Man thinks moon is UFO, calls emergency
By IANS,
London : A Briton rang up emergency number 999 to report an UFO hovering above his house, but later said the "mysterious object" was only the moon.
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.
Breakthrough makes cheaper images for 3D video games possible
By IANS,
Washington : Most of the images that serve as computer screen or 3D video games background are often hand painted and expensive.
But a breakthrough by a University of California graduate offers game developers the possibility of high quality yet lightweight images, free of stretch marks, flickering and other problems.
Desktop search tools make computer use easier
By DPA
Washington : With computers these days, it's all about search and there's a good reason. With mounds upon mounds of data on our hard drives, the primary obstacle we face is finding what we need when we need it.
The irony is that it's almost easier to find information online than it is to find it on our own PCs. Thankfully, that's changing. New tools are going some way toward making our own hard drives as accessible as what we see online.
China to send probe to Mars
By IANS,
Beijing : China plans to send a probe to Mars in the next three years, authorities here said.
Insat-4CR launch delayed by two hours
By IANS
Sriharikota : The launch of India's latest communication satellite Insat-4CR has been rescheduled by two hours to 6.10 p.m. after three delays caused by a technical hitch 15 seconds before the scheduled blast-off.
The satellite was to be launched at 4.21 p.m. by the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV-F04 and was initially put off by 50 minutes.
It was then pushed back to 5.40 p.m. and again.10 p.m. as scientists worked furiously to get over the technical glitch that had arisen, an official here said, without specifying what the problem was.
US space shuttle Endeavour lifts off
By Xinhua
Washington : US space shuttle Endeavour lifted off early Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, NASA TV reported.
"All systems are working well ... Endeavour is making its way to the International Space Station (ISS)," NASA's launch blog said after the shuttle jettisoned its twin solid rocket boosters and shut down its three main engines as planned.
The Endeavour and its seven-member crew will spend 16 days in space, the longest visit by the space shuttle to the ISS.
Astronauts complete final spacewalk
By Xinhua,
Washington : Two astronauts have completed their fifth and final spacewalk installing two cameras on Japan's Kibo laboratory at the International Space Station (ISS), the US space agency NASA said.
The spacewalk, conducted by Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn, lasted four hours and 54 minutes.
The astronauts performed an electrical cable swap and adjustment of insulation blankets on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator.
India seeks Israeli technology to boost litchi output
By Imran Khan, IANS,
Patna : India is eyeing Israeli technology to increase the life span of the litchi fruit after searing heat destroyed much of the crops in Bihar, which accounts for 70 percent of domestic production.
"Israel has got the technology that will help litchi growers as well as those engaged in its marketing to earn lucrative prices," K.K. Kumar, director of the National Research Centre for Litchi at Muzaffarpur, told IANS.
US solar industry ‘injured’ by Chinese solar cells
By IANS,
Beijing : The solar industry in America was "materially injured" by imports of solar cells from China, a US trade panel has claimed.
Nine of 10 e-mails are spam
By DPA,
Mainz (Germany) : Most daily e-mails are not sent between friends or even business partners. Instead, 92 percent of e-mails sent between January and March 2008 were spam.
This was revealed by Sophos, a Mainz-based information technology security firm that regularly monitors internet mail.
The United States remains the world champion when it comes to spam as more than 15 percent originated there, the firm said.
Sophos, however, did not track the number of spams actually reaching the mailboxes of internet users.
Now, a robotic underwater vehicle powered by ocean movement
By IANS,
Washington : A robotic underwater vehicle that is powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy has been developed, holding out promise of almost indefinite monitoring of the ocean depths for climate and marine life studies.
Researchers have successfully demonstrated the Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle that uses a novel thermal recharging engine, powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ocean depths.
Hurricane may cut short Endeavour mission: NASA
By DPA
Washington : Hurricane Dean may force NASA to cut short by one day the mission of the space shuttle Endeavour, space agency officials said Saturday.
With astronauts on the shuttle preparing for their fourth and final space walk later Saturday, officials were keeping a wary eye on the path of hurricane Dean and the possibility that the flight control centre in Houston, Texas might have to be evacuated.
The Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) Monday and land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Wednesday.
US rocket ready to crash into moon
By DPA,
Washington : A US rocket is to crash into the moon Friday in an experiment scientists hope will provide data about ice hidden in the perpetually dark lunar craters.
Astronomers around the world are prepared to capture the impact of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the moon's Caebus crater at 1130 GMT. The rocket will deliberately crash into the moon, kicking up a plume of dust that scientists hope to analyse for traces of water that they believe are abundant in the
cold, shadowy craters.
Scientists develop mother of all laser beams
By IANS
New York : Scientists have developed the mother of all laser beams - one that has focussed power equal to all the sunlight heading earth's way.
Researchers at the University of Michigan recently created the record-setting beam, which measures 20 billion trillion watts per square centimetre, Sciencedaily reported.
"I don't know of another place in the universe that would have this intensity of light. We believe this is a record," said Karl Krushelnick, who was part of the team that created the laser.
Phoenix lander finds water on Mars
By DPA,
Washington : The Phoenix Mars mission has found water in a soil sample after spending the last two months examining the red planet for evidence that it could support life, NASA scientists said Thursday.
The spacecraft's robotic arm has dug several trenches in the Martian soil near the planet's north pole and been heating soil samples in a series of small "ovens."
It had earlier spotted chunks outside the rover that scientists had identified as ice, but data sent back by the most recent soil sample for the first time showed water inside Mars' dirt, researchers said.
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.
Scientists discover wave pattern in Saturn’s atmosphere
By Xinhua,
Washington : Scientists have discovered a wavepattern, or oscillation, in Saturn's atmosphere only visible from Earth every 15 years, according to two studies published Thursday in journal Nature.
The discovery is the result of a 22-year campaign observing Saturn from Earth, and the Cassini spacecraft's observations of temperature changes in the giant planet's atmosphere over time.
