N-bombs to destroy earth-bound asteroids in space!
By IANS,
Washington : Nuclear bombs - itself a threat to the humanity - to save the earth from dangerous space rocks?
Sounds like a new...
Space shuttle Discovery heads home after 14-day mission
By DPA,
Washington : The US space shuttle Discovery began its earthward journey Wednesday after completing a 14-day mission to carry out further construction and maintenance work on the International Space Station (ISS).
The shuttle is scheduled for landing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Caneveral, Florida.
Discovery undocked from the ISS for the return journey after a mission in which astronauts carried out three spacewalks chiefly devoted to installing and preparing the Japanese scientific laboratory module Kibo.
China, Brazil to launch jointly Satellite 03
By Prensa Latina
Beijing : China and Brazil will launch in September a jointly developed third earth resources satellite, equipped with high resolution cameras for agricultural, mining and environmental use.
According to China National Space Administration, the Satellite 02B, of Brazilian manufacture, will orbit the earth in September or October 2008.
The takeoff will take place in a launching centre in Taiyuan, capital of the northern Chinese province of Shanxi.
Beijing : China and Brazil will launch in September a jointly developed third earth resources satellite, equipped with high resolution cameras for agricultural, mining and environmental use.
According to China National Space Administration, the Satellite 02B, of Brazilian manufacture, will orbit the earth in September or October 2008.
The takeoff will take place in a launching centre in Taiyuan, capital of the northern Chinese province of Shanxi.
Discovery astronauts begin spacewalk for ISS work
By DPA,
Washington : Two astronauts from the Discovery space shuttle began a spacewalk Sunday to carry out further work on the International Space Station (ISS).
Discovery astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan were set to spend more than six hours installing a new nitrogen tank on the ISS and to carry out further work installing a robot arm on the Japanese module Kibo.
It is the third and final spacewalk scheduled during the current 14-day Discovery mission.
Scientists develop tool for quick analysis of water purity
By IANS,
Sydney : Researchers have developed a tool that analyses water purity within minutes, against the 20 to 48 hours required by existing methods.
The tool will boost "water safety and reduce health risk from use of contaminated water in the developing world", said David Garman, executive director of Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Centre (EBCRC) at the World Water Congress in Vienna.
NASA says space shuttle repairs not needed
By RIA Novosti
Washington : There is no need to conduct repair work on the space shuttle Endeavour heat shield during the fourth spacewalk, scheduled for Aug 18, a NASA has said.
The damage to the heat shield occurred during Endeavour's launch Aug 8 when a small piece of insulating foam or ice from the shuttle fuel tank struck the spacecraft's underside shortly after lift off.
Why fundamental scientific research has not caught on in India
By Narayanan Suresh, IANS,
This can happen only in India! Even as the nation continues to celebrate the success of Chandrayaan, the country's first space mission to moon, this is not something one of the seniormost scientists in India, Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao, is particularly thrilled about.
West must pay for India’s clean technology: UN official
By IANS
New Delhi : If a power plant coming up in India for $500 million can embrace clean technology for an extra $50 million, developed countries must pay the difference, a top UN official has said.
United Nations Development Programme Administrator Kemal Dervis said developed and developing countries had different responsibilities, but would have to strive together to reach a goal of two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per capita, which would mean a global warming of two degrees Celsius.
U.S. space shuttle Discovery moved to launch pad
By Xinhua,
Washington : The U.S. space shuttle Discovery rolled out to its Florida launch pad early Saturday, awaiting for the upcoming flight late May, according to NASA.
"The launch of Discovery on the STS-124 mission is targeted for May 31," NASA announced after the shuttle moved to its launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
Around the world in 80 days, the Indian Air Force way
Hindon (Uttar Pradesh), Aug 19 (IANS) Two intrepid Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots flew in here Sunday after creating two new world records for circumnavigating the globe in a microlight aircraft.
Flying over 16 countries and touching 81 destinations, Wing Commanders Rahul Monga and Anil Kumar completed their journey in 80 days, shaving 19 days off the existing mark of 99 days held by Britain's Colin Bodil since 2001.
They also bettered Bodil's airspeed record of 16.53 km per hour by recording 21.09 km per hour.
Computer virus accuses victims of viewing child porn
By IANS,
London: Police in Germany are warning people about a computer virus that accuses victims of viewing "juvenile pornography", BBC reported.
Mystery dinosaur may be a new species
By IANS,
Toronto : A 70 million-year-old dinosaur, whose fossil was discovered in British Columbia more than 37 years ago, may have been a
hitherto unknown plant-eating species, says an expert.
The fossil - the most complete set of bones ever found globally and the first dinosaur discovery in Canada - had been discovered in the Sustut Basin way back in 1971.
The bones were recently re-examined by a University of Alberta researcher.
Japanese brewery claims to have the world’s first ‘space beer’
By DPA,
Tokyo : A Japanese brewery claimed Tuesday it has produced the world's first space beer using barley grown in space.
The grain was grown in a Russian laboratory on board the International Space Station, Sapporo brewery said.
The company has brewed only 100 litres of the extraterrestrial brew, which it says is not meant for sale.
Thirty people will be chosen in a lottery to sample a few millilitres each of the beer in January; the rest will be used for research.
Tests showed the beer was safe, the company said, and it tastes normal.
Google’s help sought in Koda investigation
By IANS,
Ranchi : The Income Tax (IT) department has sought help from US-based Google and its gmail e-mail service to get details of messages relating to foreign investments as the investigation into charges of money laundering by former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda progresses, an official said Monday.
"We are taking help of different agencies in the investigation. This is part of it," said Ajit Srivastav, additional director, Investigations in the income tax (IT) department.
Google launches ‘Instant’ service
By IANS,
London : Google search is now faster than before as the company has launched a live-updating service that will save surfers 2-5 seconds of online search time.
Mysterious object seen refuelling from sun
By IANS,
London : An orbiting NASA space telescope has captured the footage of a planet-sized object flying close to the sun, and extending a "refuelling tube" into the sun's surface.
India to launch three satellites next month
By IANS,
Chennai : India will launch three satellites next month and two more by the end of this year, said a senior official here.
India discovers 67 animal species, 29 plant species
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS,
New Delhi : Indian scientists have discovered 67 new animal species, including fishes, spiders and crop eating insects, and 29 plant species, including grass and flower varieties, last year.
