European space truck docks at space station
By DPA
Bremen (Germany) : In a first docking by a European spacecraft in orbit, an expendable "space truck", named the "Jules Verne", nosed up to International Space Station (ISS) Thursday and attached itself automatically.
A live telecast, watched with bated breath by the craft's assemblers in Bremen, Germany, showed how computers guided the arriving craft smoothly throughout the slow manoeuvre, succeeding on its first attempt.
Germany hopes to benefit from India’s moon mission
By Mohammed Shafeeq
Hyderabad, Sep 27 (IANS) German Aerospace Centre DLR is hoping that the data generated from India's lunar mission 'Chandrayaan-1', to be launched next year, will help in its own proposed moon mission slated for launch in 2012.
"Chandrayaan-1 has good science and high resolution instruments and we expect that the data on different aspects of lunar exploration will benefit us. No agreement has been signed but we hope the scientific findings will help widen lunar exploration," a DLR official told IANS.
Singapore Airlines superjumbo A380 rolls off runway
Singapore, January 11, SPA -- Singapore Airlines' A380 superjumbo jet sustained superficial damage when it rolled off a runway in the first glitch for the world's biggest passenger plane since going into service in October, AP quoted the airline as saying today.
The plane was getting ready to depart from Singapore's Changi Airport to Sydney late Thursday. It was carrying 446 passengers who disembarked, and no injuries were reported, the airline said.
Russia to develop new rocket for manned space flight
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia's space agency will soon invite a tender to develop a new carrier rocket for its manned flight programme, a top space official said Wednesday.
"A special commission will determine the design criteria (for the new space vehicle) and the domestic companies eligible for participation in the tender," said Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Federal Space Agency.
Drop in CO2 triggered polar ice sheet formation
By IANS,
Washington : A drop in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels seems to have triggered Antarctic ice sheet formation.
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.
Killer algae is key player in mass extinction
By IANS,
Washington : Super volcanoes and crashing asteroids corner all the horrific glory for mass extinction, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world's great species annihilations.
Today, just about anywhere there is water, there can be toxic algae. The microscopic plants usually exist in small concentrations, but a sudden warming in the water or an injection of dust or sediment from land can trigger a bloom that kills thousands of fish, poisons shellfish, or even humans.
India to use Embraer platform for airborne early warning system
By IANS,
New Delhi : In a path breaking development, India and Brazil Thursday inked a deal to jointly develop an airborne early warning and control system (AEWCS) for the Indian Air Force to supplement a larger eye-in-the-sky system it will induct later this year.
The agreement was signed here by S. Christopher, director of the Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) of the Defence Research and Development Organistion (DRDO) and Luis Carlos Aguiar, Embraer's executive vice president for defence and government markets.
The project is believed to be valued at Rs.18 billion ($415 million).
Found: World’s oldest living tree, age 9,550
By IANS,
London : A 9,550-year-old spruce, the world's oldest living tree, has been found in Dalarna province of Sweden.
The tenacious specimen has survived by growing between erect trees and smaller bushes in pace with the dramatic climate changes over time.
For many years the spruce tree has been regarded as a relative newcomer in the Swedish mountain region.
"Our results have shown the complete opposite. The spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range," said Leif Kullman, of Umeå University.
Andhra signs MoU with TISS to improve students’ employability
Hyderabad: The government of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday signed an MoU with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to increase employability of students...
Thuraya to launch satellite mobile services in Asia-Pacific
By IANS
Dubai : Thuraya, the United Arab Emirates-based world's largest provider of handheld mobile satellite services, is set to commercially launch its operations in the Asia-Pacific markets by January with the launch of its third satellite on Monday.
"The launch of Thuraya-3 is a significant milestone in the company's progress towards realizing its strategic vision of becoming a dynamic, world leading, multi-regional mobile satellite operator," Thuraya chief executive Yousuf Al Sayed told the Emirates News Agency (WAM).
Haryana scientists develop milk-testing kit
By IANS,
Chandigarh : An innovative 'milk urea detection kit' has been developed by the scientists of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU) in Haryana's Hisar town, the university's vice chancellor K.S. Khokhar announced Friday.
Khokhar said that with this kit, milk could be checked for the presence of urea in it - even at home.
Carbon dioxide being soaked up by oceans reduced
By Xinhua
London : The amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the world's oceans has reduced, British scientists who carried out a decade-long study said.
Researchers from University of East Anglia gauged carbon dioxide absorption through more than 90,000 measurements from merchant ships equipped with automatic instruments and the results of their 10-year study in the North Atlantic show carbon dioxide uptake halved between the mid-90s and 2000 to 2005, the BBC reported Saturday.
Around the world in 80 days, the Indian Air Force way
Hindon (Uttar Pradesh), Aug 19 (IANS) Two intrepid Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots flew in here Sunday after creating two new world records for circumnavigating the globe in a microlight aircraft.
Flying over 16 countries and touching 81 destinations, Wing Commanders Rahul Monga and Anil Kumar completed their journey in 80 days, shaving 19 days off the existing mark of 99 days held by Britain's Colin Bodil since 2001.
They also bettered Bodil's airspeed record of 16.53 km per hour by recording 21.09 km per hour.
Endeavour astronauts complete third spacewalk
By RIA Novosti
Washington : US space shuttle Endeavour astronauts have completed their third spacewalk, preparing a new robot designed for the maintenance of the International Space Station for activation, NASA said Tuesday.
Mission specialists Rick Linnehan and Robert Behnken outfitted the Canadian-built Dextre robot with tools for its work. The two-armed robot, assembled during the previous two spacewalks, is the final element in the station's Mobile Servicing System.
NASA packs new toilet pump on shuttle Discovery for ISS
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA packed a new toilet pump aboard the space shuttle Discovery on Thursday to be sent to the International Space Station to fix its faulty Russian toilet, the U.S. space agency said Thursday.
The new toilet pump and some other replacement parts were rushed in from Russia to the United States last night and were stowed inside the payload bay of Discovery, which is perched at the launch pad of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Chandigarh named ‘challenger’ location in A.T. Kearney-Nasscom study
By IANS,
Chandigarh : Chandigarh is a 'challenger' location for the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry, a recent study says.
The study titled 'Location roadmap for IT-BPO growth: Assessment of 50 leading cities' has been jointly conducted by the global consultancy major A.T. Kearney and National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), an Indian IT industry lobby.
Yahoo! to develop nest-generation products from India lab
By IANS
Bangalore : Leading search engine and news and entertainment portal Yahoo! has set up a laboratory here to develop next-generation products for its global customers and users, a company official said Tuesday.
