Technology

By IANS, Washington : Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have announced that their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research in developing and delivering vaccines for the world's poorest countries. The couple said that increased investment in vaccines by governments and the private sector could help developing countries dramatically reduce child mortality by the end of the decade. "We must make this the decade of vaccines," said Gates.

By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS, Chennai : One of the three "core alone" Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) to blast off Monday from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh will carry the heaviest luggage - 824 kg - comprising the remote sensing Cartosat-2A satellite, the Indian Mini Satellite and eight nano satellites. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), core alone configuration means the main/core PSLV rocket minus the hugging six strap-on booster motors that powers the first stage.

By IANS, Abu Dhabi : People in the Gulf will be able to witness a partial lunar eclipse Saturday evening. The partial lunar eclipse occurs when a portion of moon passes through the earth's shadow. Eighty-one percent of the moon's surface will be occulted in Saturday's eclipse, the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) quoted Mohammed Shaukat Audeh of the Islamic Crescents' Observation Project as saying. People in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be able to see the partial eclipse from 6:23 p.m. GMT (10:23 p.m. local time) Aug 16 till it ends six hours later Aug 17.

By IANS, London : Britian is considering asking a private company to manage and run communications database that will keep track of all calls, emails texts and internet use, media reports said Wednesday. The decision to put the management of the country's super database containing identities and locations of every person into private hands will, however, be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to avoid unnecessay leaks and accidental loss of data, the Guardian reported.

By IANS, Bangalore : A day after landing India's first probe instrument on the surface of the moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was Saturday getting ready to activate eight other scientific instruments on board the country's first unmanned lunar spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1, that is now orbiting the moon and will do so for the next two years.

By DPA, Nuremberg (Germany) : Germany's first driverless mass-transit train line has officially begun service in the southern city of Nuremberg, with a computer in charge of the underground trains. Driverless trains are already in use in other nations, including Singapore's North East Metro Line (NEL) operating since 2003, but Nuremberg's 600-million-euro ($900-million) system is unique because it mixes human-driven and computer-controlled trains on the same track.

By Xinhua Beijing : vast ocean of water and ammonia may lurk deep beneath the surface of Titan, the intriguing, orange moon of Saturn already known for its blanket of clouds and dense atmosphere, according to scientists. Astronomers have not directly observed this ocean. However, they said on Thursday that observations made by the Cassini spacecraft of Titan's rotation and shifts in the location of surface features suggest an ocean exists perhaps 100 kilometers below the surface.

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.

By IANS, Patna : All along the stretch of India's holiest river Ganga, the zooplanktons that play a critical role in its food chain are developing tumours, says a biologist. M. Omair from the University of Michigan in the US has collected zooplankton samples from Haridwar, Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, and Kolkata. He found that many of the zooplanktons that are eaten by the small fish have tumours. The small fish are in turn eaten by the bigger fish and so on, so the ill zooplanktons are getting into the entire food chain, including humans who eat fish from the river.

By Xinhua Beijing : Two U.S. astronauts replaced a failed electric motor and gave the international space station a much-needed power boost, which added to the power margin at the orbiting outpost and cleared the way for deliveries of two science labs, media reports said Thursday.

By IANS, San Francisco: Microsoft has announced that it has agreed to buy large-scale multitouch display maker Perceptive Pixel.

By IANS Chennai : The Rural Innovation Fund (RIF), promoted by Microsoft India among others, has selected nine innovators, who will receive $15,000 (Rs.590,000) each to implement their projects to empower rural India. Microsoft India has established a RIF corpus of $200,000 to encourage innovations that will benefit rural India.

By IANS, London : In a major breakthrough, scientists have found over 10 new species under the Atlantic Ocean, including creatures close to the missing evolutionary link between backboned and invertebrate animals. The bizarre creatures, oddly-shaped, brightly-coloured or even transparent, that scientists have uncovered during a new study has "revolutionised" thinking about deep-sea life. Scientists believe they have discovered more than 10 new marine species by using the latest diving technology, Daily Mail reported.

By IANS, New Delhi : The millennium's longest annular solar eclipse began in the national capital Friday but fog and cloudy skies marred a clear view of the celestial spectacle. Although seen only partially from here, it nevertheless enthralled enthusiastic onlookers who gathered to watch the celestial phenomenon at the Nehru Planetarium and other places where special arrangements were made to view the event.

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.

By IANS, Washington : Researchers have stumbled upon an unusual molecule that helps break down pollutants, especially the compounds that cause acid rain. Marsha Lester and Joseph Francisco, of Pennsylvania and Purdue Universities, found the molecule that had exercised scientists for more than 40 years. Somewhat like a human body metabolising food, the earth's atmosphere has the ability to "burn," or oxidise pollutants, especially nitric oxides emitted by factories and automobiles. What doesn't get oxidised in the air falls back to earth in the form of acid rain.

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.

By IANS, Sydney : The web is altering the very nature of intimacy, emotion and dating, according to a new study. An audit of online dating sites as part of the study has found that they are informal and are fast emerging as an effective way of developing one's “social and intimate circle”. The study, which audited 60 sites and conducted in-depth interviews with users, also found that the online communication had more intensity and immediacy, and, in some ways, was almost addictive in nature.

By IANS, New Delhi : The excitement over the century's longest solar eclipse was not confined to science centres and planetariums. Schools that had organised sun gazing exercises in their premises Wednesday said that it was a big hit with students who made a beeline to watch the phenomenon. Bringing alive all the science lessons that they have been studying in classrooms, the eclipse gazing events drew a lot of enthusiasm - not just from the students but from the teachers as well.