"All these discoveries were made in 2007 and they are vital additions to the plant and animal science of India and the world," Ramakrishna, director of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), told IANS Thursday.
Indian American develops software to help motorists
By IANS
Los Angeles : A tech firm owned by an Indian American has developed a software that combines speech-recognition and text messaging to provide free directions to motorists.
Dial Directions, a California based firm, began its services early this week in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York with the promise of turning a cell phone into a global positioning system (GPS) and search-enabled device.
The software can work on any mobile phone, the online edition of San Francisco Chronicle reported.
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.
Astronauts finish complicated solar truss instalment
By DPA
Washington : Space Shuttle Discovery astronauts successfully completed a mammoth operation to reposition a 17.5-tonne solar array and truss during a more than seven-hour-long spacewalk Tuesday aboard the orbiting International Space Station.
US astronauts Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock conducted the operation outside in a teamwork operation with other crew members inside the station.
US calls for restraint on n-arms, NSA to visit Pakistan
Washington : As tensions between India and Pakistan continue to escalate, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice is expected to arrive in Pakistan...
Infosys to develop IT-enabled application for agriculture
By IANS
Mumbai : Software major Infosys Technologies Ltd has partnered with ACDI/VOCA, a non-profit international development organisation, to develop an information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled application to improve the agro supply chain in India.
ACDI/VOCA promotes broad-based economic growth, and develops applications, which fall under growth oriented micro enterprise development (GMED) programme, which is a $6.3 million a USAID-funded initiative.
China unveils world’s largest sci-tech museum
By Xinhua,
Guangzhou (China) : China has unveiled the world's largest science and technology museum in the southern city of Guangzhou that will demonstrate the country's newest achievements in the field.
The Guangdong Science Centre, with an area of 450,000 square metres, is situated at the far western tip of Xiaoguwei Island, also the location of Guangzhou University Town in Guangdong province.
With a floor area larger than Beijing's Tian'anmen Square, the steel-structured main building of the museum features a blooming kapok flower.
Giant ocean found on Saturn’s moon
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow: Around 100 km beneath the rocky crust on Saturn's largest moon Titan is an ocean of water spanning the entirety of the celestial body, scientists said.
India’s first moon mission is world’s 68th
By IANS,
Bangalore : Chandrayaan-1, that lifts off Wednesday morning from Sriharikota, is India's first and the world's 68th mission to the moon, the earth's closest celestial body which has fascinated children, scientists and poets alike.
"Through the ages, the moon, our closest celestial body, has aroused curiosity in our mind, far more than any other objects in the sky," says the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its maiden moon mission.
Scientists closer to non invasive cancer therapy
By IANS,
Sydney : Swinburne University of Technology researchers have edged closer to bringing non-invasive cancer treatment to reality, thanks to advances in photothermal therapy.
The therapy, a promising experimental approach, involves introducing a reactive compound (gold nanorods) into a patient's tumour, which will absorb laser light to heat up the tumour cells and identify them.
An explosion 11 billion years ago, billion times brighter than sun
By IANS,
Sydney : The Zadco telescope has recorded a massive gamma ray burst that happened 11 billion years ago, long before our own planet had even been formed. The burst was a billion times brighter than our sun.
"As if seeing one of the biggest explosions in the universe wasn't dramatic enough, we had a catastrophic computer crash on the night," said David Coward, University of Western Australia (UWA) senior research fellow and Zadko Project leader.
Researchers calculate how much carbon can be stored underground
By IANS,
Washington : Trapping carbon dioxide at the source like coal burning power plants and then injecting them underground could be one of the options to cut emissions levels. MIT engineers have come up with a new software tool to determine how much can be sequestered safely in a geological formation.
NASA launches Endeavour space shuttle to ISS
By RIA Novosti
Washington : U.S. space shuttle Endeavour was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Tuesday to deliver the first part of a Japanese lab and a Canadian-built robot to the International Space Station.
"Brilliantly lighting up the dark sky, space shuttle Endeavour roared off Launch Pad 39A at 2:28 a.m. EDT (06:28 GMT)," NASA said.
Midas touch: scientists discover gold nanoparticles
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists have for the first time discovered gold nanoparticles, setting to rest speculation about whether they existed at all.
Scientists of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said they discovered these particles in western Australia.
“In the southern areas of the state, groundwater is very salty and acidic. This water dissolves primary gold and re-deposits it as pure gold crystals on fracture surfaces and in open pore spaces,” said Rob Hough, who led the search for the nanoparticles.
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.
Agenda for India: Telecom
TwoCircles.net presents “Agenda for India”. Series editor is Charu Bahri.
Challenges & Solutions
“I would cite the issue of spectrum allocation and management as one of the foremost challenges of India’s telecom sector,” says Yusuf Motiwala, Founder & CEO, TringMe. “The government must wake up to the losses accumulating on account of under-utilization of spectrum and due to the delay in rolling out 3G services.”
India offers space data to manage Asia-Pacific calamities
By IANS
Bangalore : India is ready to offer data from its group of satellites to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region for disaster management.
"India will provide appropriate inputs and near real-time data for Asia-Pacific countries and share its expertise with them in setting up disaster management support systems to deal with floods, cyclones, earthquakes and droughts," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said here Thursday at a space conference.
Astronomers find young exploding star in Milky Way
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Astronomers have located the youthful remains of a stellar explosion that sent out powerful shock waves and lighted our galaxy with a blinding flash about 140 years ago.
The newly discovered remains are the youngest known supernova remnant in the Milky Way, snagging the record from the previous holder, 330-year-old Cassiopeia A.
Molecule that eats carbon dioxide may fight global warming
By IANS,
Washington : The accidental discovery of a bowl-shaped molecule that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air paves the way for exciting new possibilities to deal with global warming.
These possibilities include genetically engineering microbes to manufacture those carbon dioxide "catchers", said J.A. Tossell, a Maryland University scientist who led the study.
He noted that another scientist discovered the molecule while doing research unrelated to global climate change.
Twitter reaches another milestone with 20 billionth tweet
By IANS,
New York : Online social networking website Twitter set yet another milestone Sunday with a message posted by a Japanese user becoming the 20 billionth tweet of the four-year-old website.
