Intel, Micron develop new high speed flash memory chips
By Xinhua
Beijing : Intel and Micron Technology have developed technology for a high-speed solid-state drive that's five times faster than current products used in consumer and professional devices, like notebooks and digital cameras, media reported Saturday.
The NAND flash memory chips developed jointly by the two companies can reach speeds of up to 200 MB per second for reading data and 100 MB per second for writing data. Current memory chips have maximum read-write speeds of 40 MB and 20 MB, respectively.
Scientists turn back Doomsday Clock
By DPA,
New York : Citing increased international cooperation to curb nuclear weapons and global warming, scientists Thursday moved the so-called Doomsday Clock back by one minute.
The clock was created by nuclear scientists in 1947 to symbolise the world's proximity to planetary catastrophe with midnight signalling the apocalypse. Following Thursday's move the clock now reads six minutes to midnight.
Microsoft issues emergency flaw fix
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft issued an emergency patch Monday to correct a critical Windows bug that had allowed attackers to gain control of infected machines via program shortcuts.
Microsoft usually issues patches to fix software flaws just once a month. But the seriousness of the bug forced the software giant to issue an emergency patch outside the normal schedule.
Widely publicized last month, the flaw was used to attack industrial control systems in manufacturing and utility control systems via the so-called Stuxnet worm.
Sad for Yahoo, gain for Microsoft
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
A sad day for Yahoo! That's the consensus -- a rare one -- across both global technology and investor communities. Yahoo stock dropped 10 percent, Microsoft rose one percent. For once, the markets may have got it right. The decision to work together on their search engines is a big mistake for Yahoo, and a small gain for Microsoft.
But it was coming, even if we didn't see exactly this 10-year deal in which Microsoft's Bing will power Yahoo Search.
Revealed: secrets of mimic butterfly’s wing pattern
By IANS
London : The mocker swallowtail butterfly's unique ability to hoodwink predators by sporting wing patterns and colours mimicking those of poisonous species is thanks to a developmental gene, say scientists.
In a new study, biologists contend that an understanding of how these mimic patterns evolved may shed new light on whether such evolutionary changes occurred in small gradual steps, or in sudden leaps.
A team of biologists used molecular tags and DNA sequencing to pinpoint the part of its genetic code that determines wing pattern and colour.
Google’s Chrome browser has Windows in its sights
By Andy Goldberg, DPA,
San Francisco : Google released its first ever Internet browser in a long-awaited move that increased pressure on Microsoft and laid a new foundation for a mass transition to web-based computing.
A test version of the new software, named Google Chrome, was made available for download in more than 100 countries Tuesday. The open-source browser had been in secret development for over two years at the search engine giant.
Computers aiding in creation of new products
By IANS,
London : From cars and mobile phones to computers and furniture, most products in the market are created virtually on a computer before actual production.
Under the Functional Digital Mock-Up (DMU) project, researchers from four Fraunhofer institutes are developing value additions to digital product development.
An electric car window slides smoothly upward at the press of a button. While power windows are certainly convenient, they can also pose a safety risk.
Insects might help make cheaper biofuels
By IANS,
Washington : The help of insects might be required to make a biofuel like bioethanol commercially viable, according to an entomologist.
Michael Scharf, entomologist at the University of Florida, Gainesville and his colleague Aurélien Tartar informed how enzymes produced by both termites and the micro-organisms that inhabit their gut - known as symbionts - could help to produce ethanol from non-edible plant material such as straw and wood.
What to look for in a photo printer
By DPA,
Washington : the best digital camera on the block, but that won't matter if your prints are no good. The fact is that to get the most out of digital photography, you need to devote as much time to learning about photo printers as you do about digital cameras.
Part of the challenge lies in knowing which photo printer will best suit your needs. Another part is understanding which features that are commonly touted by printer manufacturers really matter.
Israel ready to share aviation security technology with India
Tel Aviv : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country was "ready and willing" to share with India technology in areas such...
Single-pixel terahertz camera will fine tune security screening
By IANS,
Washington : A terahertz version of the single-pixel camera developed by Rice University researchers could lead to breakthrough technologies in security, telecom, signal processing and medicine.
The research describes a way to replace the expensive, multipixel sensor arrays used in current terahertz imaging systems with a single sensor.
Terahertz radiation, which occupies space in the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave, penetrates fabric, wood, plastic and even clouds, but not metal or water.
Large Hadron Collider gets research programme cracking
By IANS,
London : Beams collided at seven trillion electron volts in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, as the research programme got underway Tuesday.
The LHC lies in a tunnel 27 km in circumference, as much as 175 metres beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.
Particle physicists worldwide are looking forward to a potentially rich harvest of new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three-and-a-half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.
How old is your oldest bulb? This one’s 70
By Asit Srivastava, IANS,
Lucknow : Seventy years old and still glowing. It's a light bulb, which has recently become the most prized possession of Lucknow resident Girish Chandra Gupta, who now aims to enter the record books, claiming to have a "rare bulb".
"It was only last month that I came to know the importance of the bulb after coming across an article in a Hindi daily," says Gupta, who runs a grocery shop from his small house located in a congested lane in the Hussainganj locality of this Uttar Pradesh capital.
New soil tester to assess earth’s health
By IANS,
Washington : Our planet has a fever. But global warming's effects on farming and water resources is still a mystery. Now an invention may provide a new diagnostic tool for assessing the health of the earth's soil.
A Tel Aviv University (TAU) invention, the Optical Soil Dipstick (OSD) designed by Eyal Ben-Dor will help scientists, urban planners and farmers understand the changing health of the soil, as well as its agricultural potential and other associated concerns. It could be used as a whistle-blower to catch polluters.
‘Sunshield’ to protect space telescope from extremes of heat, cold
By IANS,
Washington : Engineers have designed a 'Sunshield' to protect NASA's James Webb space telescope from extremes of heat and cold, radiation and small debris.
Besides, the 'Sunshield' would also block solar heat to allow its cameras and instruments to operate optimally at 1.6 million km from the earth in 2013.
A satellite has to withstand the icy cold and the intense heat and radiation of a solar flare in space, which ranges between a super-hot 127 degrees Celsius and a frigid minus 243.
Obama hails Apollo 11 crew as ‘genuine American heroes’
By DPA,
Washington : US President Barack Obama welcomed the crew of Apollo 11 to the White House Monday to mark the 40th anniversary of their journey to the moon and called the three men "genuine American heroes."
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface, while fellow crew member Michael Collins circled the moon in the command vehicle.