Endeavour heads for space station on home makeover mission
By Xinhua,
Washington : US space shuttle Endeavour carrying seven astronauts aboard headed Saturday for the international space station on a home makeover mission.
The shuttle with a beautiful orange full moon as backdrop blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Friday night. According to NASA, the launch went smoothly without any technical issues popping up.
After successfully jettisoning its rocket boosters and external tank, Endeavour now is safely in orbit and all systems are running well, US space agency NASA's real-time launch blog reported.
European team discovers smallest extrasolar planet
By IANS,
London : A European satellite has discovered the smallest planet outside of our solar system, which is twice as large as earth and orbiting a star slightly smaller than the sun.
The planet is believed to be composed of rock and water, and takes 20 hours to orbit its host star, the shortest orbital period of all exoplanets found so far.
Astronomers infer its temperature over 1,000 degree Celsius, hot enough to make it covered in lava or superheated water vapour.
Microsoft unveils microchip driven Windows version
By IANS,
London : Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its flagship Windows software to run on microchips designed by British company ARM.
Retaining talent major challenge for Indian scientific organisations
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : Retaining an experienced nuclear scientist has become a major challenge now for the Indian nuclear establishment, with the private sector casting its net wide for talent, says a top scientist.
"Last year we lost around five percent of our scientists and engineers. Ten of them were groomed by me over two decades," Baldev Raj, director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), told IANS in an interview.
According to him, managing a scientific research organisation is tougher than running a company.
Duck-billed dinosaurs outgrew predators to survive
By IANS,
Washington : The duck-billed hadrosaur with long limbs and a soft body had virtually no protection against predators like tyrannosaurs. But the latest research on the plant-eating dinosaur suggests that it grew into adulthood much faster than its predators, giving it superiority in size.
Scientists compared growth rate data from the hadrosaur, Hypacrosaurus, to three predators: the tyrannosaur Albertosaurus and its gigantic relative Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as the small Velociraptor-like Troodon.
New software to demystify planning process
By IANS,
New Delhi: A new software has been developed to "demystify and strengthen" the planning process at the panchayat level.
The Panchayati Raj ministry Tuesday said the software has been developed in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
In a statement here, the ministry said the software known as 'Plan Plus' is generic and open to customisation by states, line department and local governance agencies.
Five more exoplanets found in Milky Way
By DPA,
Washington : NASA scientists said Monday they have identified another five planets orbiting stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
But none of them appears to be the long sought after Earth-twin that could support life the way the home planet does, Kepler telescope specialists said at a news conference in Washington.
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.
Scientists develop tiny sensor to sniff out toxins
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have developed a stamp-sized sensor that can sniff out some poisonous gases and toxins and can show results simply by changing colour.
The sensor could be useful in detecting high exposures to toxic industrial chemicals that pose serious health risks at the workplace.
While physicists have radiation badges to protect them in the workplace, chemists and workers who handle chemicals do not have equivalent devices to monitor their exposure to potentially toxic chemicals.
Astronauts finish Hubble repairs
By DPA,
Washington : Two US astronauts Monday put the final vital maintenance touches on the Hubble Space Telescope, replacing old insulation and a guidance sensor on the ageing satellite before its scheduled release back into orbit Tuesday.
The seven-hour-plus space walk completed a marathon five straight days of work in a risky mission by the Atlantis shuttle that entailed a stand-by shuttle on the launch pad in Florida for a rescue mission if needed.
Special goggles, telescopes – Lucknow set for solar eclipse
By IANS,
Lucknow : Scientific institutions and schools in Lucknow have made elaborate arrangements - from acquiring special goggles to installing telescopes - for people to watch the annular solar eclipse Friday.
The Indira Gandhi Planetarium has purchased as many as 6,500 special goggles and installed several telescopes so that people can view the eclipse.
"We have made enough arrangements to watch the solar eclipse. Only 51.12 percent of the eclipse will be visible in Lucknow," Anil Yadav, officer-in-charge of the planetarium, told IANS Friday.
Russia launches defense satellite
By Xinhua,
Moscow : Russia launched on Friday a carrier rocket with three defense satellites atop, Itar-Tass reported.
The rocket, also carrying the scientific Yubileyny micro-satellite took off from the Plesetsk spaceport at 7:20 p.m. (1520 GMT), Russian Space Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin was cited as saying.
The launch was made successfully at the north Russia's launch pad, he said.
Computer `taught’ to recognise attractive women
By IANS
London : Beauty indeed lies in the eye of the beholder - but does the beholder have to be human? Apparently not.
According to a paper in the journal Vision Research, Indo-Israeli Amit Kagian successfully "taught" a computer to recognise attractiveness in women.
"The computer produced impressive results. Its rankings were very similar to the rankings people gave," said Kagian of Tel Aviv University.
India now aims for manned space mission
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : India is aiming to send a manned mission into the space after the success of its first unmanned mission to the moon, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRo) chairmain G. Madhavan Nair said here Sunday.
Free software saves Kerala schools Rs.11 crore
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : By opting for the free and open software platform (FOSS) for the state-sponsored IT@School project, Kerala's General Education Department has saved Rs.11 crore.
The project's Executive Director K. Anvar Sadath said if proprietary software were used in the 11,065 laptops and computers to be supplied in schools, a minimum of Rs.11 crore would have been spent in procurement of software.
Century’s longest “Annular Solar Eclipse” on January 15: Report
By IRNA,
New Delhi : A rare celestial treat, the century’s longest “Annular Solar Eclipse” will occur Friday.
The 21st century’s longest annular solar eclipse occurs on January 15, apart from India, will be visible across Africa, the Indian Ocean, Maldives, Sri Lanka and south-east Asia.
Astronomers discover new planet in constellation Leo
By Xinhua
London : British and Spanish scientists have discovered a possible terrestrial-type planet orbiting a star in the constellation of Leo, science news weibsite Alpha Galileo reported on Wednesday.
A team of astronomers from the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) working with Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, a visiting astrophysicist at University College London (UCL), made the discovery from model predictions of a new exoplanet (extrasolar planet) orbiting a star in the constellation of Leo.