"As an extension of our research and development (R&D) operations here, Yahoo! India Lab will initially have 100-member team of scientists and engineers. They will work on multiple projects to make the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers worldwide," Yahoo! India Research head Prabhakar Raghavan told reporters here.
British scientists unfold new frontiers of biotechnology
By IANS
Chennai : Will duckweed and algae be floating down Indian rivers soon, cleaning up waste and generating bio-fuel?
That is what researchers in Britain are doing, and some of Britain's top cell scientists are on a weeklong tour of India to talk about frontiers biotechnology.
Their effort is being matched by some of India's own scientists explaining the country's attempts in the field, in a joint initiative of the British Council and the Centre for Biotechnology (CBT) at the Anna University here.
Cut soot, slow climate change: Scientists
By IANS,
New Delhi : Global warming is caused by excess of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, but cutting down other pollutants such as soot can help slow climate change in a big way, say the world's leading scientists, including an Indian American.
Of six GSLV launches, only two successes
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : The GSLV rocket mission that failed Thursday was the sixth launched by India. Of the six, only two were successes, one a partial one, and the rest could not accomplish their
missions.
The two successful launches by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) were in 2003 and 2004 - and put into space GSAT-2 and Edusat, an educational
satellite.
The rocket's maiden flight in 2001 could not attain success as it was not able to sling GSAT-1 into the intended orbit. The satellite could not be raised to the intended orbit.
Zip into space from 2012 for just Rs.11 million
By Fakir Balaji
Hyderabad, Sep 28 (IANS) Rich and spirited Indians can look forward to fly into space and orbit the earth from 2012 for about Rs.11 million onboard a Euro shuttle.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) Astrium will launch space tourism packages for global customers with a fleet of space shuttle in the next five years.
‘France to provide Pakistan nuke technology’
By IANS,
Islamabad : France has agreed to provide Pakistan with civilian nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, state-owned PTV reported Friday, quoting Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
According to Qureshi, France has expressed its readiness for cooperating with Pakistan in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The affirmation came during President Asif Ali Zardari's discussions with his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy.
Further negotiations on this will be held in July this year, Qureshi said.
Computers can only figure out a painting’s intricacies
By IANS,
London : Computers can pretty well figure out the colour composition or aesthetics of paintings, but still lag behind humans in interpreting art.
How does one place an artwork in a particular artistic period? This is the question raised by scientists from the Laboratory of Graphics and Image in the University of Girona and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany.
Microsoft India unveils new platform for shared IT services
By IANS,
New Delhi: Global software giant Microsoft Monday unveiled a portfolio of services in India that will help companies share software and storage facilities, called cloud computing, that can bring down their total IT spend by as much as 50 percent.
Windows Azure -- the company's latest offering in the area of cloud computing -- is now available commercially in India, said Microsoft India group Director Vikas Arora. "Some 3,500 applications for Azure have been developed out of India alone," Arora told IANS.
Car that changed the world – Tin Lizzie turns 100
By Reino Gevers, DPA,
Hamburg : When the Ford Model T went into production in 1908, it marked the beginning of an era when motoring became affordable to the masses and an end to the horse and cart age.
Thousands of enthusiasts the world over are this week celebrating in Richmond, Indiana, the centenary of the car affectionately known as "Tin Lizzie".
It is just one of several events leading up to the Oct 1 anniversary when the first Model T drove off the assembly line.
Iran, US claim progress in latest round of n-talks
Vienna: Iran and six world powers are making progress in the latest round of talks over Iran's long-disputed nuclear programme, said top diplomats of...
Telenor acquires 49 percent stake in Unitech Wireless
By IANS,
Mumbai : Norway's Telenor has acquired another 15.5 percent stake in Unitech Wireless, the telecom arm of realty major Unitech, for Rs.1,130 crore (Rs.11.3 billion/$237 million), taking its shareholding in the Indian company to 49 percent, it was announced Wednesday.
"Unitech Wireless on May 19, 2009, received an amount of Rs.1,130 crore in aggregate from Telenor Asia Pte Ltd for acquisition of further 15.5 percent stake in Unitech Wireless by way of issuance of fresh shares," the Indian telecom operator said in a regulatory statement.
Digital mammography in Kolkata
By IANS,
Kolkata : A digital mammography machine with stereo-tactic biopsy system was installed at a hospital in Kolkata Tuesday. This new technology will help in prompt and accurate detection of breast cancer that in turn may extend a patient's life by about 20 years, said doctors of the hospital.
The new system - GE Senographe DS workstation - has been installed at B.P. Poddar Hospital and Medical Research Ltd, a multi-facility hospital specialising in oncology, traumatology and breast cancer, in south Kolkata.
Bangalore IT expo starts on subdued note
By IANS
Bangalore : The tenth edition of Bangalore IT.in, arguably Asia's biggest technology expo, got underway Monday on a restrained note due to the political crisis in Karnataka.
In the absence of an executive government and the IT-savvy state under President's rule, Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur inaugurated the four-day technology event at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre on the outskirts of the city.
Kepler camera launched: Other “earths”, where are you?
By DPA,
Washington : NASA late Friday sent the Kepler satellite into Earth's orbit with instructions to search for extraterrestrial life on Earth-type planets orbiting other stars.
The launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on board a Delta-II-rocket was reported on a live blog operated by the Kepler project on the internet.
The Kepler mission, named after the 17th century German astronomer, is targetting about 100,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy that scientists believe could have planets orbiting in a "habitable" zone.
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.
Russia celebrates Sputnik’s 50th anniversary
BY RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world's first-ever satellite, Sputnik 1, an event which changed the world forever.
The world entered the space age on Oct 4, 1957, when the USSR won the race to put the first satellite into orbit. Sputnik 1 was launched aboard a Soviet R-7 rocket from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan.
Interpreter for the vest pocket: What translation computers can do
By DPA
Munich : They could be helpful when preparing for the next vocabulary test. Or perhaps they'll go to work in a little shop abroad. The aides in question are small translation computers for the road.
These handy little devices have moved far beyond just translating the right word, though. They can now even explain proper grammar and pronunciation.
Electronic translation computers fit into any pants pocket and may well represent a practical alternative to the traditional pocket dictionary.
How hot was earth 50 million years ago?
By IANS,
Washington : A much clearer picture of the Earth's temperature nearly 50 million years ago, when Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentrations were higher than current levels, has emerged.
China to mass produce Shenzhou spaceship
By XINHUA,
Beijing : China will soon begin mass production of its Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) spacecraft, the chief designer of the spacecraft system of China's manned space programme said Friday.