User "GGGGGGo_Lets_Go" from Tokyo tweeted something hard to translate. The graphic designer said it was part of a conversation between him and someone else about a third party.
But moments later he was inundated with congratulations from Twitter users across the world soon after the website announced it surpassed the 20 billionth tweet, New York Daily News reported citing PC Magazine.
Microsoft-Yahoo search deal imminent: Report
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft and Yahoo will announce a search and advertising partnership Wednesday, capping months of negotiations aimed at challenging the Internet dominance of Google, The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday.
The paper's blog AllThingsD said that under the terms of the deal, Yahoo will use Microsoft's new search engine on its sites, while Yahoo would handle some advertising sales for Microsoft. The two companies will share search-related advertising revenue, the report said.
Neither companies would comment on the reports.
‘Cybersquatting’ on the rise: UN agency
By DPA,
Geneva: The number of Internet domain names under dispute saw a rise in 2009, the World Intellectual Property Organisation said Tuesday.
The Geneva-based organisation dealt with claims on 4,688 domains last year, up from 3,985 the year before. The total caseload, however, declined by 9.5 percent, as many incidents involve multiple attempts to "squat".
Cybersquatting is defined as "the abusive registration of trademarks as domain names."
Effective way found to produce anti-flu vaccines
By IANS,
Washington: A rapid and effective way to produce vaccines against new flu strains has been developed by scientists.
The virus that causes flu frequently changes its genetic code, making it difficult for scientists to think up an effective vaccine.
But now, University of Miami computer scientist Dimitris Papamichail and researchers from Stony Brook University have developed a way to produce shots against new strains.
Google comes to the aid of Yahoo!
By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Google Inc has joined the Internet war by offering its help in any effort to thwart its chief rival Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo!, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo! Inc. CEO Jerry Yang to offer his company's help as Yahoo! assessed its options for responding to Microsoft's aggressive "bear hug" bid, which has sent aftershocks through the media and technology industries.
NTPC to hire 6,000 people over five years
By IANS,
Chennai: India's NTPC Ltd, one of Asia's largest power generation companies, plans to hire 6,000 people over the next five years, a senior company official said here Tuesday.
"For the past four years we have been hiring around 1,200 people every year. This trend will continue for the next five years," R.C. Shrivastav, director (Human Resources), told reporters on the sidelines of a press meet.
Taking into account the retirements and attrition, the annual addition of manpower will be around 700 people, he said.
German scientists readying Indian Ocean tsunami warning system
By DPA
Hamburg : Scientists in Germany are putting the finishing touches on an Indian Ocean tsunami early-warning system.
The German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean (GITEWS) is on schedule, according to project coordinator Joern Lauterjung of the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), Germany's National Lab for Geosciences.
Pakistani Scientist invents world’s lowest profile antenna
By SPA
Islamabad : A Pakistani scientist working at the Institute of Space Technology has invented the world's lowest profile omni-directional antenna with dual polarization that does not require a ground plane.
Dr. Muhammad Amin listed in biographical directory published by Marquis "Who's Who in the World" of the year 2008 has invented the antenna that has adequate signal strength.
The antenna can generate equal vertical and horizontal electric field components and has a helical shape with feed at the centre of the helical section of one side.
Mars will not come closer to Earth: UAE astronomers
By IANS,
Abu Dhabi : Astronomers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have rejected reports that the planet Mars would come closer to Earth Aug 27 and look like a second moon.
The Emirates Astronomical Society and the Islamic Moon Observatory Project described the reports carried by some prominent Arabic newspapers as "bad astronomy", the official Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
Several e-mails have also been circulating that Mars will be the brightest in the night sky Aug 27 and will look as large as a full moon, creating a rare opportunity to see two moons in the sky.
New technology makes diagnosis of abnormal pregnancy cheaper
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : Indian scientists have developed a new technology that will help diagnose at a very early stage and at affordable cost abnormal pregnancies that can lead to miscarriages and stillbirths.
Shuttle Discovery lifts off for space station
By RIA Novosti,
Washington : Space shuttle Discovery has blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station, NASA said.
The lift off took place at 17:02 local time (21:02 GMT) on Saturday and marked the third shuttle launch this year and the 35th for Discovery. The shuttle is expected to dock with the ISS two days after launch, NASA said.
The 14-day mission will see the Discovery shuttle deliver its heaviest payload to the world's sole orbiter, the Japanese Pressurized Module (JPM) which is the second unit of the massive Kibo laboratory complex.
US to give Iran ‘space’ to mull nuclear fuel deal
By DPA,
Vienna/Tehran, Nov 9 (DPA) The US is willing to give Iran time to come up with a response to a proposed multinational nuclear fuel deal, the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Glyn Davies, said Monday.
"We want to give some space to Iran to work through this. It's a tough issue for them, obviously," Davies told reporters in Vienna, adding, however, that Washington hopes for a response soon.
Brazil frowns on US control over Internet
By Xinhua
Rio de Janeiro : Brazil expressed its opposition to the US control over the Internet, saying a new international agency composed of civil representatives should govern access.
The coordination, inspection and legislation of laws on access to the Internet is currently in the hands of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is under the influence "of the US", said Brazil Minister of Strategic Affairs Roberto Mangabeira Unger Wednesday.
Scientists create wonder alloys for aerospace industry
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have created titanium based metallic-glass composites - wonder alloys that are not only lighter, tougher and cheaper than existing compounds, but can be bent into any shape and are ideal for use in aerospace applications.
Earlier this year, the work by the same Caltch (California Institute of Technology) group had resulted in "alloys with unrivaled strength and toughness," noted Douglas Hofmann, visiting scientist and co-author of the current study.
IT investment region to come up around Hyderabad
By IANS,
Hyderabad: This information technology hub is expected to witness rapid growth in the IT sector with the setting up of investment region around the city.
Japanese bullet train suicide by fire being probed
Tokyo: Japanese police launched an investigation on Wednesday to probe Tuesday's Shinkansen (bullet train) incident when a man set himself on fire, killing himself...
US-Indian team gets $1 mn for clean coal technology
By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : A university-industry team has been awarded more than $1 million to help India increase energy production and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by developing and testing advanced technologies for cleaning coal.
