19 billion tonnes last year.
Additionally methane rose by 27 million tonnes after nearly a decade with little or no increase. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists released these and other preliminary findings as part of an annual update on agency's greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites worldwide.
Meteor to strike Earth likely disintegrates in sky
By Xinhua
Beijing : U.S. scientists said a meteor expected to strike the Earth likely disintegrated in the sky, media reported Friday.
Some witnesses account a meteor that streaked across the Pacific Northwest skies hit the ground southwest of Ritzville in central Washington, sending local officials on a fruitless hunt for the crater.
Ariane 5 rocket blasts off, taking Brazilian, Vietnamese satellites into space
By Xinhua,
Paris : An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off Friday at the Kourou launch center, French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America, carrying Brazilian, Vietnamese satellites, Arianespace said.
It was the 24th consecutive successful mission by an Ariane 5 rocket, and the second of seven planned flights for 2008.
New app to delete drunken messages on Facebook, Twitter
By IANS,
London : iPhone has developed a new application using which one could delete messages on Facebok and Twitter that were put out when one was in a drunk state.
NASA developing nuclear fission to use on moon’s surface
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA engineers are exploring the possibility of nuclear fission to provide the necessary power when its astronauts return to the moon and establish a lunar outpost in the future, the US space agency has said.
"Engineers are taking initial steps toward a technology demonstration of this type of system," said a NASA statement released Wednesday.
Ozone hole just got bigger this year
By IANS,
Washington : The 2008 ozone hole - a thinning in the ozone layer over Antarctica - is larger both in size and ozone loss than 2007.
The ozone layer, 25 km above the earth, filters sunlight, shielding life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays which can increase the risk of skin cancer and cataracts and harm marine life.
India successfully test fires exo-atmospheric missile interceptor
Bhubaneswar: India successfully test-fired for the first time an exo-atmospheric missile interceptor at a defence base in Odisha Sunday.
The missile operates outside the atmosphere...
ISRO institute land deal shady: Kerala minister
By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : It is now uncertain whether a space institute of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will actually come up on a plot in the Ponmudi hill station of Kerala, with a minister Thursday calling the land deal shady.
"It is now clear that the individual who sold the land to ISRO was shady, but the Kerala government is clear that it will go ahead with the proposed institute, clearing all the issues that have cropped up," Forest Minister Binoy Viswam told reporters.
He said this in the presence of ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair here.
Indian Mars Orbiter completes 100 days in space
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's maiden Mars Orbiter spacecraft completes 100 days Wednesday cruising through interplanetary space in its voyage towards the red planet.
"Health of...
India puts second navigation satellite into orbit
By Venkatachari Jagannathan,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : India Friday moved a step closer to setting up its own satellite navigation system when in a copy-book...
NASA starts back to moon
By DPA,
Washington : NASA launched its dual moon mission Thursday that will pave the way for humans to return to the moon.
The Atlas V rocket launch lifted off at 05:32 p.m., just 20 minutes after planned, from NASA's Cape Canaveral in Florida.
A scheduling conflict with the Endeavour shuttle delayed the launch by a day.
GPS – a new tool to detect clandestine N-tests
By IANS,
Washington : US researchers are unveiling a new tool for detecting illegal nuclear explosions: the earth's global positioning system (GPS).
Cloudy sky plays spoilsport in Bihar’s ‘eclipse village’
By IANS,
Taregna (Bihar) : Thousands of people who have gathered in this Bihar village to witness the century's largest total eclipse were disappointed Wednesday as the sun remained hidden under cloudy skies.
The eclipse was to begin at 5:29 a.m just after the sunrise but cloudy skies spoiled the mood of the thousands of people, children and adults, who thronged there to watch the celestial spectacle
However, people are optimistic for a more clear picture when the eclipse will reach its totality at 6:24 a.m.
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.
CDC eyes India acquisitions to propel growth
By IANS
Bangalore : CDC Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Corp and a provider of industry-specific enterprise software applications and business services, plans strategic acquisitions in India to expand its presence and scale up its client base, a senior company official said here Wednesday.
Microsoft releases first Vista service pack
By DPA
San Francisco : Microsoft released its first major update to its Windows Vista operating system Wednesday, prompting a flood of complaints from users who said the service pack fouled up their computers.
Microsoft made the free update available via its Windows Update website and said the software improved the stability, security and performance of the Vista. However it also warned that the service pack could clash with some security software and other programs customers may have installed on their machine.