Zhang Bainan said the mass-produced model will serve as a shuttle between China's space station and the ground, and may also transport astronauts and cargo for other countries.
The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft is currently in orbit with three astronauts one of who, Zhai Zhigang, will undertake a space walk later Friday.
Facebook grows, makes a profit
By DPA,
San Francisco : Facebook, the world's largest social network on the internet, is finally turning a profit, the privately held company said.
The Silicon Valley, California, company, which was started six years ago by a student at Harvard University, said late Tuesday that it had reached a positive cash flow for the first time and also passed the 300-million user mark.
The stratospheric growth in the site's user base from 150 million at the start of the year, allowed the company to turn a profit earlier than the 2010 date it had previously predicted.
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.
Japan successfully launches its first lunar explorer
By Xinhua
Tokyo : Japan Friday launched an H-2A rocket carrying the Selenological and Engineering Explorer, the country's first lunar probe satellite, from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Kagoshima prefecture.
The rocket, which is named Kaguya after an ancient Japanese fable, lifted off as scheduled at 10.31 a.m. from the centre on the Pacific off Japan's southern Kyushu island. The satellite and the launch vehicle successfully separated at 11.16 a.m.
Remains of 10,000-year-old giant sloth found
By IANS/EFE,
Brasilia : Scientists have found bones in Brazil that belonged to a 20-foot-tall sloth that lived some 10,000 years ago.
U.S. spy satellite to crash on Earth
By Xinhua
Washington : An out-of-control U.S. spy satellite which is expected to crash to the Earth, will not endanger human, a senior U.S. official said Monday.
If there are debris of the satellite surviving the intense heat, most of them would probably fall into the oceans, which account for more than 70 percent of the Earth, said White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
UN ecology experts look to new nature-given technologies
By DPA,
Bonn (Germany) : New technologies gleaned from observing nature are set to provide exciting applications in the decades ahead that will supersede current environmentally destructive practices, UN experts said Wednesday.
Ahmed Djoghlaf, general secretary of the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), called on entrepreneurs to "wake up" to the new possibilities and to "work with nature, not against it."
Djoghlaf was speaking on the sidelines of the ninth conference of the parties to the CBD being held in the German city of Bonn.
Carbon time bomb ticking away, beneath the ocean
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have sounded a grim warning over how global warming could destabilise vast carbon reserves beneath the ocean floor and unleash a catastrophic threat.
These carbon reserves exist as clathrates, ice lattices and continental permafrost and are found even under freshwater lakes like Lake Baikal in Siberia. These ice structures may hold trillions of tonnes of methane.
3.2 million rendered homeless by Nargis: study
By IANS,
Washington : Cyclone Nargis rendered as many as 3.2 million Burmese homeless, according to geographic risk models developed by researchers.
Relying on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), researchers calculated the likely distribution of the population and developed maps of the regions at greatest risk from the storm's effects.
Taikonaut Zhai completes China’s first spacewalk
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Chinese taikonaut Zhai Zhigang slipped out of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft Saturday afternoon and completed the country's fist spacewalk mission, spending about half-an hour in the outer space and conducting experiments.
Donning a $4-million homemade Feitian space suit, Zhai, the commander of the three-man mission, waved to the camera mounted on the service module after pulling himself out of the capsule in a head-out-first position at 4:43 p.m., video monitor at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre (BACC) showed.
Kepler telescope finds new planetary system
By DPA,
Washington : The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found a new planetary system orbiting a distant star that could include a planet nearly the same size as Earth, NASA scientists said Thursday.
In findings to be published in the journal Science this week, the scientists report the discovery of two large planets about the size of Saturn orbiting a star similar to the sun. A third small object orbiting the star could be a much smaller planet, just a bit larger than Earth, but more work must be done to confirm it is actually a planet.
New tool detects impending quake 10 hours earlier
By IANS,
Washington : Seismologists, using ultra sensitive instruments, have detected minute changes that preceded small quakes along California's famed San Andreas fault by as much as 10 hours.
If follow-up tests show that such signal is widespread, then it could be the basis of a robust early warning system for impending quakes, said researchers.
Life under threat as more ultraviolet radiation to hit earth
By IANS,
Toronto : Rapid climate changes are set to redistribute the already shrinking ozone layer, exposing earth's southern parts up to 20 percent more ultraviolet radiation, warns a Canadian study.
Concentrated in the stratosphere from 10 km to 50 km above the earth, the ozone layer protects life on the planet by absorbing more than 90 percent of deadly ultraviolet rays coming from the sun. Ultraviolet rays cause genetic changes and trigger various cancers.
Century’s longest eclipse sweeps into clouds in Himachal
By IANS,
Shimla : Partly cloudy sky Wednesday morning in most parts of Himachal Pradesh marred the early moments of one of nature's greatest spectaculars - the century's longest total solar eclipse, weather officials here said.
"Clouds in most parts of the hill state remained an intermittent problem, with most areas reporting partly overcast conditions," meteorological office Director Manmohan Singh said.
On the historic Ridge in Shimla, a large number of people, especially schoolchildren, have gathered to witness the eclipse through clouds.
Russia launches US satellite
By Xinhua,
Moscow : Russia Saturday launched a rocket carrying a US communication satellite into space, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The Briz-m rocket, with a ProtoStar-2 satellite atop, blasted off at 0057 GMT from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan, spokesman Alexander Bobrenev of the Khrunichev Centre, the manufacturer of the rocket, said.
The ProtoStar-2 satellite, a product of the Boeing corporation, will provide communication services to customers in various countries including Indonesia, India and the Philippines.
New Microsoft deal eyes break-up of Yahoo
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft's latest deal proposal to Yahoo envisages the internet portal selling off its valuable properties in Asia and Microsoft buying its search business in the US, media reports said.
The Software giant also proposed buying a minority stake in the whittled down Yahoo that would remain after the sell-off, the Wall Street Journal reported late Monday.
Nano coating ensures near perfect absorption of sunlight
By IANS,
Washington : A nanoengineered reflective coating on silicon solar cell, which otherwise absorbs only two-thirds of the sunlight, boosts it by another third to tap the valuable energy.
This huge gain was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from ultraviolet to visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward towards economic viability.
The new antireflective coating developed by Rensselaer Institute researchers thus helps overcome two major hurdles blocking the progress and wider use of solar power.
Smelling carbon-dioxide can impact ageing
By IANS,
Washington : Specific odours that represent food are capable of altering an animal's lifespan and physiological profile by activating a small number of highly specialised sensory neurons, says a new study.