The grant from the US Department of State in support of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate has gone to a team led by the Centre for Advanced Separation Technologies at Virginia Tech.
Scientific community celebrates successful launch of Chandrayaan-1
By IANS,
Bangalore : It is a time for jubilation for the scientific community of India and they are cherishing every moment of it with the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1 early Wednesday.
The Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, India's first unmanned scientific mission to the moon, blasted off successfully towards destination moon from Sriharikota, about 80 km from Chennai.
With the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1, India now has joined an exclusive club of nations including the US, former Soviet Union, European Space Agency, China and Japan to have sent missions to moon.
Microsoft opens Windows 8 in india
By IANS,
Bangalore: Global software major Microsoft late Thursday unveiled its Windows 8 version of the operation system in India as part of its worldwide launch.
NASA to launch Mars rover in November
By IANS,
Washington : NASA will launch its car-sized Mars rover named Curiosity later this month.
There is ‘contemporary’ life on Mars: leading space scientist
By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS,
London : A leading international space scientist says there is now clear evidence of life on Mars but that American authorities are hesitating from announcing it for political reasons.
"The discovery of liquid water on Mars combined with earlier discoveries of organic substances in a meteorite that came from Mars, and also of methane in the Martian atmosphere all point to the existence of life - contemporary life - on the Red Planet," said Chandra Wickramasinghe, a globally renowned astrobiologist.
Comet McNaught closest to Earth next week
By IANS,
New Delhi : If you look towards the northeastern sky before sunrise June 15, the recently discovered comet McNaught will be closest to Earth and visible to the naked eye.
The comet will appear as a dim and diffuse circular patch of light gliding through the constellation of Perseus in the northern sky.
It has been brightening rapidly as it approaches Earth for a 100-million-mile close encounter.
NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander commanded to unstow arm
By Xinhua,
Washington : U.S. Mars lander Phoenix, which touched down on Sunday at northern polar plains on Mars, successfully unstowed its robotic arm on Wednesday, according to NASA mission updates.
Early Wednesday, scientists leading Phoenix mission from the University of Arizona sent commands to move the lander's robotic arm for the first time after its touchdown.
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.
Google, Verizon close to deal to end ‘net neutrality’
By IANS,
London : Search engine giant Google and US broadband and telecom company Verizon are said to be close to making a deal that could bring an end to 'net neutrality'.
The new agreement between the internet giants, if it gets through, would allow the telecom company to prioritise the order and speed in which it delivers content to users, The Guardian reported Friday.
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 Destroys Rocket after Launch Failure
By SPA,
Washington : The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said it destroyed an unmanned suborbital rocket shortly after a launch failure early Friday from an island off the Virginia coast.
There were no injuries or property damage, NASA said in a statement, but the agency warned that debris from the explosion could be dangerous. NASA believes most of the wreckage fell into the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia coast.
The rocket, made by Alliant Tech Systems, was carrying two experiments. NASA said it is investigating why the rocket failed.
Canada to get world’s first supercomputer outside the US
By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,
Toronto : Toronto university and the IBM have joined hands to build Canada's most powerful and energy- efficient supercomputer yet.
Capable of performing 360 trillion calculations per second, the proposed super device will give a competitive edge to Canada in global research projects, including investigation of the forces that govern the universe.
Will the Big Bang test end the world on Wednesday?
By Venkata Vemuri, IANS,
London : If critics are to be believed, the end of the universe will begin coming Wednesday when a Welsh miner's son launches the world's biggest scientific experiment to know how the universe was born.
The well-known Welshman physicist, Lyn Evans, dubbed Evans the Atom, will this week switch on a giant particle accelerator designed to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang.
On Wednesday, Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.
NASA schedules final shuttle launches through 2010
By SPA,
Washington : The US space agency NASA issued a schedule Monday for the final 10 shuttle programme missions in 2009-10, DPA reported.
The list includes one launch to the Hubble Space Telescope, seven missions to continue construction on the orbiting International Space Station and two unspecified flights available for unspecified purposes.
Cockroaches which conceived in space under observation
By RIA Novosti
Voronezh (Russia) : Russian scientists are expecting two cockroaches, who returned from space onboard the Foton-M bio satellite, to give birth to the first creatures ever conceived in space, the research supervisor has said.
"In the next few days we are expecting two female 'cosmonauts' to give birth to the world's first offspring conceived in microgravity," Dmitry Atyakshin said.
IBM’s Lx86 allows Linux applications run on Unix servers
By Xinhua
Beijing : The "Lx86" capability, to be included in IBM's PowerVM virtualization software, allows x86-based Linux applications to run on IBM's System p and Power-based Unix systems without modification, media reported Thursday.
"The capability will simplify the consolidation of Unix and Linux server sprawls," said Scott Handy, vice president of marketing and strategy for IBM Power Systems. "Running Linux applications in the Unix environment can reduce the cost of server consolidation and energy consumption and increase asset utilization."
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.
Algae could be a rich, and unusual, fuel source
By IANS
New York : Soaring fuel prices have prompted scientists to look at unconventional energy sources that are cheap, abundant and renewable.
And a new study suggests that the common algae could be just such a source.
Although ethanol is currently being derived from corn, researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) have dismissed it as a thermodynamically inefficient process.
They are, instead, examining the production of hydrogen by photosynthesis in algae as a renewable fuel, ScienceDaily reported.
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.
Storage options for the digital generation
By DPA
Washington : Just about everything in our lives is being stored digitally today - music, videos, photographs, documents, arts and crafts, and much more.
That's why the scramble for more data storage - and more versatile data storage - is never-ending. The market has responded with a proliferation of types of data storage designed to meet the needs of everyone.
But the options are dizzying.
To keep from making a costly mistake when buying storage, you need to know what your storage needs are and which type of storage best satisfies those requirements.
NIIT Technologies, British Airways ink three-year deal
By IANS,
New Delhi : Leading Indian global software major NIIT Technologies Ltd said Friday that it has signed a "multi-million pound" three-year deal with Britain's premier airline British Airways.
"The deal enables the support and testing of business critical applications across various business areas of the global airline," the regulatory statement said.
The contract is one of the largest ever deals to be signed by NIIT Technologies with a member of the British airlines industry and follows a 12-year relationship between the two companies, the statement said.