Indians must search for truth behind myths: scientist
By Madhushree Chatterjee, IANS
New Delhi : A cat has nine lives. Or may be not. A cat can survive death plunges from 32-storey buildings because of variations in speed, heartbeats and energy loss that act as cushions while falling, explains visiting Australian scientist Karl Kruszelnicki.
Crush of people kills two eclipse watchers in Varanasi
By IANS,
Varanasi : Two people were killed here Wednesday morning when thousands of people gathered at the banks of the Ganges to watch the solar eclipse.
"One person died because of drowning and the other got crushed in a stampede. The names of the deceased are yet to be determined" said P.C. Meena, deputy inspector general of police (DIG).
Plants can effectively tackle global warming
By IANS,
London : Plants remain an effective way of tackling global warming, despite emitting small amounts of methane, an important greenhouse gas, says a new study.
Research led by the University of Edinburgh (UE) in Scotland suggests that plant leaves account for less than one percent of methane emissions - which is considered to be about 25 times more effective than carbon dioxide.
Kale Consultants to give Finnair new processing system
By IANS
Mumbai : Pune-based airline software solutions provider Kale Consultants Ltd has inked an agreement with northern Europe's leading cargo carrier Finnair Cargo for providing airmail cargo revenue processing systems.
In a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Tuesday, the company said Kale Consultants would provide outsourced airmail cargo revenue accounting services to Finnair Cargo.
In other words, Kale Consultants will scan and process airmail information, documents and invoices in Finland and Mumbai corollary with revenue accounting and management of mail operations.
Nanotubes spun into threads open new possibilities in communications
By IANS,
Washington : Taking already proven technology to grow carbon nanotubes of record lengths, researchers have now found new applications in communications for these fibres by spinning them into strong threads.
David Mast, an associate professor of physics at the University of Cincinnati's (UC) McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, took a 25-micron carbon nanotube thread and created a dipole antenna using double-sided transparent tape and silver paste. He was immediately successful in transmitting radio signals.
Russia to use Baikonur space centre until 2050: Roscosmos
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia will use the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan until 2050, the head of the Russian space agency said.
"The Russian president has set the task to use the Baikonur space centre in full until 2050. We have approved the proposal," Anatoly Perminov, head of the federal space agency Roscosmos told journalists on Cosmonautics Day Saturday.
Baikonur, built in Kazakhstan in the 1950s, was first leased by Russia from Kazakhstan under an agreement signed in 1994 after the break up of the Soviet Union.
Hungry fungus shows potential for green fuel
By IANS,
Washington : A spidery fungus feeding ravenously on military uniforms and tents holds the key to improved biofuel production, according to a study.
The finding could enable more efficient and cheaper conversion of maize, switch grass and even cellulose-based municipal waste into ethanol. Ethanol from waste products is a more carbon neutral alternative to petrol.
The fungus T. reesei rose to notoriety during World War II when military leaders found it feeding on clothing and tents in the South Pacific and rendering them useless.
Scientists track movement of atoms in real time
By IANS,
Washington : A new technique tracks movement of freely moving single neutral atoms in real time, that is more than 99.7 percent accurate and sensitive enough to discern the arrival of a single atom in less than a millionth of a second.
The system, developed by researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) in College Park and the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile, employs a novel means of altering the polarisation of laser light trapped between two highly-reflective mirrors, according to a JQI release.
Zuckerberg fuels Free Basics vs net neutrality debate in India
New Delhi : First splashy full page ads in major Indian newspapers and now a personal piece by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a...
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).
Mercury is latest and deadlier threat to environment
By IANS,
Washington : As if global warming was not alarming in itself, add one more sinister threat to the list -- mercury pollution.
It has already spurred public health officials to advise eating less fish, but it could become a more pressing concern in a warmer world.
Sue Natali, postdoctoral associate in botany at the University of Florida in a paper she co-authored compared mercury levels in soils under trees growing in air enriched with carbon dioxide to soil beneath trees in ambient air.
The computer will look at you and say how old you are
By IANS,
Washington : A software being developed by the University of Illinois can tell your age fairly accurately by looking at your face.
"Age-estimation software is useful in applications where you don't need to specifically identify someone but would like to know their age," said Thomas S. Huang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois.
Day and night to be equally long Saturday
By IANS,
New Delhi : Sky gazers in the capital are looking forward to watch the spring equinox Saturday - when the sun shines directly overhead as viewed from the earth, making the night and day equally long.
According to scientists, equinox marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and the word 'equinox' is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). Around the equinox, the night and day are approximately equally long.