India must market for global satellite contracts
By R. Ramaseshan, IANS,
The success of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Monday in putting into orbit 10 satellites with a single launch is certainly a commendable achievement marking as it does the second largest number of satellites launched at one go. Now it needs to push aggressively for more contracts in this niche market.
Besides ISRO's own two primary satellites, Cartosat-2A (690 kg) and IMS-1 (83 kg), Monday's payload included seven nanosatellites (1-10 kg class) and one microsatellite (10-100 kg class) from foreign customers, which together weighed about 50 kg.
Russian Proton-M rocket with Japanese satellite crashes
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A Russian Proton-M booster rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite exploded shortly after lift-off early Thursday, a space agency spokesman said.
The rocket, which was launched from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 2.43 a.m. Moscow time, experienced an engine malfunction and second-stage separation failure 139 seconds into its flight. It came down in the central Kazakh steppe, 50 km southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan, the spokesman said.
New tech helps physically impaired enter virtual worlds
By IANS,
Washington : Relying on fleeting brain waves, a futuristic technology enables people with severe muscle disorder to operate computers and enter a 3-D virtual world to chat or stroll.
The technology, demonstrated by Junichi Ushiba of Keio University, opens up a world of possibilities for serious motion-impaired people to communicate with others and to work normally.
This marriage of leading-edge technologies in brain science and the Internet also heralds the world's first successful example to help the physically impaired meet people in the virtual world.
Microgrid power stations can ensure uninterrupted supply
By IANS,
Washington : Microgrid based power stations with their own energy source and independent control could ensure uninterrupted power supply even after hurricanes or natural disasters.
Texas University professor Alexis Kwasinski has formulated a new plan to de-centralise power architecture that would have kept the lights and phones on in town and cities in such an eventuality.
High court goes tech savy, to have e-filing of cases
By IANS,
New Delhi : Queues will soon be a thing of the past in Delhi High Court as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) would be installed in the court premises to promote e-filing of cases.
The proposal was mooted by Delhi High Court Bar association (DHCBA) and is in the final stages of completion.
Wi-fi is a wireless local area network that uses radio waves to connect computers and other devices to the Internet
Spineless marine sponge built our nerves
By IANS,
Sydney : Queensland University researchers have traced the evolution of nerves to one of the unlikeliest objects in existence - the marine sponge.
"Sponges have one of the most ancient lineages and don't have nerve cells," informed Bernie Degnan of Queensland University School of Integrative Biology.
"So we are pretty confident it was after the sponges split from trunk of the tree of life and sponges went one way and animals developed from the other, that nerves started to form.
Over 80 arrested for cyber crimes in Delhi in 2009-11
By IANS,
New Delhi: Over 80 people were arrested in Delhi in cyber crime related cases during 2009-11, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
There are ways to recover damaged data
By Jay Dougherty, DPA,
Washington : Bad things can happen to good data. Hard drives can crash. Memory cards can be formatted accidentally. CDs or DVDs on which important files are stored can become scratched and unreadable. But there are steps you can take to try to retrieve damaged data.
The course you take will depend upon the type of media on which the data is stored as well as how severe the damage is.
‘India, China don’t pose a challenge to US’
By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Warnings from pundits that the millions of engineers and scientists India and China produce each year would soon challenge the US' technical superiority may be a little premature, according to Newsweek International.
While Delhi and Beijing are slowly moving in the right direction to improve their high-tech and science programmes, "yet getting either country up to speed will be an enormous task", said the magazine.
NASA scientists isolate clues to the secret of life
By IANS,
Washington : NASA scientists analysing meteorite dust have discovered new clues to a long-standing mystery about how life works on its most basic, molecular level.
"We found more support for the idea that biological molecules, like amino acids, created in space and brought to earth by meteorite impacts help explain why life is left-handed," said Daniel Glavin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt.
"By that I mean why all known life uses only left-handed versions of amino acids to build proteins," added Glavin, who co-authored the study.
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.
GII: A group that tracks Indian cyberspace
By Frederick Noronha, IANS,
Bangalore : Does India have too many "cyber law experts"? What's wrong with the Blackberry service in India? How is BSNL's IPO shaping up? These and several such issues routinely crop up on India-GII.
So what is India-GII? Located in cyberspace, it is a network of techies and others fleshing out cyber issues in the country, tracking its progress from one of the most expensive and monopolistic telecom markets to one of the most competitive.
India-GII describes itself as a "list (that) has existed since 1995".
China’s recoverable moon rover expected in 2017
By Xinhua
Beijing : China will have a recoverable moon rover, which will carry back lunar soil samples, by 2017 if technical research "progresses smoothly," said the chief designer of Chang'e-1, the country's first moon probe, here Tuesday.
China plans to land a probe on the moon in 2013, said Ye Peijian, chief commander and designer of probe's satellite system, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The milestone Chang'e-1 blasted off last October, marking the first step in China's ambitious three-stage moon mission.
Chinese astronauts test suit for spacewalk mission
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou VII spacecraft Friday finished assembling a spacesuit for tests before carrying out the country's first spacewalk mission.
Two of the three astronauts unpacked the Chinese-made suit inside the orbital module of the spacecraft as the third astronaut waited in the re-entry module.
The spacewalk, or extra-vehicular activity (EVA), slated for 4.30 p.m. Saturday will last about 30 minutes, Wang Zhaoyao, spokesperson of the manned space programme said Friday.
Indian satellite data can be helpful for UAE, Gulf: Kasturirangan
By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS,
Dubai : Data received from Indian satellites can prove to be very useful to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in its infrastructure development work, according to K. Kasturirangan, former chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) K. Kasturirangan.
"The data received from our constellation of satellites have a lot of relevance for the UAE and also for this region as a whole," Kasturirangan, who was here to attend a conference on e-governance in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), told IANS in an interview here.