By IANS, New Delhi : An overcast sky may spoil the excitement of watching Friday's solar eclipse in the national capital since the weatherman has forecast rain and thundershowers. “The weather overall seems bad and going by the meteorological department's forecast for Delhi, the chances of watching the solar eclipse are low,” N. Rathnashree, Nehru Planetarium director, told IANS. In New Delhi, the eclipse begins at 4.03 p.m. and ends at 5.56 p.m. The eclipse peaks at 5:02 p.m., when about 62.4 percent of the sun's diameter is eclipsed.

By IANS, Jerusalem: An Israeli firm has invented a stick-on film that would protect cell phone users from the dangers of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the device, a media report said.

Bengaluru: There was a strong demand for IT services in Europe and the US where the economy gained a lot of strength, Wipro chairman...

By IANS, Washington : Destruction of wetlands will release a staggering 771 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, with devastating consequences. Meeting in Cuiaba at the edge of South America's Pantanal wetland on Monday, 700 experts from 28 nations at the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference will prescribe measures urgently needed to manage these vibrant ecosystems.

By IANS, London : A new kind of glass will enable patients to re-grow bones by dissolving and releasing calcium into the body, possibly making bone transplants redundant. The porous glass, developed by scientists at Imperial College here, dissolves in the body and stimulates bone growth, without leaving any toxic residue. Specific concentrations of soluble silica and calcium ions in the glass activate genes that encode proteins controlling the bone cell cycle and differentiation of the cell to form bone matrix and rapid mineralisation of bone nodules.

By IANS Ahmedabad : Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams, on a week-long visit to Gujarat, Saturday advised students to study space science for the exciting opportunities it offers and also to "break my records". Speaking at a felicitation programme in her honour by Gujarat University, Sunita said space science was increasingly concerned with making the earth safe from the "effects of vacuum, a darkness that is beyond black and the massive temperature deviations in space".

By K.S. Jayaraman, IANS Bangalore : After debating for over two years, the Indian government has approved construction of the country's first high-security facility for handling and doing research with highly infectious organisms causing diseases in humans. "The government has sanctioned Rs.1 billion ($25.4 million) for establishing the Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) facility," Lalji Singh, director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), told IANS. Singh had mooted the proposal in 2005.

By Xinhua Washington : Two U.S. astronauts are conducting the fourth spacewalk of shuttle Endeavor's mission to test a heat shield repair method, NASA TV reported on Thursday. Spacewalker Robert Behnken and Mike Foreman floated out of the Quest airlock and began their work outside the International Space Station at 6:04 p.m. local time (2204 GMT) on Thursday. Their excursion will last into midnight, said NASA.

By IANS, Washington : Sea ice in large swathes of Arctic thinned by as much as 19 percent last winter, compared to previous five winters, according to data from European Space Agency's Envisat satellite. Using Envisat radar altimeter data, scientists from the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at University College London (UCL) measured sea ice thickness over the Arctic from 2002 to 2008 and found that it had been fairly constant until the record loss of ice in the summer of 2007.

New York A new technology developed by scientists at University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA) can store solar energy for up to several...

By Xinhua Beijing : U.S. researchers say they have made the blackest substance on Earth. So black it absorbs more than 99.9 percent of light. The material is made from tiny tubes of carbon standing on end and is almost 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.

Washington: Scientists have developed a new infra-red model that can detect potentially dangerous materials from a distance. "The idea for this infra-red technology is to...

By IANS Bangalore : Rajeev Lochan, scientific secretary to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was killed late Friday in a road mishap in Andhra Pradesh, it was announced Saturday. An ISRO official told IANS on phone that Lochan died along with driver Chandran when the Ambassador car in which they were travelling to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh from Bangalore on an official trip met with an accident near Pakala, about 40 km from Tirupati.

By IANS, London : The virtues of biochar -- or “black gold” -- in the soil, which was being touted as a possible carbon sink to counteract global warming, has been disputed by scientists. A new study suggests that the supposed benefits of biochar (charcoal derived from wood) may be exaggerated. When charcoal was mixed with humus, there was a substantial increase in soil micro-organisms (bacteria and fungi), the study found.

By IANS,

By IANS Pune : Bangalore-based Cranes Software International Ltd (CSIL) has acquired US-based Engineering Technology Associates (ETA), a company specialising in computer-aided engineering products for the automotive industry. Announcing the acquisition through a press release, Asif Khader, managing director, CSIL, said: "The acquisition gives Cranes access to lucrative Asian markets and thereby expands our operations of the Chinese design centre by forming alliances with leading Asian car manufacturers for end-to-end design and development specifications."

By Nityanand Shukla, IANS, Rajmahal Hills (Jharkhand) : Nature's treasure trove of fossils, some dating back to the Jurassic era and preserved for millions of years in Jharkhand's Sahebganj district, is being steadily eroded by rampant mining, say scientists. Rajmahal Hills, about 500 km from state capital Ranchi, attract a number of geologists and palaeontologists for fossil research. However, this coal-rich region in eastern India is also the hub of mining activity.

By IANS, London : A British scientist who helped design a camera on board India's Chandrayaan-1 says he hopes images from it will help answer two tantalising questions about the Moon. “Where did the Moon come from? And could it ever sustain human life?” Maneul Grande of Aberystwyth Universtiy told the Times newspaper. “After the Apollo landings, people thought they knew a fair bit about the Moon - they'd seen people walking around up there,” said Grande, who helped to design the European Space Agency's camera that will take X-ray images of the Moon's surface.

By DPA

Saarbruecken (Germany) : A German research and development team is planning to build a record-breaking car based on the BMW 1 Series car using an engine which runs on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).