Nematode worms and fruit flies that were robbed of their ability to smell or taste, for example, lived substantially longer. However, the specific odours and sensory receptors that control this effect on ageing were unknown.
New language protects home computers
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have developed a security language to protect home networks from cyber attacks.
Companies, banks and other organisations take internet security very seriously, erecting firewalls and IT departments to protect them from attacks. But domestic and small office networks are just as vulnerable to hacking, malicious computer code, worms and viruses.
Geon Woo Kim of the Electronics and Telecom Research Institute (ETRI) Korea and colleagues who developed the specific codes said home networks have only a single gateway from the internet.
NASA suspends recovery testing of next generation spacecraft
By IANS,
Washington: The US space agency -- NASA -- said Friday it has suspended the recovery testing of a test version of its next...
Data on disk drive from Columbia space shuttle survived
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Precious information was found on a melted disk drive from Columbia space shuttle which broke up while returning to the earth on Feb. 1, 2003, media reported on Saturday.
The hard drive contained data from the CVX-2 (Critical Viscosity of Xenon) experiment, designed to study the way xenon gas flows in microgravity.
Adani group to set up solar power parks in TN
Chennai : Gujarat-based Adani group on Saturday signed an agreement with the Tamil Nadu government to supply 648 MW of solar power from...
Brussels confirms anti-trust complaints about Google
By DPA,
Brussels : The European Union's executive Wednesday confirmed that it had received three anti-trust complaints about internet search engine Google, and that it had asked the company to comment on the allegations.
The European Commission is charged with enforcing the EU's strict laws on fair competition. In recent years it has imposed billion-dollar fines on industry giants such as Microsoft and Intel for breaching those laws.
Space shuttle Atlantis launch set for Jan 10
By DPA
Washington : After postponing the launch of space shuttle Atlantis multiple times, NASA has said it would next try to takeoff Jan 10.
The shuttle is to bring the European-designed Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS) and was originally to launch Dec 6, but was delayed because of problems with fuel cut-off sensor system inside the shuttle and its external fuel tank.
Data to go: Options for hauling lots of files
By DPA
Washington : These days, almost everything's digital - our photos, music collections, videos, documents, financial records, and more.
Most of us can get all of this data on a few hard drives. And so long as we're using the computer that houses those drives, everything's fine.
But what happens when we need or want to take large amounts of data with us? That's when portable storage becomes critical.
ISS astronauts take first steps to move Italy’s Harmony
Washington(DPA) : Two astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have completed the first of three planned space walks to start a new construction project vital to adding European elements to the orbiting laboratory.
Station commander Peggy Whitson of the US and her Russian colleague, Yuri Malenchenko, completed an almost seven-hour space walk Friday, the first of three to prepare for delivery of the long-awaited European science module Columbus in December.
World’s tiniest, lightest microscope designed
By IANS,
Washington : A miniature lensless microscope, the world's smallest and lightest - weighing only 46 grams - was created by an engineer for telemedicine applications.
The microscope builds on imaging technology known as LUCAS (Lensless Ultra-wide-field Cell monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging), which was developed by Aydogan Ozcan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Chandrayaan enters lunar space for final journey
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first moon mission Chandrayaan-1 entered the lunar space early Tuesday for its final journey into the lunar orbit Saturday, an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.
"The operation to put Chandrayaan into lunar space went off very well. The complex manouvre was carried out around 5 a.m. by firing the liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board for about 150 seconds to place the unmanned spacecraft 380,000 km away from earth (apogee) and 1,000 km from the moon," ISRO director S. Satish told IANS.
Space technology to identify whale sharks off Gujarat
By Sanjeeb Baruah, IANS,
New Delhi : Indian scientists will try to distinguish individual whale sharks off the Gujarat coast, using a technique employed by NASA to identify galaxies.
Just as each tiger is distinguished by its stripes, whale sharks too can be identified through a unique pattern of spots that form points of numerous triangles on their bodies, say experts.
As the whale shark grows, the distance between these spots increases, but angles of these triangles remain the same, thus identifying the whale shark.
The method is also used by NASA to identify galaxies.
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.
Mexico creates pest resistant wheat
By IANS/EFE,
Mexico City : Mexican scientists have developed a new variety of wheat that is more resistant to disease.
It is expected to reduce the use of fungicides and boost grain production, the Agriculture Secretariat said Sunday. It is resistant to leaf rust (a fungus that attacks the plant).
Scientists from the National Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP) developed the wheat.
The study was conducted from 2006-2009 in Yaqui Valley in northern Sonora state. The output from the new variety was similar to that of common wheat strains.
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.
850 new species discovered in semi-arid Australia
By IANS,
Sydney : About 850 new species inhabiting underground water, caves and micro-caverns have been discovered in semi-arid Australia. These invertebrates include various insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and many others.
The team - led by Andy Austin, professor at the University of Adelaide (U-A), Steve Cooper, South Australian Museum, and Bill Humphreys, Western Australian Museum - conducted a comprehensive four-year survey of underground water, caves and micro-caverns.
Japanese bullet train suicide by fire being probed
Tokyo: Japanese police launched an investigation on Wednesday to probe Tuesday's Shinkansen (bullet train) incident when a man set himself on fire, killing himself...
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".
Andaman to get biomass power plant: Javadekar
New Delhi : Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on Wednesday that his ministry has allotted Rs. 5 crore for a...
Nanotechnology to turn paper into futuristic batteries
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have found a way to make lightweight paper batteries and supercapacitors cheaply -- by just dipping paper or fabric in a special ink infused with nanoparticles.
Capacitors, like batteries, store energy, but by electrostatic rather than chemical means, as well as stretchable textiles known as 'eTextiles' - capable of storing energy while retaining mechanical properties of paper or fabric.
The type of nanoparticle used in Stanford University engineer Yi Cui's experimental devices varies according to the intended function of the product.
T-Mobile to launch Google phone in October
By DPA,
San Francisco : T-Mobile is to launch the first phone based on Google's Android design Sep 17, in hopes that the new device will compete with Apple's iPhone, Wired magazine reported Friday.
The smartphone will be manufactured by Taiwan-based High Tech Computer, and will have a large touch screen that slides out to reveal a five-row QWERTY keyboard. The device, which will be called the G1, will sell for $150 to T-Mobile customers in the first week of launch before it is offered to other customers at a higher price.
US spacecraft takes first image of Martian dust particle
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has taken the first image of a particle of Mars' ubiquitous dust, using its atomic force microscope, mission scientists have reported.
The particle - shown at higher magnification than anything ever seen from another world - is a round particle about one micrometre, or one millionth of a metre across, the scientists at the US space agency said Thursday.