Now send free SMS to Middle East
By IANS,
Hyderabad: City-based 160by2.com, one of the leading free SMS service providers in the country, has launched a service for its customers to send free text messages to and from the Middle East.
"The first-of-its-kind service is open to all internet users in India and enables free SMS connectivity to mobiles in these countries and vice versa. 160by2 users from the Middle East can also send messages to India and between those countries," said a company release.
‘Indian software industry will hold out against competition’
By James Jose, IANS,
New Delhi : The $60-billion information technology industry in India will continue to attract overseas business, despite competition from other emerging markets that also offer lower costs, says the India head of global software giant Computer Associates.
"Our costs will still be competitive. There are markets like China, Singapore, and the Philippines which offer lower costs. But they are not in the same league as India," said the software gian't India chairman Saurabh Srivastava.
NASA regains contact with Mars spacecraft
By SPA,
Los Angeles : NASA's Phoenix Mars spacecraft regained contact with Earth more than a day after falling silent, but its days operating on the red planet are still numbered, mission managers said, according to AP.
Waning sunlight and a dust storm this week drained the lander's power, forcing it to go into safe mode. It failed to respond to two wake-up calls from Earth but sent a
signal late Thursday when the orbiting Odyssey spacecraft passed overhead.
130 websites blocked in Tajikistan
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Dushanbe: Over 130 websites have been blocked in Tajikistan in connection with "technical repair work", the country's telecom agency said.
NASA technology detects ruins under rainforest
By IANS,
Washington : A flyover of Belize's thick jungles, employing NASA technology, has revolutionised archaeology by detecting ancient Mayan ruins through impenetrable jungles.
University of Central Florida (UCF) researchers led a NASA-funded research project in April 2009 that collected the equivalent of 25 years worth of data in four days.
Virtual crash dummy to make driving much safer
By IANS,
Washington : Automakers have been crashing test dummies to gain insight into how safety systems protect or fail to protect people during car accidents.
But these dummies made out of plastic and steel, not tissue and bone, have their limitations. Now a virtual dummy being developed by two engineering teams with University of Virginia (UVa) Centre for Biomechanics, will make driving much safer.
Agenda for India: Information Technology
TwoCircles.net presents “Agenda for India”. Series editor is Charu Bahri.
Challenges & Solutions
Information technology professionals Amin Ismaili and his wife Shahin Ismaili, both of whom work as Assistant Systems Engineers with TATA Consultancy Services Ltd., identify India’s heavy dependence on markets in the USA as the greatest challenge presently facing the Information Technology (IT) and IT enabled services (ITES, more commonly spoken of as outsourcing) industries.
Car-sized rat fossile found in Uruguay
By Xinhua
Beijing : Scientists have unearthed the skull of a giant prehistoric rat -- a car-sized behemoth that roamed South America four million years ago, according to a study published in Wednesday's Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The newly-identified species, believed to be the largest rodent ever to have walked the Earth, was about three meters long and 1.5 meters tall, and weighed from 468 kilos to 2.5 tonnes, according to researchers.
Google Earth reconstructs ancient Rome in 3D
By IANS,
London : Google Earth has launched a 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome as it may have been in 320 AD.
The virtual traveller can now see every building as it stood in Rome at that time. In reality, just 300 buildings of classical Rome have survived, in most cases in ruins.
The 3D model is visible on the website as a layer. The layer floats a few metres above the satellite image of present-day Rome so that users can have a sense of locating where the ancient structures once stood.
‘Nuclear-capable Agni-V to be tested soon’
By IANS,
Chandigarh: India's ambitious 5,000-km range Agni-V nuclear-capable missile will be launched soon, a senior scientist said here Sunday.
Probe Phoenix lifts robotic arm on Mars
By Xinhua,
Beijing : NASA's Phoenix Mars lander has successfully flexed its robotic arm on Mars, media reported on Friday.
"All of the joints are healthy, and we're raring to go," Matthew L. Robinson, the lead engineer for the mission’s robotic arm flight software, said at a news conference Thursday.
NASA extends German space mission till 2015
By D. Balaji, IANS,
Berlin : The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Thursday extended the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) space mission, operated jointly with the German aerospace centre here, to 2015 from 2012.
NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver and German Aerospace Centre executive board chairman Johann-Dietrich Worner signed an agreement to extend the mission at the 100th Berlin International Air Show (ILA 2010) here.
MySpace ejects 90,000 convicted sex offenders
By DPA,
San Francisco : Social networking website MySpace.com has said that it had ejected more than 90,000 registered sex offenders following an agreement last year with state attorneys general to improve child safety.
The figure, which MySpace provided to Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, was more than double the number that MySpace had predicted that it would find when it launched the crackdown on online threats to minors.
Remote sensing agency comes under ISRO
By IANS,
Bangalore : The autonomous National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) has become a state-run body and brought under the Indian Space Research Organsiation (ISRO), the space agency said Monday.
Renamed the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), the Hyderabad-based entity will be integrated with other ISRO centres for the development and operations of the ground segment under India's remote sensing programme.
“The society has been merged with ISRO in view of the allied activities carried out in aerial and satellite remote sensing,” ISRO said in a statement.
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.
Facebook unveils new tools
By DPA,
San Francisco : Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday unveiled a box of new tools that he said will extend the social networking phenomenon to every corner of the internet.
The announcement came at a conference for Facebook developers called F8, in which Zuckerberg revealed that the world's largest social networking site has 400 million registered users. These include 100 million who use Facebook Connect, the company's online identity technology that allows users to use their profile on thousands of other websites.
Computer programme to predict premature births under development
By IANS,
Sydney : Universities of Melbourne and Newcastle are jointly developing a computer programme to predict premature births.
About 17,000 premature births occur in Australia each year. It accounts for 70 percent of deaths among newborns and 50 percent cerebral palsy cases.
Roger Smith, professor, University of Newcastle, said identifying patterns in hormone levels could be the key to determining high risk pregnancies.