Scientists discover hottest ever planet
By IANS,
London : An exoplanet has been found to be the hottest planet discovered so far with a record-breaking temperature of 3,200 degrees Celsius.
Smart system to take risk out of driving
By IANS,
London : Visualise a smart system that enables you to negotiate sharp, treacherous bends, blind spots and sudden dips on the road ahead, with perfect ease and safety.
The technology being developed by a European project on road safety will keep you updated on geographical database. It can even communicate with other vehicles in the vicinity.
This is the future of in-car maps, going way beyond directions and entering the zone of pro-active hazard detection. It is one of the key strands of the PReVENT project.
Web surveillance can keep lethal infections at bay
By IANS,
Toronto: Integrating real-time web-based infectious disease surveillance with knowledge of worldwide air traffic patterns could help keep lethal infections at bay at mass gatherings.
For instance, during the 1991 International Special Olympic Games in the US, an outbreak of measles was triggered by an athlete from Argentina, where a concurrent measles epidemic was underway.
New software to convert ordinary laptops into supercomputers
By IANS,
Washington : A new software will convert ordinary laptops into powerful supercomputers to extract features and patterns from enormously complex data sets.
The tool - a set of problem-solving calculations known as an algorithm - is compact enough to run on computers and laptops with as little as two gigabytes of memory.
It has been designed and developed by scientists at University of California, Davis (UC-D), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Astronomers whip up recipe for moon concrete
By Xinhua,
Beijing : A team of astronomers have come up with an idea for a kind of lunar concrete that could be used to build structures on the moon such as giant telescopes, solar power arrays and even homes.
New addition to solar system may be bigger than Jupiter
By IANS,
London : A new planet in our solar system's outer reaches could be four times as large as Jupiter, the biggest planet in the system, scientists believe.
Tech really goes mobile as carmakers look for edge
By DPA
Las Vegas : Advances in digital technology are set to transform the automotive world, making cars safer, more efficient and more fun to drive, GM chairman Rick Wagoner has said.
From voice activated control and entertainment systems, to new power systems and even cars that drive themselves, Wagoner's speech at the Consumer Electronics World, the world's largest technology fair, signified how fast cars are integrating electronic gadgets.
Technical snag trips parliament voting system
By IANS,
New Delhi: A technical snag developed in the automatic vote recording system in the Lok Sabha Tuesday as Speaker Meira Kumar asked MPs to cast their votes on the cut motion moved by Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Das Gupta.
More than a dozen foreigners were watching the house proceedings from the visitors' gallery as the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government faced a threat of a cut motion by the opposition parties minus the Samajwadi Party and the Rashttriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Microsoft loses as Toronto firm wins claim over Word patent
By IANS,
Toronto : Ruling against Microsoft, the US Patent and Trademark Office Tuesday confirmed a patent held by
Toronto-based i4i Inc. The tiny Canadian company had taken the software giant to court in 2007 over violations of its patent in Word applications and won the case and got $290 million in damages last December.
The US court of appeals had upheld a lower court order banning Microsoft from selling its patent-infringing Word processing software from Jan 11. The patent pertains to the use of technology that can open documents using the XML computer programming language.
BlackBerry makers launch new smart model to take on iPhone
By IANS,
Toronto : Global telecom major Research in Motion (RIM), makers of mobile handset BlackBerry, has finally unveiled its much touted BlackBerry Bold smartphone.
The new device, which comes within weeks of the global launch of Apple's iPhone, was launched in Austria Thursday. Like the iPhone, the BlackBerry Bold will also operate on the much faster, next-generation 3G network and has a built-in GPS.
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.
University students win robotic car race
New York, Nov 5 (IANS) A robotic car built by university students won a $2 million US military-sponsored race in California, it was announced Sunday.
Backed by General Motors (GM), a team called Tartan Racing -- formed by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- built the robotic car nicknamed 'Boss'. It won Saturday by covering a distance of about 85 km in less then six hours on a simulated town created on a disused US Air Force base in Victorville, California.
Software to locate stolen laptops launched
By IANS
Mumbai : Mumbai based Micro technologies have launched India's first laptop tracking system to locate stolen laptops.
Micro Lost Notebook Tracking System (LNTS) is a software product that is embedded on notebook hard drives and is tracked as soon as they are connected to the Internet.
"The software was developed to deter, track and recover stolen laptops, notebooks and personal computers," said P. Shekar, Micro technologies chairperson.