Manmohan advocates nuclear technology for world growth
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: Advocating greater use of nuclear technology to meet today's developmental challenges, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday announced India's ambitious plans to increase India's installed capacity for nuclear energy more than seven fold by 2022.
"Our target is to increase our installed capacity more than seven fold to 35,000 MWe by the year 2022, and to 60,000 MWe by 2032," he told world leaders from 47 nations gathered here for the global Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama.
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.
Gene mutation in worms key to alcohol tolerance
By IANS,
London : Liverpool University reseachers, picking up from a study by the Oregon Health and Science University on the linkage between gene mutation and tolerance to alchohol in mice, investigated it in worms.
This gene specifies the ways in which amino acids arrange themselves into a protein called UNC-18 - or Munc18-1 - in humans, an essential component of the nervous system.
Researchers found that a naturally occurring change in this gene can result in a change in the nature of one of the amino acids, which then alters communication between cells in the nervous system.
Mice help the mentally ill
By IANS,
Washington : A new model of mouse behaviour developed by Japanese scientists is likely to help in better diagnosis and evaluation of depressive disorders in people.
Researchers from University of Tokyo and Osaka Bioscience Institute evaluated a holistic approach to assess mouse behaviour, and threw up interesting results.
For example, a 24-hour monitoring of the rodents by pressure sensors, after a gene regulating the circadian rhythm was removed, was found to be similar to that previously observed by the team in humans suffering from major depressive disorder.
Microsoft, Mammootty to launch Kerala e-literacy programme
By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Software giant Microsoft and veteran Malayalam superstar Mammootty are planning to launch an e-literacy programme in Kerala.
Mammootty told IANS Tuesday that he is in discussions with Microsoft for the launch of the statewide education project.
He is also the brand ambassador of the state-sponsored Akshaya IT programme.
Mammootty said he wants to launch the project to help make all sections of the society IT literate.
Experimental flight of GSLV Mark 3 in December: ISRO chief
New Delhi : India will conduct an experimental test of its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark 3 in mid-December, Indian Space Research Organisation...
Mars rovers exceed all expectations to mark fifth birthdays
By DPA,
Washington : When the Spirit rover landed on Mars five years ago, no one expected it or its sister rover Opportunity to make it to their first birthdays, let alone their fifth.
The rovers had predicted life spans of just 90 days, but instead US space agency NASA this month marks the fifth anniversary of the mission that is still going strong.
New study shows way to fourth-generation biofuels
By IANS
London : In a finding that paves the way for fourth-generation biofuels and dramatic crop improvements, scientists have got a fix on how plants regulate the amount of carbon dioxide they use after taking it in from the air.
For instance, when there is not enough sunlight, plants put the brakes on the amount of carbon dioxide they use to make food. But as sunlight increases, the brakes are rapidly released, in a process called the Calvin cycle.
Smell of the sea leads fish to food, affects climate
By IANS
Washington : The ocean has an "odour" that affects global climate and also attracts reef fish to feed as they "eavesdrop" on events that might lead them to food.
The odour, traced to DMSP (Di-methyl-sulfoniopropionate), is given off when either tiny animals in the plankton are feeding on the algae, or during an algal bloom, said Jennifer DeBose of the University of California at Davis who conducted a study on ocean odour.
Next-gen robots to tirelessly serve households
By IANS,
London : A new generation of service robots will soon be able to relieve us of heavy, dirty, monotonous or irksome tasks at home, according to scientists.
They would work long hours, efficiently, tirelessly and without ever complaining and virtually for free after an initial investment.
Named Care-O-bot 3, the one-armed wonder can even pick up an apple juice bottle and placed it next to the glasses on the tray and serve them to guests.
Atlantis astronauts end third spacewalk
By DPA,
Washington : Two astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis ended the mission's third and last spacewalk after successfully installing an oxygen tank on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS).
The spacewalk on Monday lasted five hours and 42 minutes for astronauts Robert Satcher Jr and Randy Bresnik, who also performed other maintenance upgrades.
Atlantis is scheduled to begin its return journey to Earth on Wednesday, with touchdown at Cape Canaveral expected on Saturday.
New Year’s Eve revelers to be treated to rare ‘blue moon’
By DPA,
New York : Times Square revelers will be treated to a rare "blue moon" on New Year's Eve Thursday night.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to watch the ritual descent of the crystal ball in Times Square to usher in 2010 at midnight. But what many of them may not yet expect is a special full moon above their heads, the second this month.
Asteriod caused giant hole on Jupiter
By IANS,
London : A huge rock, some 500 metres long, hit Jupiter and created a hole the size of the Pacific Ocean, roughly the equivalent of Jupiter's Little Red Spot, scientists say.
Nanotechnology: science of small with huge opportunities
Chennai, March 24 (IANS) In future we may never have to wash our shirts, thanks to nanotechnology, and we may have nano-shoes that can absorb the shock of an exploding nuclear device.
A. Sivathanu Pillai, one of India's top scientists, discussed all this and many more far-reaching possibilities of nanotechnology, which basically means engineering of systems at molecular level, at an industry meet here last week.
"It is material science at its best," said Pillai, who is chief controller (research and development) at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
2 plus 2 may not always equal 4
When it comes to percentages, consumer calculating errors can be costly
By TwoCircles.net newsdesk
People deal with percentages every day: the performance of a stock portfolio, a sale at the department store, or the performance of a new hybrid car, are all often expressed as percent changes. As an everyday occurrence, calculating percentages should be second nature to the average person. "Not so," says Akshay Rao, professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.
Marine algae most promising bet for green fuel
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists see marine algae as the most promising bet for a green fuel that would help ease the dependence on fossil fuel and power vehicles of the future.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Californa San Diego (UCSD), scientists along with their counterparts from its division of biological sciences are part of an emerging algal biofuel consortium that includes academic collaborators, CleanTECH, public and private partners.
Simple device boosts vehicle mileage dramatically
By IANS,
Washington : Steeply rocketing fuel prices have prompted a physics professor to develop a simple device that boosted fuel efficiency by 20 percent in field tests - an electrically charged tube that can be attached to the fuel line of a car's engine near the fuel injector.
Powered by the vehicle's battery, the device creates an electric field that thins the fuel, so that smaller droplets are injected into the engine. That leads to more efficient and cleaner combustion than a standard fuel injector, said the developer, Rongjia Tao, professor of physics at Temple University.
Dinosaur fossils found in Argentina
By IANS/EFE,
Buenos Aires : Scientists have found the fossilised remains of a carnivorous dinosaur in Argentina, officials said.