Laughing gas threat no laughing matter
By IANS
London : Although laughing gas makes up only nine percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, it carries 300 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide, according to a study.
Yet, unlike carbon dioxide and methane, laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, has been largely ignored as a worrisome greenhouse gas.
"It can survive in the atmosphere for 150 years, and it's recognised in the Kyoto Protocol as one of the key gases we need to limit," said David Richardson of the University of East Anglia in Norwich.
Sunlight can damage your eyes
By IANS,
London : Sunlight doesn't just damage your skin, it can also ruin your eyes and increase the risk of cataract and damage to the retina.
The best way of protecting eyes is always to wear quality sunglasses, reports express.co.uk.
A research in Britain has, however, found that over 60 percent of Britons are influenced by fashion and price rather than whether or not the glasses are effective.
Protecting children's eyes is especially important, yet nearly half of parents put cost ahead of protection.
China launches satellites to monitor environment
By Xinhua,
Taiyuan (China) : China Saturday launched two satellites into orbit for monitoring the environment and forecasting natural disasters.
The two satellites, launched from the Taiyuan satellite launch centre in the northern province of Shanxi and carried by a Long March 2C rocket, were expected to enhance the country's ability to forecast natural disasters, according to Bai Zhaoguang, designer of the satellites.
The satellites, called "Environment-1", are China's first ecology monitors in space.
Computer programmed to read human faces
By IANS,
Sydney: Scientists have programmed computers to read human expressions and to tell whether one is in pain.
"Each facial expression is made up of many different components - a twitch of the mouth here, a widening of the eyes there - some lasting only a fraction of a second," said Simon Lucey of Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
"Our computer program looks at these components, matches them against a list drawn up by expert psychologists and decides what expression just flitted across a face," said Lucey, a computer scientist.
Russian scientists revive plants frozen for 30,000 years
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A team of Russian biophysicists has successfully grown ancient plants from tissue material that stayed frozen in the Siberian region for about 30,000 years.
Microscope for objects 20,000 times thinner than hair on anvil
By IANS,
Washington : A physicist is all set to design an ultra powerful microscope that can look at molecules and objects 20,000 times thinner than a human hair.
The new microscope, to be built within the next year, will allow much greater precision in identifying objects, such as certain cellular proteins, by letting scientists see them individually and watch their movement in real time.
Nandan Nilekani confident of changing India with ideas
By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : Can ideas change a nation? Co-founder of Indian software giant Infosys and author Nandan Nilekani believes that they can, even if it takes a long time for them to become embedded in the collective psyche of the country.
Insat-4CR launch delayed by 50 minutes
By IANS
Sriharikota : The launch of India's latest communication satellite Insat-4CR was put on hold for 50 minutes Sunday evening due to a technical hitch 15 seconds before the scheduled blast-off time.
The satellite was to be launched at 4.21 p.m by the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-F04).
Some of the parameters pertaining to the launch vehicle were reportedly not on the expected lines.
Copenhagen aims to be first carbon neutral capital
By IANS,
Copenhagen : The capital of Denmark has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the world's first carbon-neutral capital by 2025 by bringing its net carbon dioxide emissions down to zero.
The target was announced by the seven mayors of Copenhagen here Tuesday, while they launched the city's new climate plan. The plan has 50 specific initiatives to achieve the city's target of a 20 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2015.
New experimental HIV vaccine shows promise
New York : A vaccine regimen that first primes the immune system and then boosts it to increase the response could ultimately prove...
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.
Plants can effectively tackle global warming
By IANS,
London : Plants remain an effective way of tackling global warming, despite emitting small amounts of methane, an important greenhouse gas, says a new study.
Research led by the University of Edinburgh (UE) in Scotland suggests that plant leaves account for less than one percent of methane emissions - which is considered to be about 25 times more effective than carbon dioxide.
New greenhouse gas 4,800 times worse than carbon dioxide
By IANS,
Washington : A gas used in fumigation can potentially contribute to future global warming, but because its production has not yet reached high levels there is still time to nip this potential contributor in the bud.
Scientists at MIT, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego and others have measured the levels of sulphuryl fluoride in the air and determined its emissions and lifetime to help gauge its potential future effects on climate.
Cyber attack targeted Chinese citizens with US links: Report
Washington: The massive cyber attack, which was revealed last week and which compromised information on up to four million US federal employees, sought data...
NRI Muslims celebrate first Indian moon mission
By TwoCircles.net news desk,
New Delhi: The news of successful blast of India's first mission to moon was celebrated in India and overseas. Two Indian Muslim organizations based in US and UK have congratulated the Indian scientists who made this mission possible.
Spacewalking astronauts repair Hubble gyroscopes
By DPA,
Washington : US astronauts Friday completed a delicate spacewalk to replace three pairs of gyroscopes aboard the Hubble Space Telescope.
In the second of five planned spacewalks during the mission, astronauts Mike Massimino and Michael Good removed and replaced the gyroscopes that keep the telescope aligned and pointed toward celestial bodies being examined by astronomers.
‘Don’t worry about more lethal version of terror bomb’
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists allayed fears that terrorists could produce a new and more destructive version of an explosive used by 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid in 2001 and Palestinian Intifada.
Gerard Harbison, chemist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and colleagues analysed a variety of potential peroxide-based explosives in the same chemical class as triacetone triperoxide (TATP).
Russia to continue Arctic shelf research
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russian scientists will continue to study the Arctic shelf in order to bolster the country's claim to a large swathe of seabed believed to be rich in oil and gas, a Russian lawmaker has said.
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia's Arctic research is aimed at establishing the country's right to a part of the Arctic shelf.
Artur Chilingarov, member of the lower house of Russia's parliament and a veteran explorer, said international cooperation in the area would continue.
Chilean quake was so strong, it shortened days: NASA
By DPA,
Washington : The massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday was so strong that it may have shortened the length of a day, NASA scientists said.
Using a computer model, Richard Gross, a scientist at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, found the earthquake likely shifted the Earth's figure axis by about 8 centimetres.
The shift of the axis on which the planet's mass is balanced slightly changes the length of time it takes the Earth to make a complete rotation, meaning each day is now about 1.26 microseconds shorter.