Water found on Jupiter moon
By IANS,
Washington : NASA's Galileo spacecraft has found evidence of water beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, researchers said.
Yahoo profit plunges, layoffs announced
By DPA,
San Francisco : Troubled internet giant Yahoo saw quarterly profits plunge 64 percent and announced Tuesday that it would cut 10 percent of its estimated 14,300 staff to help control costs.
The internet pioneer reported net income of $54 million, or 4 cents a share, compared to $151 million, or 11 cents a share, in the same period last year.
The company said revenue rose slightly to $1.78 billion compared to $1.76 billion in the year-ago quarter. The results were in line with analysts' expectations, while the layoffs had also been widely reported in recent days.
Telangana to develop national repository of smart technologies
Hyderabad: With the central government set to launch its ambitious 100 smart cities project later this month, Telangana plans to develop a national repository...
Custom designed catalysts to revolutionise production
By IANS,
Washington : Chemists have engineered a synthetic version of a natural enzyme which had the same catalytic power as that of its counterpart. These designer enzymes could revolutionise areas like drug production, environmental chemistry and bioremediation.
Catalysts are molecules that speed up chemical reactions both in the industrial and biological processes, without being changed themselves.
Astronomy fair at Jantar Mantar Sunday
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Nehru Planetarium is organising a fair at Jantar Mantar here Sunday to educate people on the astronomical instruments at the 17th century heritage site.
The fair is a part of several activities planned during the International Year of Astronomy, being observed globally this year.
"The fair will highlight and spread awareness about the usage of Jantar Mantar observatory instruments among people in the country," Nehru Planetarium Director N. Rathnasree said.
The fair will start at 11 a.m. Sunday and will go on till sunset.
With perfect launch, Chandrayaan heads for the moon
By Venkatachari Jagannathan and Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : A perfect launch sent Chandrayaan-1 on an epic voyage of discovery to the moon Wednesday morning, marking a giant scientific leap for India.
“To our luck, rain gods and clouds kept away. They also kept away lightning,” said a jubiliant G. Madhavan Nair, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), after the moon probe took off at 6.22 a.m.
U.S. probe produces three major findings about universe
By Xinhua
Washington : NASA, the U.S. space agency, released on Friday five years of data collected by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which include three major findings about the universe.
The probe got the new evidence that a sea of cosmic neutrinos permeates the early universe. According to the scientists' analysis, universe is awash in "a sea of cosmic neutrinos". Neutrinos made up a much larger part of the early universe than they do today.
China publishes first picture from lunar probe project
By Xinhua
Beijing : China published the first picture of the moon captured by Chang'e-1 Monday morning, marking the success of the country's first lunar probe project.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao unveiled the framed black-and-white photo at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC). The image showed a rough moon surface with scattered round craters both big and small.
The area covered by the picture, about 460 km in length and 280 km in width, is located within a 54 to 70 degrees south latitude and 57 to 83 degrees east longitude, according to BACC sources.
NASA could land probe on asteroid hurtling towards Earth
By IANS,
London : NASA is considering plans to land a probe on an asteroid that is on a potential collision course with the Earth.
The plan mirrors the plot of the 1998 Hollywood film "Armageddon", in which the White House sends a spaceship to land on an asteroid which is hurtling towards the Earth.
Asteroid 1999 RQ36, which has a 1-in-1,000 chance of hitting the Earth before the year 2200, would cause an explosion equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs detonating at once, reports the Telegraph.
Magic of 3G services in India, PM launches ‘Jaadu’
By IANS,
New Delhi : Indian users can now access a range of multiple utilities on their mobile phones as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday launched the state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd's (MTNL) third generation (3G) service, called 'Jaadu' or magic.
"I congratulate MTNL and the communications minister for launching the 3G service," the prime minister said.
China likely to launch its first moon orbiter Wednesday
By Xinhua
Beijing : China is likely to launch its first moon orbiter Wednesday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province.
"The satellite will be launched between Oct 24 and 26," China National Space Administration (CNSA) said, adding that the launch time has been tentatively scheduled at 6 p.m. local time.
The circumlunar satellite, named Chang'e I after the Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, and the carrier Long March 3A have passed all pre-launch tests and have been transported to the launch site, CNSA said.
Finally, a breakthrough on how to harness solar power
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers at the MIT have found a new way to store solar power, a major breakthrough in the search to use the sun and serve the Earth's energy needs in a clean and sustainable way.
Every hour, the sun pours down enough radiation to serve the Earth's energy needs for a year. The trouble is to store that energy cheaply and use it whenever needed.
Days of silicon chip numbered, warns Indian American scientist
By IANS
Washington : Micro miniaturisation of computer circuitry will drive the silicon chip out of reckoning in just four years, Indian-American scientist Suman Datta has warned.
The silicon chip, which has propelled decades' of remarkable increases in computing power and speed, seems incapable of sustaining this pace for long, Datta said Thursday at a conference on 'Condensed Matter and Materials Physics' at the Royal Holloway College, London.
Endeavour shuttle astronauts conduct first spacewalk – NASA
By RIA Novosti
Washington : Two astronauts from the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour are conducting the first spacewalk of their current mission to the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said on Friday.
Astronauts Rick Linnehan and Garrett Reisman began the spacewalk at 01:18 GMT on Friday.
"Spacewalkers have finished preparing the Japanese Logistics Module - Pressurized Section (JLP), the first component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory, for removal from space shuttle Endeavour's payload bay," NASA said on its website.
Nanoscale image of soil reveals ‘incredible’ world
By IANS,
Washington : When you look down at the grains of soil beneath your feet, all of them seem alike. But when scientists examined them very closely, at the nanoscale level, they discovered an incredible world populated by "heterogeneity of organic matter".
Outwardly, composition of organic soils from North America, Panama, Brazil, Kenya or New Zealand proved similar. However, spaces separated by mere micrometres within the same sample showed up striking differences during a recent study.
Have you experienced a vague feeling of familiarity in a new place?
By IANS,
Washington : You might be overcome with a vague yet familiar feeling when you find yourself in an entirely new place.
Somehow you sense that you have been there before, but when and how, you have not the remotest idea. You are also dead sure that it is your first visit. But something is missing and the experience keeps nagging you.
For a long time, this eerie sensation has been attributed to everything from paranormal disturbances to neurological disorders.
A device that measures ultra-cold temperatures
By IANS,
Sydney : Physicists have devised a thermometre that can potentially gauge temperatures as ultracold as tens of trillionths of a degree above absolute zero.
Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature, minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, in which all molecular activity ceases.
Scientists can currently cool atoms to a few billionths of a degree, but even this is too hot for certain applications.
For example, Richard Feynman of Harvard University dreamt of using ultracold atoms to simulate the complex quantum mechanical behaviour of electrons in certain materials.
NASA delays next Mars mission to 2011
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA's next Mars mission, Mars Science Laboratory, will launch two years later than previously planned, in the fall of 2011.
"A launch date of October 2009 no longer is feasible because of testing and hardware challenges that must be addressed to ensure mission success," NASA explained in a statement on Thursday.
The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favorable for flights to Mars only a few weeks every two years. So the next launch opportunity after 2009 is in 2011.
US, Russian satellites collide in space
By Xinhua,
Washington : A privately owned US communication satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite in orbit posing a risk to the international space station, which a NASA official said was the first such incident in space.
It was the first such collision in space, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said Wednesday, adding that the magnitude of the accident was still unknown.
Indian software firm develops programmes for four airlines
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Four leading airlines have joined hands with IT firm IBS Software to launch an airline manpower management solution that will enable them to plan cost effective and efficient operation of their fleet with an optimal level of trained crew members.
Air Astana, easyJet, Malaysia Airlines and Qatar Airways together with IBS, formed the Core Group of Influence (CGI) to develop the new IT solution.
Iran to launch first domestic satellite by March
By RIA Novosti,
Tehran : Iran plans to put its first domestically made communication satellite into orbit by March 20, the head of the Iranian space agency has said.
"If we do not run into problems, the first domestic satellite will be put in orbit by the end of this (Iranian solar calendar) year," Reza Taqipour said.
Technical experts were working to complete the preparations, he said, adding that the precise launch date for the Omid, or Hope, satellite would be announced as it drew nearer.
Recreating planetary sounds from Mars, Venus
By IANS,
London : Scientists have for the first time recreated the sound of lightning and whirlwinds from Mars and Venus and also how we would hear human voices on their surface.
India’s next moon mission banks on Russia, no Mars race with China: ISRO chief
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Young scientists asked to focus on basic research
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Visakhapatnam : Young scientists should focus on basic research as India needs more innovation in areas that affect everyone, the government's principal scientific advisor R. Chidambaram said on the second day of the 95th Indian Science Congress (ISC) here Friday.
Carbon dioxide dictates global climate pattern
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have found the apparent role of carbon dioxide in the intensification of the Ice Ages and corresponding temperature changes in the tropical oceans.
The research, led by a team of Brown University, has established that the climate in the tropics over the last 2.7 million years changed with the cyclical spread and retreat of ice sheets thousands of miles away in the Northern Hemisphere.
‘How did you feel in space?’ President Hu asks spacewalker
By Xinhua,
Beijing : China's President Hu Jintao asked Chinese astronauts what it was like walking in space after the trio successfully realised the country's first space walk Saturday.
"How did you feel like in space after exiting the module?" Hu asked the astronauts on board the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft, by telephone from the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre (BACC) in a conversation with them.
Google distorts reality, Austrian study says
By DPA
Vienna : Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, is on several fronts a danger that has to be stopped, a study released by Austria's Graz University claims.
A research team led by Prof. Hermann Maurer, chairman of Graz University's Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media, argues that Google is turning into a new version of George Orwell's "Big Brother" - creating unacceptable monopolies in many areas of the worldwide web.
Russia launches Proton-M carrier rocket with military satellite
By Ria Novosti
Moscow : A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket carrying a military satellite has been launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, Russia's space agency (Roskosmos) said on Sunday.
The Proton-M carrier rocket with a Kosmos satellite was launched at 3:16 a.m. Moscow time (00:16 a.m. GMT) on Sunday. The carrier rocket is expected to put the satellite into orbit at 12:17 p.m. Moscow time (09:17 a.m. GMT), Roskosmos said.
Steve Jobs memorial unveiled in Russia
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow: A memorial to renowned tech innovator and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was unveiled in Russian city of St. Petersburg Wednesday.
NASA’s Mars rover Spirit begins new chapter
By IANS,
Washington : After six years of unprecedented exploration, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will no longer be a fully mobile robot.
NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap were unsuccessful.
The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter.
Safe method to clean up toxic nano-materials developed
By IANS,
Washington : A natural, nontoxic method for biodegrading carbon nanotubes could help diminish environmental and health concerns about using such materials.
A Pittsburgh University research team has found that carbon nanotubes deteriorate when exposed to the natural enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP), according to a report co-authored by Alexander Star, assistant professor of chemistry in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences.
Electronic ‘ears’ guide drills into mine shaft
By IANS,
Sydney : Australian scientists have successfully used an electronic 'ear' to track and control a drill operating 300 metres below the earth's surface.
The successful trial has demonstrated that use of 'microseismics' can potentially cut down costs and improve drilling process for exploration and mining.
The trial was carried out at a coalfield test site in Queensland as part of a programme to develop and exploit coal seam gas.
Clouds disappoint people in Hyderabad
By IANS,
Hyderabad : People in this south Indian city were disappointed as dark clouds blocked the view of the partial solar eclipse Wednesday morning.
The overcast skies proved a dampener for scientists, school children and other enthusiasts who had made arrangements to watch the rare celestial event.
However, people in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati and some other towns watched the partial eclipse. Hundreds gathered at R K Beach in Visakhapatnam to watch the event even as rumours were circulating that a Tsunami would hit the Andhra coast.
US carbon-dioxide emissions dropped 7 percent in 2009
By DPA,
Washington : US emissions of carbon dioxide tumbled seven percent in 2009, government figures have showed, marking the largest one-year decline in the heat-trapping gas blamed for global warming since records began in 1949.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday attributed the sharp fall to a drop in energy use as the United States battled through its worst recession in decades, coupled with a smaller 2.3-percent drop in the "carbon intensity" of energy sources.
Kaiga poisoning: Thousands had access to radioactive chemical
By IANS,
Bangalore : Whoever caused the contamination of a drinking water dispenser at the state-run Kaiga atomic power plant in Karnataka could have been either a permanent or a contract worker, an official said Monday.
This would make it more difficult to nail the man who had added radioactive Tritium to the water, he added. Forty-five employees were affected and had to be hospitalised Nov 24 after drinking water from the dispenser, which was located inside a laboratory.
Gallagher pictured by Google’s new mapping service
By IANS,
London : Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher was photographed by Google's new mapping service as he was having a beer.