Argentinean scientists from Las Lajas town museum and researchers from Canada's University of Alberta found fossilised bones of "saurischian" (lizard-hipped) dinosaurs in the southern province of Neuquen, 1,300 km south of Buenos Aires, they said Tuesday.
The saurischian dinosaurs, which grew to as much as four metres in length and two metres in height, were carnivorous and biped.
Nokia touch screen phone by year end
By Himank Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi : Setting at rest speculations, cell phone major Nokia has confirmed it will launch a full touch screen handset by the end of this year.
"We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touch screen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end," Devinder Kishore, Nokia India's marketing director, told IANS.
Discovery shuttle launched
By DPA,
Washington : NASA's Discovery space shuttle was launched Monday for a scheduled 13-day mission, one of the last remaining four flights for the ageing shuttle fleet.
Discovery took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 6.21 a.m. with seven astronauts on board. The shuttle will be bringing them to the International Space Station (ISS).
Now essence from Ajmer shrine roses
By IANS,
Lucknow: Tonnes of flowers offered at the Ajmer shrine will now be used to make essence from them, thanks to a project undertaken by an institute here.
"Our project would bring into use several tonnes of flowers that are presently being dumped," A.K. Singh, technology and business development head at the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), told IANS.
Oldest evidence of leprosy traced to India
By IANS,
Washington : A child's 4,000-year-old skeleton that surfaced in India's Rajasthan state could be the oldest evidence of leprosy, says a new study.
The analysis was conducted by biological anthropologist Gwen Robbins from Appalachian State University working with an undergraduate, an evolutionary biologist from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and archaeologists from the Pune-based Deccan College in India.
Indian-owned UAE firm among top NASA nanotech awardees
By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS,
Ajman : A small United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based company owned by an Indian, that produces raw materials for the paint industry, is among this year's list of winners of a top nanotechnology award given by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US.
Gold Valley Chemical Company (GVCC), based in the emirate of Ajman in the UAE, figures among the 50 winners of the 2008 Nano 50 awards announced this month by Nanotech Briefs, the digital publication forum of NASA.
Stretchable silicon camera a step closer to artificial retina
By IANS,
Washington : The human eye has inspired a new technology that is likely to push the limits of photography by producing vastly better images over a wider field of view.
The remarkable imaging device has been made possible by combining stretchable optoelectronics and biologically inspired design like the layout of the eye.
University of Illinois and Northwestern University researchers have developed a high-performance, hemispherical "eye" camera using an array of single-crystalline silicon detectors and electronics, configured in a stretchable, interconnected mesh.
Google develops new system to trace quake survivors
By DPA,
San Francisco : Web search giant Google has created a centralised search system for tracking down people missing in the Haitian earthquake, the company announced Monday in a blog posting.
The new platform incorporates the major people search services that sprang up in the US media in the days following the devastating temblor. However, news sites like CNN, The Miami Herald and The New York Times, all collected similar information, people may not find each other if they're looking in the wrong places online.
Wireless spectrum assessment to be over by September
By IANS
Chennai : The assessment of the availability of the wireless spectrum for communication services is likely to be over by the first week of September, IT and Communications Minister A. Raja said here Thursday.
Raja was speaking on the sidelines of a function to inaugurate global computer giant IBM's sixth global delivery centre in India, to be housed in Chennai.
He said once the defence ministry freed some of the spectrum it held, his ministry would be able to provide more communication depth.
Chandrayaan fine, spinning in earth’s elliptical orbit
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 is doing fine and has completed four orbits around the earth, a top space official said Thursday, a day after it was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
"The health of the spacecraft is normal and (it is) doing fine. Spinning in elliptical orbit once in every six hours and 30 minutes, it has completed four orbits and is in the fifth orbit," the official told IANS.
ITC plans greenfield paper plant, major hotel expansion
By IANS,
Kolkata: Tobacco-to-hotels major ITC Ltd is planning to set up a $1-billion greenfield paper plant and expand its hotel business, a top company official said here Friday.
"We are looking at an investment of Rs.4,000-5,000 crore for paper plant. The paper plant is likely to require 1,500-2,000 acres," ITC chairman Y.C. Deveshwar said.
The company is scouting for land in three states - Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh - but has not been successful in bagging any plot yet.
NASA’s Cassini clicks Saturn’s moon in best-ever resolution
Washington : A pockmarked, icy landscape looms beneath NASA's Cassini spacecraft in new images of Saturn's moon Dione taken during the mission's last close...
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.
Robotic vehicle to detect, defuse IEDs in Kashmir
By IANS,
New Delhi : A British-made robotic vehicle has been inducted in the Indian Army and will be used in the terror-hit Jammu and Kashmir to defuse improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by militants, a defence official said Tuesday.
The state-of-the-art equipment called Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) will help in preventing casualties of the armed forces, the official told reporters.
"To avoid casualties, the army in Jammu and Kashmir has added this latest state-of-the-art technology in its anti-insurgency operations," the official told IANS.
Scientists find black hole “missing link” in galaxy
By Xinhua,
Washington : Scientists have found the "missing link" between small and super-massive black holes in a galaxy, according to a study published in Sept. 18 issue of journal Nature.
For the first time researchers from Durham University have discovered that a strong X-ray pulse is emitting from a giant black hole in a galaxy 500 million light years from Earth.
The pulse has been created by gas being sucked by gravity on to the black hole at the center of the REJ1034+396 galaxy.
US, Russian astronauts arrive at space station
By DPA,
Washington : A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut arrived Thursday at the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz lifted off Tuesday from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan with Americans Doug Wheelock, Shannon Walker and Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin aboard.
The 2221 GMT docking occurred over Argentina. It was the combined 100th flight to the ISS by US space shuttles and Russian Soyuz capsules.
Intel announces new Atom processors
By DPA,
Santa Clara (California) : Intel, the world's biggest manufacturer of computer chips, has announced a new line of powerful, energy-saving processors for popular mini-notebooks and starter computers.
The first devices with the new Atom platform should be available starting Jan 4, announced the company, or just before the industry-standard-setting Consumer Electronics Show, which runs Jan 7-10.
Several leading companies are already working with the new processor, though no prices were announced.
Aging Ulysses probe frozen out
By Xinhua
Beijing : The Ulysses solar probe, after 17 years of studying the sun and solar system, is about to die by freezing to death, NASA and the European Space Agency have announced.
The satellite had long outlasted the five-year mission it began in 1990, but it continued to transmit useful data on solar winds.
More recently, its plutonium power source had slowly weakened and its fuel was freezing as the probe made a wide circle of the sun, traveling as far as Jupiter.