Pollen-coated bullets will help find criminals
By IANS,
London : British researchers have developed a new coating for gun cartridges with pollen and grit to help identify criminals that use firearms.
The new technique involves coating batches of cartridges with unique "nanotags" that are invisible to the naked eye and designed to attach to hands, gloves and clothing of anyone that handles such a coated cartridge. Some of the tags also remain on the spent cartridge casing.
Bangladesh scientists produce petroleum from organic wastes
By Xinhua,
Dhaka : Scientists in Bangladesh have developed ways to produce petroleum from degradable organic municipal waste and are now studying its feasibility before going to commercial production.
"We have developed petroleum products from organic municipal wastes and we are looking into its commercial viability," Yunus Miah, principal engineer of the state-run Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), said Wednesday.
A mobile phone with a battery life of 15 years!
By IANS,
London: SpareOne's mobile phone comes with a battery life of 15 years, whether you charge it or not and is designed for emergencies.
US launches spy satellite
By IANS,
Washington : The US Wednesday launched a spy satellite into space.
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.
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.
Launch of Discovery shuttle put off to Feb 27
By DPA,
Washington : NASA is eyeing Feb 27 as the earliest possible date for launch of the next shuttle mission Discovery, a postponement blamed on worries over the possibility that pieces of a faulty fuel valve could strike the shuttle on takeoff.
In a statement over the weekend, NASA said it would give an update on plans next Friday.
Discovery was originally aiming for a Feb 12 launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, a date that had been put back to Feb 19.
Advance IST by 30 minutes, save Rs.10 bn: scientists
By IANS
New Delhi : A group of scientists have suggested that the Indian Standard Time (IST) be shifted forward by 30 minutes to reduce peak time energy demand and save at least Rs.10 billion per year.
According to a paper prepared by Dilip R. Ahuja, D.P. Sen, both from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, and V.K. Agrawal, Southern Regional Load Despatch Centre, Bangalore, the shift in IST by 30 minutes will help India use more daylight and reduce the peak power demand during evening.
China launches orbiter for global navigation system
By IANS,
Beijing : China Sunday launched an orbiter into space for its satellite navigation and positioning network.
It was the third orbiter that China has launched for its independent satellite navigation and positioning network, also known as Beidou or Compass system.
Xinhua news agency reported that the new satellite was launched from the Xichang satellite launch centre in southwestern Sichuan province by a Long-March-III carrier rocket.
Yahoo to take time evaluating Microsoft offer
By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Yahoo Inc says it's "going to take time" to thoroughly evaluate Microsoft Corp's unsolicited $45 billion offer keeping in mind its strategic options, including keeping the company independent.
It was undertaking a deliberate review of Microsoft's offer to pay Yahoo shareholders either $31 in cash, or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock, Yahoo said in a media release posted on the company Web site.
Truecaller launches new messaging app from India
New Delhi : Truecaller, an app that helps identify unknown numbers and also block spam calls launched a new app on Tuesday that offers...
Facebook favoured for background check on prospective partner: Survey
New Delhi : Almost fifty percent unmarried people in India use social networking site Facebook to conduct a background check on their prospective partner,...
Device turns heat into sound, then electricity
By IANS
Washington : Physicists in US have developed a small device that they claim can turn heat into sound and then into electricity.
Pune gears up for two-day international robotic competition
By IANS,
Mumbai/Pune : Pune gears up to see robots co-ordinate as a team as they form a pyramid to enact a high-tech 'dahi handi' (taking butter from a pot hanging high above) sequence at the two-day 7th ABU International Robocon Competition Saturday.
The event is the culmination of a yearlong competition among teams from over two dozen colleges spread across 17 countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad and Maharashtra Institute of Technology, (MIT) Pune are representing India at the event.
Colliding galaxies send black holes packing
By Xinhua,
Beijing : A huge black hole has been seen leaving its home galaxy after a colossal cosmic merger occurred. The event, seen for the first time, was announced Tuesday.
When two colliding galaxies finally merge, it is thought the black holes at their cores may fuse together too. Astronomers have theorized that the resulting energy release could propel the new black hole from its parent galaxy out into space, but no one has found such an event.
Laser triggers electrical activity in thunderstorm
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists successfully triggered electrical activity for the first time by shooting pulses of laser light into thunderclouds from atop a New Mexico peak.
Engineering such strikes will permit scientists to evaluate and test lightning-sensitivity of airplanes and critical infrastructure like power lines.
Pulsed lasers represent a potentially powerful tool for such lightning because they can form a large number of plasma filaments that act like conducting wires extending into the thundercloud.
Bacterium disables tomato plant’s defences – stealthily
By IANS,
London : A bacterium disables the tomato plant's defences stealthily, activating disease and blight, according to a new study.
The new finding focuses on a pathogen which causes bacterial speck disease in tomato plants. This bacterial invasion causes black lesions on leaves and fruit.
Scientists found the pathogen is very effective at attacking tomato plants because it deactivates and destroys receptors which normally alert the plant to the presence of a dangerous disease - in the same way that an intruder would deactivate the burglar alarm before gaining entry to a house.
Overcast sky may spoil chances of watching solar eclipse
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.
Unsung hero of moon mission is sad but forgiving
By K.S. Jayaraman, IANS,
Bangalore : In the nine months India's Chandrayaan-1 has been circling the moon everyone connected with it has been awarded, rewarded or interviewed on TV, except the scientist whose pioneering work in liquid propulsion was pivotal to the mission's success. Perhaps it had something to do with the false spying charges under which he was arrested in 1994.
India to set up new science research body
By IANS,
New Delhi : To boost scientific research in India, the government Thursday decided to set up a Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).
After a cabinet meeting Thursday, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters that the contours of advanced basic scientific research are changing extremely fast at the global level and India needs to effectively respond to this reality.
High-tech rescue and evacuation workshop opens in Riyadh tomorrow
By NNN-SPA
Riyadh : A workshop on new technologies in the field of rescue and evacuation, will be organized by faculty of training at the Riyadh-based Naif Arab university for security sciences in cooperation with the international organization for civil protection from Oct 20 to Nov 2, 2007.