The 36-year-old Gallagher was having a drink at Street View, reported thesun.co.uk. He spotted the Google camera car taking his pictures and pointed at it. But his face was blurred since it is Google's policy to not reveal anyone's identity.
A source said: "If there's one man you'd recognise having a pint, it's Liam Gallagher. He's often in The Queens. He must be the most high-profile celeb to be caught on Google Street View."
Yahoo’s Flickr to provide online video service
By Xinhua
Beijing : Yahoo's online photo-sharing site Flickr will release online video service which represents the latest example of Yahoo trying to catch up with Google in a crucial battleground, media reported Wednesday.
Flickr's new technology is aimed at amateurs and hobbyists looking for a better way to share short video clips with family and friends.
Egyptian mummies show heart disease had ancient origin
By IANS,
Washington : Hardening of arteries detected in Egyptian mummies as early as 3,500 years shows that heart attacks and strokes had ancient origins.
"Atherosclerosis... despite differences in ancient and modern lifestyles... was rather common in ancient Egyptians of high socio-economic status living as much as three millennia ago," says Gregory Thomas, co-principal investigator.
"The findings suggest that we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand the disease," says Thomas, University of California-Irvine (UC-I) professor of cardiology.
The perils of social networking
By Mohammed Abdul Jawad,
O, what a blessed month is this! Yea, of course, I mean ‘Ramadan’—the month of sublime patience, repentance, forgiveness and generous spending. It carries its unique beauty, virtues and rewards. We ought to know the reality of fasting, the acts of worship, the manners of supplications, the essence of piety, the ways to achieve steadfastness and protection from deviations, the etiquettes of night prayer, the virtues of Laylatul Qadr (Night of Revelation) and the significance of charity.
Indian school girl’s project adjudged best by NASA
By IRNA,
New Delhi : A project on space satellites submitted by a Indian girl school student from Rourkela, the steel city in Orissa has been selected as the best by NASA.
The project by Prateeksha Das of Class XII in the Ispat English Medium School run by Rourkela Steel Plant, won a prize of $ 2,000. She has also been selected for the prestigious Bruce M-Clark Memorial award.
Warner Music, Amazon team up to sell DRM tunes
By Xinhua
Beijing : Warner Music is thumbing its nose at Apple and will sell music downloads without copyright protection technology through Amazon's online store.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been vocal about persuading record labels to sell music downloads without copyright protection technology -- also known as DRM, or digital rights management. In announcing a deal with EMI to sell its music on iTunes free of DRM, Jobs predicted that half the music on iTunes would be DRM-free by the end of the year.
New technique to compress light opens doors to optical computing
By IANS,
Mountain View (California) : Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have devised a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever thought possible, potentially opening doors to new technology in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers and optical computers.
Genetically modified plants likely to yield more biofuel
By IANS,
Washington : Genetically modified plants will open up ways to make cheaper, greener biofuels, besides helping turn agricultural waste into food for livestock.
Lignin, a major component of plants, is woven in with cellulose and provides plants with the strength to withstand strong gusts of wind and microbial attack. However, this protective barrier or "plastic wall" also makes it harder to gain access to the cellulose.
In epic project, scientists scour space for gravity waves
By IANS
New York : A unique observatory is scanning the skies for one of Einstein's greatest predictions -- giant gravitational waves. And what it finds could literally change what we know about the cosmos, says a new study.
The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, says gravitational waves -- produced when massive objects in space move violently --carry the imprint of the events that cause them, reports Sciencedaily.com.
Scientists already have indirect evidence that gravitational waves exist, but have not directly detected them.
Railways U-turn on offering exclusive women train coaches to men
Kolkata : In a victory of sorts for female commuters who did not shy to clash with their male counterparts, the Eastern Railway...
Plastic nanosheets can capture solar energy cheaply
By IANS,
Washington : Plastic sheets arrayed with billions of nanoantennas will help collect abundant heat energy generated by the sun and other sources cheaply. The technology, developed at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is the first step toward a solar energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials.
Malicious software can invade smart phones, warns Indian American
By IANS,
Washington : Malicious software can now invade new generations of smart mobile phones, potentially with more serious consequences, says an Indian American computer scientist.
"Smart phones are essentially becoming regular computers," said Vinod Ganapathy, assistant professor of computer science at the Rutgers University' School of Arts and Sciences.
New solar, n-power forms answer to global warming
By IANS
New Delhi : Concentrated solar power and thorium-based nuclear power are the ways to generate energy without causing climate change, Nobel laureate and head of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) Carlo Rubbia said here Friday.
Tata’s supercomputer adjudged fastest in Asia
By IANS
New Delhi : A supercomputer developed by the Tata Group has been adjudged the fastest in Asia and fourth fastest in the world.
The supercomputer called EKA has been built at Tata's Pune facility. It uses nearly 1,800 computing nodes and has a peak performance of 170 trillion floating-point operations per second.
"High performance computing solutions have an ever-increasing role in the scientific and new technological space the world over," Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata group, said in a statement.
Google opens new line to internet phone calls
By DPA,
San Francisco : All the fuss about tweeting, texting, Facebook pokes and various other cutting-edge forms of communication can obscure the fact that old-fashioned telephone calls are still a pretty effective way of conveying information.
But the 560 million people who are registered users of internet phone pioneer Skype have never forgotten the value of talk, and now it seems that Google is realizing it, too.
China launches weather satellite
By IANS,
Beijing : China Friday launched a meteorological satellite into space from the country's northern Shanxi province, Xinhua reported.
Lowly scrap iron can detoxify pollutants in wastewater
By IANS,
London : A Chinese researcher has used scrap iron to do the unthinkable - clean up and detoxity pollutants in industrial wastewater.
Wei-xian Zhang, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tongji Univesity, Shanghai, concluded a five-year research project with the help of colleagues to detoxify pollutants.
The project, carried out in Shanghai, used iron, called zero valent iron (ZVI) because it is not oxidized. They obtained it in the form of shavings or turnings from local metal-processing shops for about 30 cents a kg.
India launches rocket carrying latest communication satellite
By IANS
Sriharikota : A rocket carrying India's latest communication satellite lifted from this launch pad in Andhra Pradesh Sunday evening after a series of delays caused by a technical glitch.
The launch of the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV-F04 was originally scheduled for 4.21 p.m. but was successively delayed as scientists worked furiously to get over the glitch, an official here said, without specifying what the problem was.