Hanover Fair highlights Japanese robots and sumo
By Yuriko Wahl, DPA,
Hanover (Germany) : Innovations from Japan, including robots and a virtual power station, are to have pride of place at the Hanover Fair in Germany next week alongside sumo wrestlers and traditional taiko drummers.
The April 21-25 fair has appointed high-tech Japan this year as partner nation. The annual fair, with 5,100 companies from 62 nations exhibiting, is a major venue for showing heavy industrial equipment.
NASA plans Mars landing in August
By IANS,
London : NASA will attempt to lower a probe onto the surface of Mars for the first time as it continues its search for signs of life on the red planet, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.
Climate change wreaks havoc on coral reefs worldwide
By IANS,
Sydney : Ocean warming is spurring the incidence of virulent coral diseases, already wreaking havoc on reefs worldwide.
David Bourne and colleagues at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) said global warming and increased sea surface temperatures presented a major challenge to the health of the world's coral reefs.
Warming has caused significant damage to reefs in recent hot years (particularly 1998 and 2002) by sparking coral bleaching, which is a breakdown in the symbiotic relationship between the coral and its bacterial partner (zooxanthellae).
Suicide method websites outnumber counselling sites
By IANS
Washington : A first-of-its kind study on Internet and suicides has found that a net search throws up more sites that detail methods of self-annihilation than those offering help and support.
The study also concludes that people bent on taking their lives are most likely to find sites that offer detailed and factual methods of killing themselves rather than sites that discourage them.
Researchers from the universities of Bristol, Oxford and Manchester replicated a typical search, visiting popular websites like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.
Indian nano-tech group in US to create big splash
New York(IANS) : A group of Indian Americans well placed in the nano-technology industry have formed The Indus Nanotechnology Association (TINA) to create a bigger impact in the market, estimated to be worth $1 trillion (Rs.39.25 trillion) by 2015.
TINA arose from the Nanotechnology and Nano-Bio Convergence Conference held here last week, where seven of the 14 featured speakers were Indian Americans in academics, research, government and industry.
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.
China launches new navigation satellite
By IANS,
Beijing : China successfully launched a fifth orbiter into space Sunday as a part of its indigenous satellite navigation and global positioning network.
The satellite was launched at 5.30 a.m. from the Long March 3I carrier rocket, Xinhua reported.
The satellite will join other four satellites in orbit to form a network that will eventually consist of 35 satellites.
US pulls Patriot missile systems from Turkey
Ankara : The US has decided to withdraw its border protection mission in Turkey which was deployed against possible threats from Syria, a...
Small clicks can cause great pain – how to avoid mouse arm
By DPA
Wiesbaden (Germany) : All of a sudden your arm feels heavy as lead and starts to tingle. You tend to drop objects more frequently than you used to. If you're a frequent computer user, mouse arm may be the culprit.
"Mouse arm is a modern form of classical tennis elbow," explains Jan Bernholt, an orthopaedist from Duesseldorf. "Small movements that are constantly repeated can lead to ailments in the upper and low arm. An ergonomic workspace can help prevent this," he said.
Keeping a flower beautiful for years – Indian researchers tell how
By IANS,
Lucknow : Imagine preserving the colour and shape of a flower for nearly 15 years! A team of researchers at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) museology department claims to have developed a technique that can do just that.
The technique, according to the researchers, will benefit the flower business across the globe and help scientists preserve and conserve endangered, vulnerable and useful species of plants for study purposes.
Rocket scientist heads ISRO liquid propulsion systems centre
By IANS,
Bangalore : Noted rocket scientist S. Ramakrishnan is the new director of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) liquid propulsion systems centre at Thiruvananthapuram.
The space agency Wednesday said Ramakrishnan, as director of projects at its Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram earlier, had played a key role in the development of polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) and its liquid propulsion stages.
Create green economy in five years, avoid catastrophe: WWF
By IANS,
New Delhi : The world has just five years to initiate a low carbon industrial revolution before runaway climate change becomes almost inevitable. But the good news is that it can be done and that the long-term benefits will be immense, according to the WWF.
Climate Solutions 2 is the first analysis to put timetables to the industrial transformations needed to limit global carbon emissions below the two degrees Celsius level. Scientists say beyond that there would be unacceptable risks of runaway climate change.
Russia to launch its first weather satellite
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia is set to launch its first weather satellite, Meteor-M1, in the fourth quarter of 2008, the satellite's manufacturer said Wednesday.
Russia currently has no weather satellites and gets its information from foreign sources.
The Russian state research and development company VNIIEM said its specialists had assembled the satellite and launched "the final stage of complex tests".
The 2.7-tonne Meteor-M1 will be put into a 830-km orbit by a Soyuz-2 launch vehicle and a Frigate upper stage.
Its service life will be five to seven years.
Chilean quake was so strong, it shortened days: NASA
By DPA,
Washington : The massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday was so strong that it may have shortened the length of a day, NASA scientists said.
Using a computer model, Richard Gross, a scientist at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, found the earthquake likely shifted the Earth's figure axis by about 8 centimetres.
The shift of the axis on which the planet's mass is balanced slightly changes the length of time it takes the Earth to make a complete rotation, meaning each day is now about 1.26 microseconds shorter.
NASA spacecraft spots new moonlet in Saturn’s rings
By Xinhua,
Washington : Scientists have found a new moonlet hidden in one of Saturn's dazzling outer rings, the Scientific American website has reported.
Saturn's G ring, a faint band of material near the outer bounds of the planet's famed ring system, hosts a bright arc about 150,000 km long.
The arc, or partial ring, which stretches through about a sixth of the G ring's length, is believed to provide the rest of the ring with dust and ice, but its evolution has remained a mystery.
Chinese satellite fails to enter orbit
By IANS,
Beijing : A Chinese satellite failed to enter its designated orbit due to a rocket malfunction, a media report said Friday.
India joins 5-nation project to build world’s biggest telescope
By Arun Kumar,
Washington : As a follow up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit, India has joined the US and three other countries...
Chang’e-1 captures pictures of moon’s polar areas
By Xinhua
Beijing : China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, has successfully captured pictures of the moon's polar areas, Chinese officials said on Thursday.
The Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense released on Thursday a picture of the moon's polar areas, the first-ever such picture taken by Chinese.
"We have obtained good quality pictures," said spokesman Pei Zhaoyu of China National Space Administration (CNSA).
UAE to send first Arab spaceship to Mars
Abu Dhabi : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has entered the space race with a project to send an unmanned probe to Mars by...