Representatives from the administrations of civil protection and civil defense as well as the municipalities and the other concerned authorities from the Arab countries will participate in the workshop.
Partial solar eclipse in UAE
By NNN-WAM,
Abu Dhabi : The United Arab Emirates and other countries of the region, including Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, eastern parts of Saudi Arabia and northern parts of Palestine and Jordan, witnessed a partial solar eclipse today.
Emirates Astronomy Society deployed an observatory in the breakwaters area to monitor the different stages of eclipse. The eclipse lasted for about 95 minutes, reaching its peak at 3:29 p.m.
Mohammad Shawkat, Head of the Society said the eclipse occurred when the new moon moved directly between the sun and the earth.
Chandrayaan orbit raised to 200 km for further Moon probe
By IANS,
Bangalore : The Indian space agency has raised the orbit of its first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 to 200km from the lunar surface for further studies on orbit perturbations and gravitational field variations of the Moon.
"With the successful completion of all the mission objectives from 100 km above the moon since November 2008, we have raised the height of the spacecraft to 200 km Tuesday to enable imaging lunar surface with a wider swath," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement here Wednesday.
Star attacks planet with radiation
By IANS,
Washington : A nearby star is bombarding its companion planet with a barrage of X-rays, hundred thousand times more intense than the earth receives from the Sun, a NASA discovery says.
Man on Moon revolutionised ideas behind vehicles, medicine
By IANS,
Washington : Forty years ago, on July 20, 1969, the United States achieved a historic feat when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," were Neil Armstrong's prophetic words that opened the pathway for new medical procedures and 'holistic reinvention' of vehicles.
America's race to the moon also launched a generation of scientists. They were inspired by a sense of patriotism and the wonders of space.
HCL Technologies net up 18.5 percent
By IANS,
Mumbai : Software services major HCL Technologies Wednesday said net profit for the quarter ended Sep 30 went up 18.5 percent to Rs.300.75 crore from the like quarter in the previous fiscal.
Total income for the company increased 5.67 percent to Rs.1,295 crore for the first quarter of the company's accounting calendar, up from Rs.1,225 crore it logged in the previous corresponding quarter, the company said in a regulatory statement.
HCL said it bore a forex loss of Rs.151 crore during the period under review compared to Rs.80 crore in the like quarter last year.
Italian expert to spend months in cave
By DPA,
Cagliari (Sardinia) : An Italian speleologist or cave specialist plans to descend 50 metres below the ground in an effort to break the world record for time spent living in a cave which currently stands at 366 consecutive days.
Doctors will wire up the body of the 51-year-old Giancarlo Sulas with electrodes allowing them to constantly monitor his health during what was described Saturday as a scientific experiment.
IIT Kanpur developing robot for India’s moon mission
By Prashant K. Nanda
IANSNew Delhi : When India sends its proposed moon mission in 2011, it will have a unique robot developed indigenously by student-engineers and their professors at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Kanpur.
Martian surface hints at groundwater torrents
By Xinhua
Beijing : Scientists said surface features of the Red Planet hint at a watery past where torrents of groundwater carved out deep canyons, formed sweeping fans of sediment and cemented together huge fault lines, media reported Tuesday.
"Groundwater probably played a major role in shaping many of the things we see on the Martian surface," said George Postma, a sedimentologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Beijing : Scientists said surface features of the Red Planet hint at a watery past where torrents of groundwater carved out deep canyons, formed sweeping fans of sediment and cemented together huge fault lines, media reported Tuesday.
"Groundwater probably played a major role in shaping many of the things we see on the Martian surface," said George Postma, a sedimentologist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
Google, Microsoft ‘most discussed tech brands’ in India
By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Internet search giant Google and software major Microsoft are among the most discussed technology brands in India, dominating most of the online conversations, says a survey.
Topped by Google, the list of top 10 technology brands compiled by research firm Edelman, features Microsoft at the second spot while Yahoo! has cornered the third position.
Google and Microsoft secured about 20 per cent and 12 per cent of all monitored conversations respectively, according to Digital Brand Index (DBI) for India compiled by Edelman in collaboration with Brandtology.
MESSENGER unveils hidden side of Mercury
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft sent back to Earth new images of Mercury, unveiling a side of the planet never seen before, media reported Thursday.
The car-sized spacecraft zipped past Mercury in a Monday flyby and is relaying more than 1,200 new images and other data back to eager scientists on Earth.
The car-sized spacecraft zipped past Mercury in a Monday flyby and is relaying more than 1,200 new images and other data back to eager scientists on Earth.
Soap that cleans clothes with less water
By IANS
Melbourne : Wasting water to rinse that extra lather from your clothes may be a thing of the past now. Scientists in Australia have developed a detergent that cleans clothes with less water.
Normal detergents contain surfactant molecules, which are oil-friendly at one end to capture dirt and water-friendly at the other to pull it away. They also tend to form bubbles, which require extra water to rinse.
Mars to be closest, brightest Jan 27
By IANS,
New Delhi : Skygazers will get to watch the red planet Mars from close quarters as it comes closest to Earth and shines brightest Jan 27. It will not be so close or so bright over the next two years.
Look towards the east an hour after sunset Jan 27 and Mars would be shining brighter than every other star in the sky except Sirius, which is slightly more dazzling in brilliant bluish white.
The computer will look at you and say how old you are
By IANS,
Washington : A software being developed by the University of Illinois can tell your age fairly accurately by looking at your face.
"Age-estimation software is useful in applications where you don't need to specifically identify someone but would like to know their age," said Thomas S. Huang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois.
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.
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.
Spanish discovery sheds light on early humans in Europe
By Sinikka Tarvainen, DPA
Madrid : More than a million years ago, a group of early humans lived in a cave in a lush green area in northern Spain, making stone tools and eating small herbivores and other animals.