New imaging pinpoints 5 mn atoms in protective coat of virus
By IANS,
Washington : A new image of a virus' protective coat, which took more than three years to create, contains some five million atoms in exact configuration which could help scientists find better ways to fight viral infections.
The stunning image reveals the structure of a type of protein coat shared by hundreds of known viruses containing double-stranded RNA genomes.
The image was painstakingly created from hundreds of high-energy X-ray diffraction images and paints the clearest picture yet of the viruses' genome-encasing shell called a capsid.
New format to ensure disruption-free images on TV
By IANS,
London : Video coding techniques still have their flip side - digital images are not always disruption-free. Now, an extension of the coding format known as H.264/AVC will help protect the most important data packets to ensure they reach the receiver.
For instance, your favourite detective series has just reached its climax when a thunderstorm raging outside interferes with the digital image on your TV.
Cosmic census estimates 50 billion planets in our galaxy
By IANS,
London : A cosmic census conducted for the first time has revealed that there are at least 50 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy.
CBI to get Rs.35 mn to combat cyber crimes
By IANS
New Delhi : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is going to get Rs.35 million to fight cyber-related crimes, Minister of Communications and Information Technology A. Raja said here Friday.
"We will provide Rs.3.5 crore (Rs.35 million) to the CBI for developing advanced software and procuring latest software and tools to fight cyber crimes more efficiently," Raja said at the closing ceremony of the seventh Interpol cyber crime conference here.
AMD unveils new chip for server platform
By IANS,
Bangalore : Leading chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Thursday unveiled a more powerful chip based on 45 nm (nanometre) quad-core Opteron processor, codenamed 'Shanghai', for server platform.
"The Opteron processor gives 35 percent more performance consuming 35 percent less power. Our Indian team made significant contribution to the design and development of the new chip working with the Austin R&D centre," AMD India managing director Dasaradha Gude told reporters at a preview of the product here.
UAE unveils ‘Cool City’
By IANS
Dubai : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has unveiled the concept of an environment-friendly city that would consume up to 60 percent less energy than its conventional counterpart by using cutting-edge Japanese technologies.
The "Cool City" concept uses available green technology in transport, urban development and architecture and is being promoted by the Sustainable Urban Development Consortium for Japan and Gulf States Partnership, in collaboration with Nikken Sekkei, news agency WAM reported.
India’s e-vault to store documents on cloud draws crowds
By Sharon Thambala
Bengaluru : A key part of the "Digital India" initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the free government scheme that...
Organic foods fight diseases better, says study
By IANS
London : Food produced organically have up to 40 percent more disease-fighting properties than non-organically grown produce, researchers have found.
Scientists at Newcastle University in Britain raised cattle and grew fruits and vegetables on 725 acres of organic and non-organic farms situated next to each other over a period of four years.
Mars rover Opportunity takes dip into giant crater
By Xinhua
Washington : NASA's Mars rover Opportunity entered Victoria Crater for the first time to explore the richest science trove of its long mission.
On the rover's 1,291st Martian day, Opportunity radioed home information via a relay by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, reporting its activities for the day, according to NASA mission updates Tuesday.
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.
Total solar eclipse begins in India
By IANS,
New Delhi : As dawn broke Wednesday, the century's longest total solar eclipse began with thousands of sky gazers craning their neck skywards to catch the glimpse of the rare celestial spectacle.
The sun rose eclipsed Wednesday morning at 5:28 a.m. at a local sunrise point in the Arabian Sea close to the western coast of India near Surat in Gujarat.
Thousands of people, children and adults, thronged the sky watching sites across the country with their solar goggles to watch the eclipse.
‘Chandrayaan launch historic for India, Andhra’
By IANS,
Hyderabad : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Wednesday congratulated Indian space scientists on the successful launch of the country's first unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-I.
The chief minister, in his congratulatory message to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief Madhavan Nair, said it was a truly historic moment for the entire country and "more so for Andhra Pradesh since it is from our soil that the Chandrayaan-I lifted off successfully".
Chuck a ball to put out fire
By IANS
Kolkata : Now to douse a fire, you can do better than using a fire extinguisher or splashing buckets of water. Just free your arms and throw a ball into the leaping flames. And voila! The blaze would be gone.
Siam Safety Premier Co Ltd, a Thailand-based company, has come out with an innovative and environment-friendly technology to douse fire. The fire extinguisher is marketed in India by Shree Shyam Bearings Pvt Ltd (SSBPL).
Study: Jupiter’s faint rings are dust and shadow
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Magicians use smoke and mirrors to create mystery, whereas Jupiter uses dust and shadow to conceal the mystery of its faint rings.
Jupiter's rings are now known to be made mostly of dark dust. They were discovered in 1979 by Voyager 1. Not until the Galileo spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, did scientists realize the rings were made of dust dispersed by meteoroids slamming into Jupiter's inner moons.
Two new TB drugs may reduce treatment time
By IANS
Cape Town : The Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Drug Development (TB Alliance) has announced that it has developed two drugs in clinical trials which could reduce the treatment time for TB.
This is a historic milestone in the accelerated drive to develop new TB drugs to fight the disease in different, faster and better ways and therefore save millions of lives across the globe, South African news agency BuaNews said.
Spacecraft lands near Mars’ north pole
By SPA,
Pasadena, California : NASA's newest outpost in the solar system is a polygon-cracked terrain in Mars' northern polar region believed to hold a reservoir of ice beneath.
Hours after the Phoenix Mars Lander softly landed Sunday in the Martian arctic plains, it dazzled scientists with the first-ever glimpse of the Red Planet's high northern latitudes.
A flood of images sent back by Phoenix revealed a landscape similar to what can be found in Earth's permafrost regions _ geometric patterns in the soil likely related to the freezing and thawing of ground ice.
Dinosaur museum in China sets new world record
By IANS,
Beijing : Guinness World Records has confirmed that a dinosaur museum in China's Shandong province is the largest of its kind in the world.
The Shangdong Tianyu Museum of Nature, which opened in 2004 and is devoted to dinosaur and other prehistoric fauna, applied for a Guinness World Record entry in June and received the confirmation Monday, said Yin Shiyin, deputy curator of the museum.
Android set to overtake iPhone
By DPA,
San Francisco : Phones running Google's Android operating system are selling at the rate of 200,000 a day, according to Google chief executive Eric Schmidt.
Schmidt made the comments at the Techonomy Conference Thursday, in a video of his talk posted on YouTube.
Schmidt said that the success of Android has more than made up for the huge amounts of money the company poured into its development.