New star forming regions found in Milky Way
By IANS,
Los Angeles : Astronomers have discovered a large number of previously unknown regions in the Milky Way where massive stars are being formed.
The star-forming H II regions are sites where hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons by intense radiation from young stars.
With the helo of infrared and radio telescopes Spitzer Space, the researchers traced these regions which remain hidden due to gas and dust clouds around the Milky Way, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said Wednesday.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine aims to rival Google
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft stepped up its efforts to cut into the search dominance of Google, launching a public preview version of its widely praised Bing search site Monday.
The site offers several features that are not automatically available on Google such as instant excerpts that allow users to see the contents of a page without actually clicking on it and a sidebar detailing related searches.
Passwords for multiple internet services need not be confusing
By DPA,
Hanover (Germany) : Most computer users realise that their private data is safest, when they use a different password for each website. But keeping track of all those passwords can be a problem and there's always the temptation to use the same password often making it easier for a hacker to guess it.
The German computer c't magazine recommends using variations of a single password for all your internet needs.
Choose a word with at least eight letters, numerals and special characters. Alternate between upper and lower case and then it becomes a user's basic password.
Research to create bees without stings in Tamil Nadu
By IANS
Coimbatore : The Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU) here will be researching on a project to create bees without stings.
The National Resource Development Board of the Department of Biotechnology has sanctioned the project "Morphometry and phylo-geography of honey bees and stingless bees", a press release here said.
Two universities will be involved in the project.
The TNAU will work on bio-ecology of stingless bees and evolve improved bee management techniques.
IBM creates world’s smallest 3D map
By IANS,
Washington : IBM scientists have created a 3D map of the earth so small that 1,000 of them could fit on a single grain of salt.
They accomplished this through a new, breakthrough technique that uses a tiny, silicon tip with a sharp apex -- 100,000 times smaller than a sharpened pencil point -- to create patterns and structures as small as 15 nanometre at greatly reduced cost and complexity.
Dubai-based scientists produce region’s first identical twin camels
By NNN-WAM,
Dubai : In an unprecedented breakthrough in the GCC region, Dubai-based scientists have successfully produced the first identical twin camel using the embryo splitting technology.
Zahi and Baih, the two identical twins, were naturally born to two surrogate camel mothers on Feb 10 and 23 respectively after a pregnancy period of 13 moths.
According to the scientists team at Dubai Camel Breading Centre, the genetically identical cubs are in a good health.
Researchers overcome kinks in solar energy storage
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to storing solar energy: it absorbs all the energy in sunlight, generating electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture.
Ohio State University chemists and their colleagues combined electrically conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium to create the hybrid material.
Iran awaits lift of sanctions to resume crude exports
Tehran: Iran has signed a preliminary document with South Africa to resume its oil exports when the western sanctions against Tehran are lifted, a...
Facebook named world’s top social networking site
By DPA,
San Francisco : Facebook has overtaken MySpace to become the world's most popular social networking site with 132 million unique visitors in June, according to new figures from web tracking firm ComScore.
The study also found that Facebook's visitor growth far outpaced that of MySpace, with Facebook visits up 153 percent on an annual basis, compared to just three percent growth for MySpace. Other social networks showing strong global growth include Hi5 (100 percent) Friendster (50 percent), Orkut (41 percent) and Bebo (32 percent).
Researchers developing more powerful solar cells
By IANS,
Washington : University of Rochester researchers are designing more efficient solar cells by using special coatings that split light into colours like blue and red, to boost their power by 50 percent.
Researchers then would then use different types of solar cell materials that each optimally absorbs energy from a light of different colour, said Duncan Moore, a professor at Rochester research, who is leading the team that is trying to boost this further by finding ways to intensify the light.
NEC launches world’s fastest supercomputer
By DPA
Tokyo : NEC Corporation of Japan said Thursday it has launched the world's fastest vector-type supercomputer.
The new SX-9 model is equipped with a central processing unit core that can process information at a maximum speed of 102.4 gigaflops. One gigaflop is equivalent to one billion floating point operations per second.
When connected with up to 512 units, one unit of the SX-9, which can be equipped with up to 16 CPUs, can perform information processing at 839 teraflops. One teraflop represents one trillion floating point operations per second.
NASA’s Fermi telescope sees mother of all gamma-rays blast
By IANS,
Washington : The first gamma-ray burst to be seen in high-resolution from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the highest-energy initial emissions ever recorded.
"We were waiting for this one," said Peter Michelson, the principal investigator on Fermi's Large Area Telescope at Stanford University. "Burst emissions at these energies are still poorly understood, and Fermi is giving us the tools to understand them."
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.
NASA postpones Endeavour launch
By IANS,
Washington : US space agency NASA Sunday postponed the launch of its space shuttle Endeavour by at least one day due to a low cloud ceiling over Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Launch managers initially plan for a 24-hour turnaround, but will evaluate Monday's weather before making a final decision. Next possible launch attempt is 0914 GMT Monday, Xinhua reported.
Airbus announced further delays of A380 program
By Xinhua,
Paris : European aircraft manufacturer Airbus on Tuesday announced further delays in the delivery of its A380 super-jumbo jet, saying that the projected production timetable was "not entirely feasible," according to reliable sources.
"Airbus has completed a review of the A380 program and would now like to inform its customers of changes in the timing of the deliveries," Airbus, a subsidiary of the European aerospace group EADS, said in a statement.
Protein discovery to hasten biofuel production
By IANS,
Washington : A new protein necessary for chloroplast development, identified by researchers, is likely to pave the way to tailor plant varieties for biofuel production.
Chloroplasts, specialised compartments in plant cells, convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen during photosynthesis.
The newly discovered protein, trigalactosyldiacylglycerol 4, or TGD4, offers insight into how the process works.
Kalam endorsed nuclear deal: Manmohan Singh
New Delhi : A.P.J. Abdul Kalam backed the nuclear deal India inked with the United States in 2005 and it is a "total...
Manmohan Singh presented Chandrayaan-1, PSLV models
By IANS,
New Delhi : Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair Friday briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the success of India's maiden moon mission and presented him models of Chandrayaan-I and its launch vehiclE PSLV.
Nair briefed the prime minister about the launch sequence and subsequent maneuvering of the spacecraft to reach the final lunar orbit.