Ensuring everyday privacy while using the computer
By DPA
Washington : Most of the privacy threats we hear about are from anonymous "hackers" or unnamed forces waiting to swoop via an Internet connection and steal our data or personal information. But many people have privacy concerns that are closer to home.
While the outside threats do exist, it's probably far more likely that a friend, guest, colleague, or family member will see information on your computer that you had not intended to share.
How can you tighten security at home or the office? Read on for some answers.
The computer helper: Grouping taskbar buttons in Vista
By DPA
Washington : Some things have changed for the better in Microsoft's Vista operating system. Others have not.
Those who have grown accustomed to the efficiency afforded by XP's taskbar button grouping feature will probably not be happy with Vista's handling of the feature. There is, though, a way in Vista to group taskbar buttons the XP way.
Read on to find out how.
Indian device for cancer treatment gets EU certification
By IANS,
Bangalore : Cytotron, a device developed by the city-based medical technology firm Scalene Cybernetics for treatment of cancer and osteoarthritis, has received the European Union (EU) certification from Underwriters Laboratories, a worldwide independent product safety certification organisation.
The Conformity Europa (CE) certificate, a regulatory requirement for compliance, will enable Scalene to sell the 2,400 kilogram medical device to hospitals and institutes in European and other international markets.
High capacity lithium-ion battery developed
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have developed a new lithium-ion battery that can recharge within 10 minutes and hold thrice as much energy as its existing counterparts.
Semiconductor industry attracts $7 bn in investments
Bangalore, Feb 18 (IANS) India's semiconductor industry has already attracted $7 billion (Rs.280 billion) in committed investments, less than a year after the government announced an ambitious policy to promote chip manufacturing and create an ecosystem for chip design services, a top official said Monday.
These firms are especially keen on making solar photovoltaic (PV) cells for domestic and export markets, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said here.
U.S. space shuttle departs station for return home
By SPA,
Houston : The U.S. space shuttle Discovery backed away from the International Space Station on Wednesday, leaving behind a Japanese research laboratory, a new crew member and high hopes for the outpost's completion by 2010, Reuters reported.
Pilot Ken Ham pulsed Discovery's steering jets to slip away from the station's Harmony docking port at 7:42 a.m. EDT/1142 GMT.
The shuttle arrived on June 2 to deliver Japan's primary contribution to the $100 billion complex, the 37-foot-long (11-metre-long) Kibo laboratory.
"We hope we left them a better, more capable station than
Nuclear bill in Lok Sabha likely Monday
By IANS,
New Delhi: With less than a month to go before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to the US, the government is planning to introduce the contentious Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill in the Lok Sabha Monday.
The bill is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha Monday, said government sources here.
The passing of the bill, which seeks to limits damages to American nuclear companies in case of an accident, is a crucial step India is required to complete under the 123 civil nuclear agreement with the US.
Global warming could raise sea level by five metres: Scientist
By DPA,
Wellington : New evidence shows that if global warming melts the West Antarctic ice sheet, sea levels around the world could rise by up to five metres, a New Zealand scientist said Thursday.
Tim Naish, director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre in Wellington, said the ice sheet was Antarctica's most vulnerable element and was expected to melt first, along with Greenland.
"Polar ice sheets have grown and collapsed at least 40 times over the past five million years, causing major sea-level fluctuations," he said in a statement issued by the university.
India’s mission moon: Countdown progressing smoothly
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : The countdown to India's first mission to send a spacecraft that will orbit the moon was progressing smoothly, senior officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said here Monday.
"The countdown started at 5.22 a.m. Monday and is progressing as per schedule," M.Y.S. Prasad, associate director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, told IANS from Sriharikota, India's spaceport off the Andhra Pradesh coast, 80 km North of Chennai.
Discovery shuttle cleared for landing despite loss of part
By DPA,
Washington : The shuttle Discovery was cleared for landing after NASA concluded Friday that a small part that broke off the spacecraft did not pose any safety concerns, the agency said.
The Discovery crew spotted the small, rectangular object floating away from the shuttle early Friday, NASA officials said.
After analysing the video footage, NASA determined it was a metal clip used to protect the rudder's speed brake during take-off and its loss would not affect landing.
Yahoo! lays off 45 people in India
By IANS,
Bangalore : Global search engine and web services provider Yahoo! laid off 45 people from its India operations as part of its worldwide firing policy due to global meltdown, a company spokesman confirmed here Thursday.
"Around three percent (45 people) of our India headcount, which is 1,500, has been asked to go Wednesday as per the directive from our headquarters at Sunnyvale in the US," a spokesman of Yahoo! India subsidiary told IANS here.