"Trust me that revenue is large enough to pay for all of the Android activities and a whole bunch more," he said.
China issues warning on Valentine’s Day computer viruses
By IANS,
Beijing : Technology experts in China have warned internet users to be alert against computer viruses based on the Valentine's Day theme.
Indian spacecraft will try to unravel moon’s origins
By Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to unravel the moon's origins as it scouts for minerals and water there, according to project director M. Annadurai.
When Chandrayaan is launched Oct 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 80 km from Chennai, it will boost international space cooperation by carrying 11 scientific devices, six of them from European and American organisations, to study the earth's nearest celestial neighbour while it orbits 100 km above the moon.
Microsoft, Yahoo meeting on takeover ends without results
By DPA
New York : Key officials from US software giant Microsoft and internet company Yahoo failed to reach agreement in talks over a multi-billion takeover bid, the Wall Street Journal newspaper reported Friday.
Microsoft had launched a takeover bid of originally $45 billon more than two months ago, which was rejected by Yahoo for being too low.
According to the paper, officials were unable to solve their differences of opinion during the meeting, which took place this week at Yahoo's headquarters in Sunnydale, California.
244,000 Germans log objections to Google’s Street View
By DPA,
Berlin : Some 244,237 German households have so far demanded that images of their homes be removed from Google Inc's Street View geo-data service, the online search giant said Thursday.
Students build and launch a sensor into space
By IANS,
Washington : Students built and launched a cosmic radiation detector into space with the help of a 12-inch helium filled balloon that reached an altitude of 104,000 feet.
The instrument recorded radiation levels at varying altitudes - information that will be used by NASA to develop instrumentation for space flight.
"This is really amazing," said Carl Johnson, a physics graduate student who designed and built the device. "Our detector actually flew to the edge of outer space and then back to ground, and the whole time it worked perfectly."
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).
Asteroid 2012 DA14 passes by Earth
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The massive 2012 DA14 asteroid came closest to the Earth late Friday and is now heading away from the planet, Russian astronomers said.
89 power projects pending with environment ministry
By IANS,
New Delhi: A total of 89 power projects seeking green clearance are pending with the ministry, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan told the Lok Sabha Monday.
Scientists discover 10 new planets outside solar system
By Xinhua
Washington : An international team of astronomers has found 10 new extra-solar planets, planets that orbit stars other than our sun, University of California, Santa Barbara, announced on Tuesday.
The new international collaboration is called "SuperWASP," for Wide Area Search for Planets. In the last six months the SuperWASP team has used two batteries of cameras, one in Spain's Canary Islands and one in South Africa, to discover the 10 new extra solar planets.
First synthetic tree may facilitate heat transfer, soil technologies
By IANS,
Washington : The world's first 'synthetic tree,' created by Abraham Stroock's lab, mimics the process of transpiration that helps move moisture to the highest branches.
The researchers' work bolsters the long-standing theory that transpiration in trees and plants through capilliary action, is a purely physical process, requiring no biological energy.
It also may lead to new passive heat transfer technologies for cars or buildings, better methods for remediating soil and more effective ways to draw water out of partially dry ground.
Meteorite that killed dinosaurs was six km wide: study
By IANS
Washington : The meteorite linked to the mass extinction of dinosaurs and other life forms 65 million years ago was four to six kilometres in diameter.
That's the conclusion of a team of Hawaii University researchers who have evolved a mechanism to measure the size of meteorites that have rammed into earth over millennia.
François Paquay and his team used isotopes of the rare element osmium in sediments at the bottom of the ocean to estimate the meteorite sizes and also the frequency with which they hit earth.
Graphene device detects narcotics in a jiffy
By IANS,
London: A new graphene-based device can pinpoint the presence of the tiniest amounts of performance enhancing drugs and steroids, rapidly and accurately, in athletes' blood samples.
India defers lunar mission launch
By IANS
Bangalore : India's first exploratory mission to moon Chandrayaan-1, scheduled for launch April 9, has been deferred, a top space agency official said here Tuesday.
"As a number of pre-launch tests have to be conducted, it is difficult to meet the April 9 deadline," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told IANS on phone.
"The mission payload has 12 instruments. We will decide on the next launch date by this month-end after a review meeting," he said.
Japanese moon orbiter videos 1st “Full Earth-rise”
By Xinhua,
Beijing : A high-definition video camera on Japan's lunar orbiter captured a rare view of the full Earth as it rose above the moon's horizon on April 5, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officials said in a recent statement after releasing a short video of the event.
"This is the first time that a high-[definition] image of the 'Full Earth-rise' has been captured from space," JAXA officials said.
‘Switch off TV, save 10 percent of your power bill’
By Joydeep Gupta, IANS,
Poznan (Poland) : Simple things like switching off your TV and computers, instead of keeping them on standby, can help save 10 percent of your electricity bill.
"I don't understand why people aren't doing it," says Diana Urge-Vorsatz, expert member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), referring to simple things that people can do every day to reduce power bills and fight climate change at the same time.
Accompanying satellite begins orbiting Shenzhou-7 spaceship on Sunday
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Chinese scientists on Sunday successfully directed the accompanying satellite BX-1 to begin circling the Shenzhou-7 spaceship, on an elliptical track of 4 kilometers multiplying 8 kilometers.
It is the first time that China has succeeded in maneuvering this kind of space orbiting, official sources say.
The accompanying satellite began orbiting the orbital capsule of the Shenzhou-7 at 18:14 pm, under the close monitoring and precise control of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.
Dinosaur dance floor! Really?
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists who hiked recently to the northern Arizona wilderness site touted as a "dinosaur dance floor" found no sign of the extinct creatures but plenty of eroded potholes.
They saw dinosaur tracks en route, but none in the pockmarked "dance floor".
One of them, paleontologist Brent Breithaupt, director and curator of the University of Wyoming's Geological Museum, said "there simply are no tracks or real track-like features at this site. We will be investigating the formation of these features in the upcoming study."
Scientists find first dinosaur tracks on Arabian peninsula
By IANS,
Dubai : The scientific community is abuzz with something rarely seen in the Arabia peninsula - dinosaur tracks.
Footprints of ornithopod, a large dinosaur, as well as a herd of 11 small and large herbivorous sauropods were found preserved along a Mesozoic coastal mudflat in the Republic of Yemen, according to a study published in the scientific journal PLoS One.
“No dinosaur trackways had been found in this area previously. It's really a blank spot on the map,” said Anne Schulp, who led the study.