Their presence in what is now the fossil site of Atapuerca near Burgos has become known thanks to the discovery of a lower jawbone with teeth, lithic tools and animal remains.
Satellite-wreckage threat to others: Official
By RIA Novosti,
Korolyov (Russia) : The wreckage of the US and Russian satellites that collided Tuesday poses a serious threat to other satellites on the same orbit, a Russian Mission Control official told journalists Friday.
"The 800 km is a very popular orbit for remote Earth sensing and telecommunications satellites," said Vladimir Solovyov, head of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.
India hopes to send spacecraft to moon: PM
By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said that India hopes to send a spacecraft to the moon this year and called it "an important milestone".
"This year we hope to send an Indian spacecraft, Chandrayan, to the moon. It will be an important milestone in the development of our space programme," he said on the occasion of India's independence day.
"I want to see a modern India, imbued by a scientific temper, where the benefits of modern knowledge flow to all sections of society," he added.
16th-century Mexican Indian map offers key to history
By EFE,
Denver : A map painted by Mexican Indians, or indigenous Indians, in the mid-16th century has become a key document for understanding the migration of Mesoamerican people from their land of origin in what is now the US Southwest, according to a scholar at Harvard University Divinity School.
"Five years of research and writing (2002-2007) by 15 scholars of Mesoamerican history show that this document, the Map of Cuauhtinchan 2, with more than 700 pictures in colour, is something like a Mesoamerican Iliad and Odyssey," David Carrasco told EFE in a telephone interview.
Google to insert automated captions on YouTube
By DPA,
San Francisco: Google is to add automatic captions to the tens of millions of English-language videos it hosts on YouTube, the web search giant said Friday.
The move will make the videos more accessible to deaf viewers but will also help Google index the content and supply relevant ads alongside it, analysts said.
US space shuttle moves to avoid space junk
By Xinhua,
Washington : The astronauts aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery have been instructed to move out of the way of a four-inch piece of space junk, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said Sunday.
According to the space agency, Discovery's pilots fired their ship's thrusters to avoid the junk, which is likely to uncomfortably approach the station Monday.
NASA said keeping the spacecraft in this position for about three hours is enough to get the space station and Discovery out of the junk.
Scientists watch evolution unfold in a bottle
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists now have physical proof of how species evolve and the fittest survive, after a 21-year study in which they documented the evolution of single-celled E. coli bacteria over 40,000 generations.
Richard Lenski, Hannah professor of microbial ecology at Michigan State University (MSU), said: "It's extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations."
‘Electric’ pants stop bedsores
By IANS,
London: A special underwear has been designed to jolt the buttocks with electricity so it can help prevent bedsores, the BBC reported Monday.
Online dating first empowers, then disappoints
By IANS,
Sydney : Internet dating, which sparks such a rush of emotions between people even before they have met, often ends in disappointment and failure.
According to a new study, the initial spate of replies a person gets on net dating sites makes them seem very popular.
The kind of attention is a lot more “than if they had walked into a bar”, said Matthew Bambling of the Queensland University of Technology, who led the study,
As n-deal moves forward, scientists walk down nostalgia lane
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu) : As India readies to seal the nuclear deal with the US to further consolidate its nuclear energy programme, a group of scientists here looked back nostalgically to the time the country indigenously developed its first reactor - using skid rollers to move heavy items and jacks and railway sleepers for lifting the heavy generator.
But it was not always so.
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.
Micro gyroscopes to improve navigation in future
By IANS,
Washington : A new array of cheap, high-performance tiny gyroscopes would help airplanes, submarines and automobiles navigate better in the near future.
They are being developed by a team of Panos Datskos, Slo Rajic and Nickolay Lavrik of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They are radically different from existing ones, which are both big and costly.
These consists of multiple, highly sensitive and accurate silicon chip-scale gyroscopes.
Crude prices fall further with Iran n-deal
New Delhi: As Iran and the six world powers reached a nuclear agreement by their deadline, crude oil prices fell further on Tuesday, pulled...
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.
US researchers use 3-D simulation to study WTC collapse
By Xinhua
New York : Researchers at Purdue University have created a computer-based 3-D simulation to study in detail the cause of the World Trade Centre (WTC) collapse in a terrorist attack on Sep 11, 2001.
Computer spies breach $300 bn US fighter jet project: WSJ
By Arun Kumar,IANS,
Washington : Computer spies have broken into the US Defence Department's costliest weapons programme ever, the $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Similar incidents have also breached the Air Force's air traffic control system in recent months, it said citing unnamed "current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.
Google mania continues amid sense of deja vu
By DPA
San Francisco : With Google's share price climbing above $700, an eerily familiar debate raged Wednesday in the blogosphere, on Wall Street and across Silicon Valley: was the latest internet wonder vastly overvalued? Or is the Google phenomenon just beginning?
Google's stratospheric valuation ranked it as the fifth-most valuable company in the US by share value, with stock worth $219 billion.
Russian Proton-M rocket to launch Japanese satellite
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket will put a Japanese telecommunications satellite into orbit in September, a leading Russian space company said Tuesday.
JCSAT-11, an A2100 satellite built by US-based Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, will join a cluster of nine satellites operated by Japan's JSAT Corporation.
The new satellite will provide broadcast and transponder capacity for a number of telecom companies, including SKY Perfect TV, a leading digital broadcasting service provider in Japan.
Russia to create manned assembly complex in orbit
By Xinhua
Moscow : Russia is going to create a manned assembly complex in orbit, the chief of the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) Anatoly Perminov said here on Saturday.
"We shall create this complex in order to make dockings in orbit, build craft there and send them to the Moon, Mars and other planets," Perminov was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as telling a new briefing.
"This proposal was on the whole approved at the meeting of the Russian Security Council on Friday, but a specific time has not been determined," he said.
Delhi willing to fund entire project to install CCTVs
New Delhi: The city government on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it was willing to fund the entire project of installation of...