“The health of the spacecraft is good and all the operations so far have been implemented as planned,” the space department said in a statement quoting the conversation during the meeting.
Tiny gold clusters can help clean car exhaust
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers are exploiting gold's exceptional ability to catalyse a wide variety of chemical reactions, including conversion of the poisonous pollutant carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide at room temperatures.
That process, in industrial terms, could potentially improve the effectiveness of catalytic converters that clean automobile exhaust and breathing devices, protecting miners and firefighters.
For this purpose, nanoclusters - gold atoms bound together in crystals smaller than a strand of DNA - are the size most treasured.
Nine win funding for rural innovation projects
By IANS
Chennai : The Rural Innovation Fund (RIF), promoted by Microsoft India among others, has selected nine innovators, who will receive $15,000 (Rs.590,000) each to implement their projects to empower rural India.
Microsoft India has established a RIF corpus of $200,000 to encourage innovations that will benefit rural India.
Solar plane takes off for Hawaii from Japan
Tokyo : The Swiss-made solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse 2, on Monday started its second bid at a record-breaking flight across the Pacific Ocean.
According to...
Microsoft: surf skies from desktop
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Microsoft unveiled a public beta of its WorldWide Telescope (WWT) web application that allows star gazers and astronomers deep into the universe Tuesday.
"The WorldWide Telescope is a powerful tool for science and education that makes it possible for everyone to explore the universe," said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. "Our hope is that it will inspire young people to explore astronomy and science, and help researchers in their quest to better understand the universe."
Technical tips for buying web and video phones
By DPA
Berlin : Telephone operators of yore would be puzzled by people nowadays, placing calls with headsets and using web cams to send videos around the globe. And that's just for starters.
In the 21st century, it's not unusual to see people using instant messenger programmes to communicate worldwide.
But, confused as they might be by today's web cams, they might still be able to teach us a trick or two when it comes to choosing a headset.
Phoenix Mars lander examines new soil sample
By DPA,
Washington : The Phoenix Mars lander is examining a sample of soil from an "intermediate depth" of the Martian earth to determine if it is different from dirt at the planet's surface and from a lower icy layer, NASA said Friday.
The lander's robotic arm dug up the sample, called Burning Coals, from a trench dubbed Burn Alive 3 and delivered it to one of the craft's many small ovens early Thursday.
Phoenix had earlier confirmed the existence of ice about four centimetres below the surface and is now looking at a layer about one centimetre above the ice.
Spacewalk to mark giant step for China
By DPA,
Beijing : When Zhai Zhigang floats out of a space capsule wearing his 120-kg, $30-million pressurized suit, he is to set another landmark for China's ambitious space programme as it moves toward assembling a permanent space station by 2020.
Nearly three years after China's last manned space mission, Zhai should make his spacewalk Friday, if all goes well.
"The spacewalk is risky," Australian space analyst Morris Jones said. "The Chinese spacesuit has not been tested in space before."
"The Shenzhou's orbital module has never been depressurized before either."
Tech-savvy British students forgetting how to write
By Venkata Vemuri, IANS,
London : Writing in long-hand is becoming a vanishing art among British students, thanks to mobile texting and computer literacy.
So acute is the problem that thousands of them are asking for 'scribes' to write their examination papers for them.
Education groups are now asking for introduction of hand-writing classes to see that students do not altogether forget how to write, more so during examination time.
Ocean plankton do their bit to control global warming
By IANS
London : Microscopic marine plankton increase their carbon intake in response to increased concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide and thus contribute to curbing the greenhouse effect on a global scale, a new study has found.
Researchers led by scientists at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, have documented this biological mechanism in a natural plankton community for the first time, Sciencedaily.com reported.
Iran says space program poses no threat to peace
By RIA Novosti
Tehran : A spokesman for Iran's government gave assurances on Tuesday that the country's achievements in space technology and research pose no threat to peace and stability in the world.
Gholam-Hossein Elham's comments come a day after Tehran's successful launch of the Explorer-1 research rocket, which is reportedly capable of carrying a satellite into orbit, and the unveiling of the country's first domestically built satellite, named Omid, or Hope.
Google maps ancient Arctic village
By IANS,
New Delhi: Google is surfing new places in the remote northern outposts of the Canada's Arctic region with its mapping device, the search engine said in a statement Thursday.
Orbiting space junk passes International Space Station
By DPA,
Washington : A large piece of space junk flew past the International Space Station (ISS) Friday without posing any threat, US space agency NASA said.
A piece of a European Ariane-5 rocket passed within 1.3 km of the ISS, but not close enough to pose a risk to the station or its crew.
"The flight control team is continuing to monitor that debris, but again it did pass as expected and is no concern to the orbiting complex," said a NASA spokesperson.
NASA plans to put man on Mars b 2037
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Hyderabad : The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to put man on Mars by 2037, a top official of the US space agency said here Monday.
"We are planning many missions. Our long-term game-plan is to put man on Mars by 2037, so that by 2057, when the International Aeronautical Congress (IAC) holds its centenary, we should be celebrating the 20th year of putting man on the red planet," NASA administrator Michael Griffin told the delegates at the first plenary of the 58th IAC on the inaugural day.
Scientists finds water ice on asteroid’s surface
By IANS,
Washington : Asteroids may not be the dark, dry, lifeless chunks of rock. According to recent research, there is evidence of water ice and organic material on the asteroid 24 Themis.
The research led by Josh Emery, assistant professor with the earth and planetary sciences department at the University of Tennessee (UT), found evidence that supports the idea that asteroids could be responsible for bringing water and organic material to earth.
Khushboo Mirza, member of Chandrayaan-1 team, talks to TCN
By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: When the whole India was basking in the glory of launching of Chandrayaan-1 it was also the turn of Chaugori Mohalla, a tiny, traditional Muslim neighborhood in UP's Amroha district to take pride in the successful launching of the satellite. A daughter of the village was part of the mission Chandrayaan.
The villagers are very proud of her so much so that they have started calling it Khushboo Mirza’s village.
Taking hi-tech solutions to poor villages
By Frederick Noronha, IANS
Bangalore : Ekgaon, a technology and management services firm for independent rural communities, is run by young Indian techies spanning the globe, some of whom are expatriates keen to help their home country.