Camera with ability to “see” under clothes
By Xinhua
Beijing : A British company has developed a camera that can detect weapons, drugs or explosives hidden under people's clothes from up to 25 meters away, according to British media reports Monday.
The T5000 camera, created by a company called ThruVision, uses what it calls "passive imaging technology" to identify objects by the natural electromagnetic rays -- known as Terahertz or T-rays -- that they emit.
Micro-organisms placed in outer space
By DPA,
Washington/Moscow : Two International Space Station (ISS) crew members installed an experiment outside the craft during a nearly five-hour long spacewalk.
US Commander Mike Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov Tuesday completed the spacewalk around 2110 GMT, about one hour earlier than planned.
The spacewalk's main objective was to place a European Space Agency container of micro-organisms outside the station to examine the effects of extreme temperatures and radiation. Fincke and Lonchakov also photographed the Russian parts of ISS.
Want to meet T-Rex? Go to Jharkhand
By IANS,
Ranchi : Want to know more about the ferocious T-Rex and his friends? Well, there's good news for you, as the forest department of Jharkhand plans to establish a dinosaur park in the state.
The authorities came up with the idea after footprints resembling those of the big reptiles were discovered in the state.
"Footprints resembling those of dinosaurs have been found in Pithoria in Ranchi and Hazaribagh districts. There is a possibility that the big reptiles might have been roaming in these areas," said Nitish Priyadarshi, a geologist and environmentalist.
ISRO eyes commercial launches to earn cash
By IANS,
Kolkata : After a string of successes, a confident Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is ready to offer its capacities on a commercial basis and ring in its cash registers, after meeting the domestic requirement that calls for four to five launches a year.
"ISRO launch vehicles are efficient, reliable and cost-effective. Our launch vehicles cost nearly 25 percent less than what international agencies demand," ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair Thursday said.
Corn stover being evaluated as sustainable biofuel source
By IANS,
Washington : With galloping oil prices, the quest for efficient and sustainable biofuels has narrowed on corn stover, the leaves and stalks of corn plants that are discarded after harvesting the edible grain. The plant could meet a fourth of the biofuel crop requirement by 2030.
Scientists at the University of Nebraska examined the long-term sustainability of using corn stover as a biofuel crop.
When corn stover is not harvested as a biofuel crop, it can be left on the fields to restore vital nutrients to the soil. Full-scale harvesting of corn stover may deplete the soil.
ognizant acquires US analytics firm
By IANS
Chennai : Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, a Chennai-based global provider of IT and business process outsourcing services, Saturday said that it has completed the acquisition of New Jersey-based marketRx Inc.
MarketRx is a provider of analytics and related software services to life sciences companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices segments.
With over 430 employees in the US, India and Europe, marketRx enables pharma and biotechnology companies to improve the effectiveness of their sales and marketing operations.
AMU may get Indo-US energy centre
By IANS,
Aligarh: The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) may soon host the Indo-US energy centre.
UAE to host global space technology meet next month
By IANS,
Abu Dhabi : An international meet on space technology will be held in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next month to be attended by space scientists from across the world including those from the US, Europe and the UAE, WAM reported Thursday.
The three-day Global Space Technology Forum, the first of its kind in the Middle East, will be held Nov 16-18 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre and will focus on new space technology and commercial markets, research and development, environment, energy and climate, among other things.
Technology to help crops use saltwater being developed
By IANS,
Sydney : Technology being developed by the University of New South Wales could offer new hope to farmers in drought-hit areas by enabling them to grow crops by using salty groundwater.
Greg Leslie, of University's UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology, is working with the University of Sydney on technology which uses reverse-osmosis membranes to turn previously useless, brackish groundwater into a valuable agricultural resource.
Millions throng to Kurukshetra for holy dip during solar eclipse
By IANS,
Kurukshetra (Haryana) : It was a sea of humanity that arrived in this Haryana town to take a dip in the 'Brahmsarovar' on the occasion of the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century Wednesday.
The administration here said that nearly 1.5 million (15 lakh) were expected to arrive for a holy dip at the 'Brahmsarovar' (Pond of Lord Brahma - the Hindu god considered the creator of the universe) on the occasion.
People started thronging the holy pond since 3 a.m. Wednesday even though the eclipse was expected to take place three hours later.
Microsoft to acquire multitouch display maker
By IANS,
San Francisco: Microsoft has announced that it has agreed to buy large-scale multitouch display maker Perceptive Pixel.
Five billion people to use cell phones in 2010: UN
By IANS,
Madrid: The number of mobile phone users across the world would increase to five billion this year, a UN telecommunication agency said Monday.
The number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has reached 4.6 billion and is expected to increase to five billion this year, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
"Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services," ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure said.
India’s Y chromosome man finds nature’s failsafe
By Papri Sri Raman, IANS
Chennai : Sher Ali hopes that there will never be a nuclear holocaust. But even if there were one, humankind would still survive on earth, says India's Y chromosome man.
One of the fallouts of a nuclear holocaust, Ali said, is that the reproductive cells in men are destroyed or genetically so modified that either there are no offspring or they are malformed.
NASA names planet after Kerala professor
By IANS,
New York/Kollam (Kerala) : In a rare honour, the US space agency NASA has named a 'minor' planet after a Kerala zoology professor in appreciation of his environmental research.
Sainudeen Pattazhy, who teaches in a college in Kollam, received a phone call from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory run by the space agency Wednesday that the minor planet '5178 CD4' has been named after him.
Computer takes on CA’s job, at least for filing returns
By IANS,
New Delhi : Can the computer replace your chartered accountant? Yes, says a software firm, which is aiming its only product at the small-time taxpayer who can't afford the hassles of finding a person to help file tax returns.
TaxSpanner - an online income tax preparation and filing tool for India at taxspanner.com - offers to help you "e-file" your income tax return in three easy steps.
Delhi-based SpanAcross IT Solutions Private Ltd. director Manoj Yadav said the product was gearing up to work with some big players and was expecting to extend its reach.
Global chipmaker opens second facility in Hyderabad
By IANS
Hyderabad : Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), an US-based global supplier of integrated circuits and processing solutions for computing, strengthened its India operations by opening its second research and design (R&D) facility here.
AMD President and Chief Operating Officer Dirk Meyer launched the facility, which is the firm's fourth in India.
The new 30,000-sq ft centre will accommodate 450 R&D employees focusing on AMD's graphics and computing solutions.
Earth is twice as dusty as in 19th century
By IANS,
Washington : If your house seems dustier than usual, it may have nothing to do with your housekeeping skills.