Frog fossil in Madagascar big as bowling ball
By Xinhua
Beijing : U.S. scientists' finding of a frog fossil with the size of a bowling ball in Madagascar provides evidence for competing theories that some bridge still connected South America with Africa about 70 million years ago, perhaps via an Antarctica that was much warmer than today, media reported Tuesday.
Beijing : U.S. scientists' finding of a frog fossil with the size of a bowling ball in Madagascar provides evidence for competing theories that some bridge still connected South America with Africa about 70 million years ago, perhaps via an Antarctica that was much warmer than today, media reported Tuesday.
India launches Israeli ‘spy satellite’
By IANS
Sriharikota/Bangalore : India's space agency ISRO Monday successfully placed an Israeli "spy satellite" in the polar orbit after a textbook launch, a top official said.
Google brand awareness soars in China after pull-out threat
By IANS,
Beijing : Web search engine Google's brand awareness in China has soared after the firm threatened to pull-out of the country over hacking of email accounts of many human rights activists, a research firm said.
Edward Yu, president of domestic research firm Analysys International, told China Daily Tuesday that his company has sensed a significant growth of search inquiries for Google.
Less than 1 percent spent on R&D in science
By IANS
New Delhi : A mere 0.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is spent on research and development in science and technology, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said the government had taken several measures to increase spending on science and technology.
"These measures include higher allocation for scientific research for setting up new institutions for science, education and research," he said.
European Business and Technology Centre to be launched in India
By EuAsiaNews,
New Delhi : A European Business and Technology Centre (EBTC) will start to operate in New Delhi from 1 October, following the signature Thursday of the financing contract between Daniele Smadja, Ambassador and Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to India and Arnaldo Abruzzini, Secretary General of Eurochambres.
The creation of the Centre has been endorsed by EU-India leaders last year during their yearly Summit in New Delhi.
‘Cyber-spite’ erodes credibility of auction sites
By IANS,
Washington : eBay's rating system, which allows users to post positive or negative comments about trading partners, has created a unique set of problems.
Sellers who offered damaged or substandard goods and earned a black mark are now retaliating against buyers who have named and shamed them, by posting highly visible and negative comments.
For example, the TV set you ordered on eBay arrives in a badly scratched shape. You return the item but also post a disparaging comment about the seller on the site.
Wi-fi in homes can be hacked in five seconds
By IANs,
London : Wireless internet networks in millions of homes can be hacked in less than five seconds.
Medieval stained glass windows acted like nano air purifiers
By IANS,
Sydney : Stained glass windows in churches dotting Europe and painted with gold purified the air when lit up by sunlight, according to Queensland University of Technology experts.
"For centuries, people appreciated only the beautiful works of art, and long life of the colours, but little did they realise that these works... are also... photocatalytic air purifier with nanostructured gold catalyst," said Zhu Huai Yong, of Queensland's School of Physical and Chemical Sciences.
Google to introduce new features for “live” election results
New Delhi : Google said Wednesday it will introduce new features to help provide comprehensive latest news and live update of election results scheduled...
Mars to be closest to Earth on March 5
By IANS,
New Delhi : Watch out for Mars shining brightly in the sky around midnight Monday, as the red planet will be closest to the Earth.
Why little fish diet to stay alive
By IANS,
Sydney : Like humans, little fish also diet - not to look more presentable, but out of dire necessity. They don't want to get on the wrong side of more dominant fish and risk being gobbled up.
A new study, by researchers at James Cook University, has also found that bigger fish use the threat of punishment to keep competitors in line.
Sea Launch to put U.S. satellite into orbit on March 17
By RIA Novosti
Washington : The launch of a Zenith-3SL carrier rocket with the DirecTV 11 broadcast satellite on board has been scheduled for March 17, a spokesperson for Sea Launch consortium said on Friday.
The satellite, with mass of approximately 6 metric tons, is designed to deliver national high-definition (HD) programming and local HD channels to subscribers throughout the United States.
"The launch has been scheduled for 3:49 p.m. PDT (22:49 GMT)," Paula Korn said.
"The launch has been scheduled for 3:49 p.m. PDT (22:49 GMT)," Paula Korn said.
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.
NASA postpones Discovery shuttle launch until May 25
By RIA Novosti
Washington : NASA has postponed the Discovery shuttle launch until May 25 to finalize the preparation of the external fuel tank and due to unfavorable launch conditions before that date, the space agency said on its website.
During Discovery's S-124 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), originally scheduled to launch on April 24, the shuttle and its seven-member crew will deliver the pressurized module and the robotic arm of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory.
UN says ozone hole shrinking due to weather, not recovery
By NNN-SPA
United Nations, New York : Although the ozone layer over the Antarctic this year is relatively small, it is due to mild temperatures experienced in the region’s stratosphere this winter and is not a sign of global recovery, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Thursday.
Since 1998, only the ozone holes of 2002 and 2004 have been smaller than this year’s-both in area and amount of destroyed ozone-and this is not indicative of ozone recuperation, WMO said in a statement.
Indian-origin food scientist gets international award
Wellington : A noted Indian-origin food scientist based in New Zealand has been honoured for his contribution in improving the quality, safety and...
U.S. space shuttle Discovery enters launch countdown
By Xinhua,
Washington : The U.S. space shuttle Discovery enters its official launch countdown at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) on Wednesday, aiming at a targeted launch on Saturday, NASA TV reported.
The launch team at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is tracking no issues as technicians continue preparing Discovery for liftoff on Saturday at 5:02 p.m. EDT (2102 GMT), said NASA's shuttle program.
Toddlers flourish in secure learning environments: Study
By IANS,
Sydney : Infants develop a spirit of inquiry and flourish in secure yet flexible learning environments, fostered by teachers, according to new research findings.
A team led by Massey University Child Care Centre director Faith Martin and colleague Raewyne Bary, and guided by Barbara Jordan and Cushla Scrivens, carried out a study on ties between teachers, children and families.
It questioned the ways in which educational leadership impacted infants' and toddlers' levels of inquiry - their propensity to try new things and ask questions.