Footpaths to generate electricity from pedestrians’ footsteps
By IANS,
London : A new technology under development by a British company would allow harnessing of the power of footsteps of pedestrians to generate electricity for lighting up public places.
The technology, developed by London-based The Facility, uses a flooring system that incorporates a matrix of hydraulic compression pads. The pressure of the footsteps on these pads pushes fluid through a micro-turbine and generates electricity.
‘Chandrayaan orbit to be raised to 267,000 km Wednesday’
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : The earth orbit of India's first lunar spacecraft will be raised to 267,000 km Wednesday, an official here said.
"The Chandrayaan spacecraft, orbiting at a distance of around 165,000 km apogee (farthest point from earth) will be raised Wednesday to around 267,000 km. As of now, everything is normal and as per our expectations," Chandrayaan-1 project director M. Annadurai told IANS.
Wind pattern change may intensify global warming
By IANS,
Washington : Carbon dioxide released from the Antartic Ocean due to shifting wind patterns may drastically increase global warming, say scientists.
Many scientists think that the end of the last ice age was triggered by a change in earth's orbit that caused the northern part of the planet to warm.
This partial climate shift was accompanied by rising levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, ice core records show, which could have intensified the warming around the globe.
Male, female flies share unisex brain
By IANS,
Washington : Males and females, even among little flies, act as though they belong to different planets, but both come equipped with a unisex brain, says a study.
By triggering the neurons responsible for singing - normally a male activity - researchers made female flies play their first tune.
"You might expect that the brains of the two sexes would be built differently, but that does not seem to be the case," said Gero Miesenböck, formerly of Yale University and now with University of Oxford.
NASA launches spacecraft to study solar wind
By DPA,
Washington : NASA has launched its Interstellar Boundary Explorer (Ibex) to examine the weakening solar wind, which shields planets in the solar system from dangerous cosmic rays.
Over the next two years, the Ibex spacecraft will conduct extremely high-altitude orbits above Earth to investigate and capture first images of processes taking place at the interstellar boundary - the farthest reaches of the solar system.
Mars mission delayed two years on conflict of interest
By DPA
Washington : The next NASA mission to Mars has been delayed two years after a conflict of interest was discovered in proposals for the unmanned exploration craft, the US space agency said.
The next mission for the Mars Scout programme has been pushed back to 2013 from 2011, Mars exploration programme director Doug McCuistion told reporters.
Kashmir varsity produces world’s first cloned pashmina goat
By IANS,
Srinagar : Scientists at the agricultural university in the Jammu and Kashmir capital have successfully produced the world's first cloned pashmina goat, a statement said Tuesday.
Are rare trees in Amazon rainforest on way to extinction?
By IANS,
Washington : Common tree species will survive deforestation and road-building, but half of the rare trees in the Amazon could become extinct, Smithsonian scientists have warned.
How resilient will natural systems be as they tide over decades of severe, human-induced global change? The debate is on between proponents of models that maximise and minimise extinction rates.
Tsunami early warning system by month end
By IANS
New Delhi : Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said Friday that a national tsunami warning system would be operational by September end.
"The government is setting up a National Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges in the Indian Ocean and the system is scheduled to be operational by the end of September 2007," Sibal said.
"An interim warning centre is already working at Indian National Centre for Ocean information Services, Hyderabad, on a 24x7 basis," the minister informed the Lok Sabha.
First identical twin camels bred in UAE
By IANS,
Dubai : Scientists here have successfully produced United Arab Emirates' first identical twin camels using embryo splitting technology, WAM news agency reported Wednesday.
According to scientists at Dubai Camel Breeding Centre, the genetically identical twin camels, Zahi and Baih, were naturally born to two surrogate camel mothers Feb 10 and 23. Both are in good health.
For the first time scientists in the Gulf region used a sophisticated technology called embryo splitting technology to produce the identical twin camels from a six-day-old camel embryo.
Sukhoi keen on aircraft plant at Nagpur
By IANS,
Nagpur : Russian plane maker Sukhoi and Malaysia-based SKS Ventures have offered to set up an aircraft manufacturing plant and a special economic zone for production of renewable energy equipment components, besides developing a new airport at Nagpur, it was announced here Friday.
Chandrayaan in final lunar orbit
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 was placed in its final orbit of 100 km from the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced here Wednesday evening.
India to launch satellite to monitor sea water levels
By IANS,
New Delhi : India will launch a satellite to monitor sea water levels in collaboration with the French space agency, Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan said Wednesday.
The satellite, called Saral, will carry an altimetre (ALTIKA) for studying the sea surface heights and an ARGOS payload, which is a satellite-based data collection platform.
Feast organised during solar eclipse in Orissa
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Pathani Samant Planetarium in Orissa has arranged a special feast at its campus during the solar eclipse Friday to dispel any superstition, said an official.
"There are superstitions prevalent among people that if you eat during a solar eclipse it will have a bad effect. But we want to dispel superstitions. We have arranged a special feast at the planetarium premises. It will be joined by officials and members of the public during the solar eclipse," said Subhendu Pattnaik, deputy director of the Pathani Samant Planetarium, in Bhubaneswar.
Mini black holes could be passing through Earth
By IANS,
London : Space is littered with black holes that collapsing giant stars leave in their wake, but a miniature version could be passing through the Earth daily.
Cuba raps Facebook, YouTube
By IANS,
Havana : Cuba has denounced online social network Facebook and Google-owned video sharing network YouTube for closing its account and censoring video links from the two websites.
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.
Pick the computer monitor that’s right for you
By DPA,
Munich : Monitors frame our relationship with our computers and a great computer is only as good as its monitor.
That's why it's important to ask yourself: "What do I want to do with this computer" before purchasing, says Jaroslav Smycek of the Hannover Consumer's Center.
Although nearly all flat screen monitors are based on LCD technology, there are differences between the models. "Twisted nematic (TN) Film models are popular. These screens are in the lower end of the price range," says Josef Reitberger of "CHIP" - a Munich-based computer magazine.
‘Get your software from a cloud, save money’
By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : As small and medium businesses in India struggle to stay afloat during the global economic slowdown, they are opting for cheaper computing services, and a Boston-based entrepreneur is here to promote his solution, cloud computing, in which software is shared over a wide network of computers.
420 mn Chinese now use the internet
By IANS,
Beijing : The number of Chinese internet users has reached a staggering 420 million, authorities said.
Website sina.com.cn citing a report published by China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) reported that 277 million people access the internet via cell phones.
The population of China's internet users climbed to 420 million as of June 2010, 36 million more than at the end of 2009.
China Daily Wednesday reported that broadband was the most popular way to access the internet, instead of a wired connection.