Indian American finds mastermind behind formation of our skin
By IANS,
Washington : An Indian American researcher has discovered the genetic mastermind that controls skin formation. The finding could help address skin disorders like eczema, psoriasis and wrinkles.
Skin is actually the largest organ in the human body, and has important functions in protecting people from infection, toxins, microbes and solar radiation.
Big and thin: PC monitors better than ever
By DPA
Berlin : Chunky, heavy tube monitors appear to have reached the end of their long run as the king of the computer workspace. A hefty competition is under way among flat monitors. The goal: bigger, broader and more handsome.
"Seventeen-inch monitors are already becoming extinct, and 19 inch has become the standard," says Dirk Lorenz from the German consumer-testing organisation Stiftung Warentest in Berlin.
As monitors get bigger, more of them come in wide screen format. That means a 16:10 size ratio instead of the old fashioned 4:3 ratio.
Toonz, Marvel tie up for second part of X-Men series
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Singapore-based animation major Toonz Entertainment Pte Ltd has tied up with Marvel Animation to produce the second part of the popular animated television series "Wolverine and the X-Men", a top official said here Tuesday.
Toonz Group chief executive P. Jayakumar said the company was thrilled to join hands with Marvel, a global leader in animated entertainment industry, to showcase "one of the most sought-after, iconic characters of all time".
Russian ‘internet blacklist’ site faces attack
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow: A Russian website with a special register of "blacklisted" sites came under attack shortly after it went online Thursday, said the federal agency which runs it.
ISRO to launch moon mission in October-December
By IANS,
Kolkata : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to launch its first unmanned moon mission, Chandrayan-I, between October and December, a top official said here Thursday.
"We are hopeful of launching the spacecraft in the third quarter of 2008-09. The mission would be targeted to capture images of the lunar surface," ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters during an interactive session here.
German scientists use body heat to generate electricity
By DPA
Erlangen (Germany) : German scientists have developed a way of harnessing heat from the body to generate electricity.
The method uses the difference between the body's surface temperature and that of the surrounding environment, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits said.
Energy produced this way can be used to power medical equipment, such as sensors attached to the body of a patient in an intensive care ward, the institute said.
Chasing an eclipsed sun through India
By IANS,
New Delhi : There was excitement in the air as a shaded sun peeped from an overcast sky at dawn Wednesday with tens of thousands of people across the country gathering at rooftops, planetariums and parks to watch the century's longest total solar eclipse.
The eclipse started at sunrise in Surat in Gujarat at 5.28 a.m. when the moon started covering the sun and reached its peak at around 6.23 a.m. when the sun was completely obscured by the moon. The eclipse ended at 7.25 a.m.
NASA mission: Mars soil may contain perchlorate
By Xinhua,
Washington : Analysis of recent soil samples taken by of Phoenix lander's from Mars has found possible traces of perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance, NASA scientists reported Tuesday.
However, the mission team noted that further investigation is still needed to confirm the presence of perchlorate salts.
ISRO designed avionics to guide rockets in 2008
By IANS
Chennai : Rocket navigation systems developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are all set to guide the geo-synchronous launch vehicle (GSLV) slated for launch next year.
ISRO tested its new avionics on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that was launched in April. The vehicle had a second equipment bay - apart from the primary one - housing the navigation and telemetry systems.
Humans survived ice age by sheltering in ‘Garden of Eden’
By IANS,
London : The Garden of Eden, a strip of land off Africa's southern coast, had provided shelter to a handful of humans who survived mass extinction on earth during the ice age, say scientists.
Researchers believe the small patch of land at 384 km east of Cape Town was the only place that remained habitable during the devastating ice age 195,000 years ago when sudden change in earth's temperature wiped out many species.
Some scientists believe the population of human race may have fallen to a few hundred who managed to survive in one location, according to Daily Mail.
Scientists on track to slow down aging in humans
By IANS
Washington : Researchers have identified 25 genes regulating lifespan in two organisms separated by 1.5 billion years - of which 15 are very similar to that of humans.
And thanks to that similarity, it may now be possible for scientists to target the genes to help slow down aging and treat related conditions.
The findings of the study have been published online in the journal Genome Research.
The two organisms are the single-celled budding yeast and the roundworm C. elegans - both commonly used models for aging research.
Russia can build fast neutron nuclear reactor in India
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A Russian nuclear official said his country could launch cooperation with India in building fast neutron nuclear reactors for power plants if sanctions against India are removed.
India has never been party to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has been under US, Japanese and European sanctions since 1998, when it detonated atomic devices.
New technique to help predict Alzheimer’s early
By IANS,
Sydney : A neuroimaging scan called PiB PET can predict the onset of Alzheimer's in individuals at least 18 months earlier than all currently available diagnostics.
PiB PET can show excess of beta-amyloid (molecule) in the brain and potentially allows clinicians to distinguish patients with early Alzheimer's disease, even before signs of memory loss are present.
Eclipse gazing a big hit with students, say schools
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.
Europe’s biggest wind energy park inaugurated in Portugal
By DPA,
Lisbon : Portugal's Economy Minister Manuel Pinho Wednesday inaugurated what was described as Europe's biggest wind energy park in the northern region of Viana do Castelo.
The Alto Minho I park began generating energy already a year ago, gradually increasing its production to the full potential Wednesday.
The 120 turbines divided between five sub-stations will produce 530 gigawatts annually or one percent of Portugal's energy.
The park, which cost 400 million euros ($520 million), was expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 370,000 tonnes annually.
Destruction of wetlands will release massive greenhouse gases
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.
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.
Cranes Software acquires US-based firm
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."
European cargo vessel docks with space station
By Xinhua
Paris : A European supply vessel carrying over 5 tons of cargo successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday.
According to a NASA news release, the European supply vehicle established communication with the ISS at 1000 GMT Thursday and the docking was ordered at 1440 GMT.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) was built by a consortium led by the space unit of aerospace group EADS (European Aeronautic Defence and Space company). It carries three times the cargo of Russia's Progress vehicle and will play a key role in supplying the ISS.
Singhvi underlines India’s growth at Boston technology summit
By IANS,
Washington : Political and business leaders from three leading world markets - China, India and Russia - got an insight into India's growth plans from Abhishek Singhvi, spokesperson of the Congress Party leading the country's ruling coalition.
Participating in a conference on "China, India and Russia - Our Partners in the New Global Economy" in Boston, Massachusetts Thursday, he also dilated on India's infrastructure and its abundant labour supply.