Iran to launch communications satellites
By IANS,
Tehran : Iran Sunday unveiled its plans to launch two homemade communications satellites into orbit by March next year.
Mohammad Ali Forghani, head of Iran's space agency, said the satellites would be displayed to public by mid this year, Iranian Fars news agency reported.
"These two satellites, which will be tasked with taking photos and sending them to the earth, will be sent to low Earth orbit," he said.
The satellites were jointly developed by the Iranian Space Agency and Iranian universities.
India needs strong cyber infrastructure: Rajnath
New Delhi: Pitching for a strong cyber infrastructure in the country, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday stressed that India should work towards developing...
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...
Astronauts get ready for first spacewalk
By SPA,
Houston : Shuttle Discovery's astronauts geared up for the first spacewalk of their mission Tuesday and the Installation of Japan's giant lab to the international space station.
The two spacecraft linked up Monday, and the 10 space travelers immediately got ready to tackle their first big job.
Discovery's designated spacewalkers, Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan Jr., will prep the US$1 billion (¤640 million) lab, named Kibo _ Japanese for hope _ for installation.
Indian-American researchers develop system to ease e-mail overload
By IANS,
Washington : Indian-American researchers are taking the help of a computer model called SIMONE to ease e-mail overload in busy organisations and companies.
Ashish Gupta and Ramesh Sharda of Minnesota and Oklahoma State Universities, respectively, described how SIMONE (Simulator for Interruptions and Message Overload in Network Environments) can produce a model of how e-mail flows within a network of knowledge workers.
Plant roots being modified to be better at finding water
By IANS,
London : Most of the water brought by irrigation to grow crops evaporates even before reaching plant roots, a huge waste of resources that contributes to the global food crisis. Scientists are now modifying roots to improve the plants' ability to find water.
Tel Aviv University researchers are genetically modifying plants' root systems to improve their ability to find the water essential to their survival.
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.
‘Designing Chandrayaan was like writing lyrics to a set tune’
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : While building India's first moon craft, Chandrayaan project director Mylswamy Annadurai was reminded of his engineering college days when he wrote lyrics to the tunes of his classmates.
At that time he used to write poetry - some were published in the college magazine.
Cisco unveils social network platform for IT community
By IANS,
Bangalore : Networking major Cisco Tuesday unveiled a social learning network platform for the global IT community aimed at talent development to meet the growing demand for networking skills.
The platform will enable networking professionals and those aspiring for a career in IT to share, discuss and exchange ideas in an online environment, the company said here in a statement.
NASA launches spacecraft to study solar wind
By DPA,
Washington : NASA has launched its Interstellar Boundary Explorer (Ibex) to examine the weakening solar wind, which shields planets in the solar system from dangerous cosmic rays.
Over the next two years, the Ibex spacecraft will conduct extremely high-altitude orbits above Earth to investigate and capture first images of processes taking place at the interstellar boundary - the farthest reaches of the solar system.
Scientists mine Twitter to discover drug side-effects
Washington: Using Twitter data, scientists have invented a new technique for discovering potentially dangerous drug interactions and unknown side-effects.
The results can help build a...
Scientists can now control most atoms
By IANS
Washington : University of Texas researchers have developed a twin-technique to control atoms, marking a major step forward in atomic physics with a variety of scientific and technological applications.
The technique can also be used to determine the mass of the neutrino, the primary candidate for dark matter.
The method, developed by Mark Raizen and his team, stopped atoms by passing a supersonic beam through an "atomic coil-gun" and cooled them using "single-photon cooling".
China challenging US as scientific powerhouse
By IANS,
Washington : China is finding its place as one of the world's top scientific powerhouses, going by the sheer quantity of papers being churned out by its scientists, according to a study.
China has already overtaken Britain and Germany in the number of physics papers published and is beginning to nip at the heels of the United States.
If China's output continues to increase at its current pace, the country will be publishing more articles in physics - and indeed all of science - than the US by 2012.
Global warming could raise sea level by five metres: Scientist
By DPA,
Wellington : New evidence shows that if global warming melts the West Antarctic ice sheet, sea levels around the world could rise by up to five metres, a New Zealand scientist said Thursday.
Tim Naish, director of Victoria University's Antarctic Research Centre in Wellington, said the ice sheet was Antarctica's most vulnerable element and was expected to melt first, along with Greenland.
"Polar ice sheets have grown and collapsed at least 40 times over the past five million years, causing major sea-level fluctuations," he said in a statement issued by the university.
Eclipse makes driving on Bangalore roads a pleasure
By IANS,
Bangalore : It was a pleasure driving on the usually choked Bangalore roads Friday, thanks to the rare annular solar eclipse.
Movement of vehicles and people began thinning as the clock struck 11.
The moon started eclipsing the sun 16 minutes past 11 and for the next nearly four hours few vehicles were on the roads.
In many areas, shops, particularly eateries, shut doors for almost an hour before the eclipse began. They reopened around 4 p.m. as vehicular and people movement picked up.
Round-the-world solar plane suspends flight
Geneva : The world's largest solar-powered aircraft, Solar Impulse 2, was forced to push back the second half of it's round-the-world flight to...
Birds instinctively pick the healthiest fruit
By DPA,
Hamburg (Germany) : Birds instinctively choose the fruit which is healthy and shun less health-giving food options, German researchers have found.
Given a choice, birds flock to fruits with the highest levels of antioxidants known as flavonoids, which boost the immune system.
The German researchers offered a group of blackcaps, a common European summertime bird, a choice of two foods containing different amounts of flavonoids.
They found that the birds deliberately selected the food with added antioxidants.
There’s an ethane lake on Saturn’s moon
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have discovered a lake-like feature on Saturn's satellite Titan, the second body in the solar system to posses a liquid surface, apart from the Earth.
Astronomers detected the presence of the ethane lake with the help of the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer or VIMS, on board NASA's Cassini orbiter.
The instrument, run by Arizona University (AU), identifies the chemical composition of objects by the way matter reflects light.
New technology makes diagnosis of abnormal pregnancy cheaper
By Prashant K. Nanda
IANSNew Delhi : Indian scientists have developed a new technology that will help diagnose at a very early stage and at affordable cost abnormal pregnancies that can lead to miscarriages and stillbirths.