Endeavour heads for space station with new picture window
By DPA,
Washington : The space shuttle Endeavour lit up the Florida coast before dawn Monday as it blasted off for a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The 1014 GMT start was the final night-time launch for the ageing shuttle fleet, which is to be mothballed later this year.
Endeavour is carrying a six-window viewing area that will give astronauts a panoramic look at Earth, the station and visiting spacecraft.
Endeavour's 13-day mission will carry the Tranquility node to the ISS, making the orbiting space lab 90-percent complete.
Using bats to help tropical reforestation
By IANS,
London : German scientists have hit upon a novel yet cost-effective idea to revive reforestation in the tropics - by using bats as seed dispersers.
They have designed bat roosts - replicating large, hollow trunks - to boost seed dispersal of a range of tropical plants.
"So far we have found 10 bat species using the roosts, and several of these are common and important seed dispersers," said Detlev Kelm of the Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin.
Supercomputer set to mimic human sight
By IANS,
Washington : ‘Roadrunner’, the world’s most powerful supercomputer that was unveiled last week, is all set to mimic extremely complex neurological processes.
If successful, researchers believe they can study -- in real time -- the entire human visual cortex, arguably a human being's most important sensory apparatus.
The ‘Roadrunner’ is a petaflop computer, with peta meaning a million-billion -- that's the number of calculations it is capable of performing per second.
European Space Agency plans space junk detection system
By DPA,
Darmstadt (Germany) : The European Space Agency (ESA) said Monday it hoped to set up its own detection system for space junk instead of relying on US radar to track the chunks of shattered satellites and spent rockets in earth orbit.
Last week a US satellite accidentally hit an out-of-commission Russian satellite, scattering a trail of debris in space.
India to launch US-made satellites on commercial terms
By IANS,
Bangalore : The technology safeguard agreement (TSA) signed recently paves the way for India to launch US-made satellites from its spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, a top space agency official said Wednesday.
"Space cooperation with the US has been high on the government agenda. We have negotiated and signed the TSA with the US State Department to enable us launch US-made satellites and satellites carrying US components on commercial terms," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told IANS here.
US regulations restrict space industry growth
Hyderabad, Sep 28 (IANS) International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) of the US are a major hurdle in the growth of new space industry actors in the global market, said speakers from emerging space nations at the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2007) here.
They also made a strong case for change in the rules to facilitate cooperation and healthy competition in the global space industry.
The speakers were unanimous that both cooperation and competition were necessary to ensure growth of the space industry, especially among emerging nations and new players.
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.
Spam drops worldwide after plug pulled on US server provider
By DPA,
San Francisco : The volume of spam on the Internet plunged by about two thirds this week after two US internet service providers cut the internet connections of a company that was using its servers to disseminate billions of unwanted email messages, internet security firms said Friday.
Symantec said the number of spam messages had fallen by some 120 billion per day, to around 60 billion. However it warned that many of the spam spewers would probably find new routes to distribute their messages and that the respite was likely only temporary.
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.
Internet will reach capacity limits by 2010: AT&T
By IANS,
London : US telecommunications giant AT&T has warned that the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010 if proper investment is not made.
Speaking at a Westminster eForum on Web 2.0 in London, Jim Cicconi, vice-president of legislative affairs for AT&T, warned that the current systems that constitute the Internet would not be able to cope with the increasing volumes of video and user-generated content being uploaded.
NASA obtains detailed map of moon’s south pole
By Xinhua
Washington : The US National Aeronautics and Space Administrations (NASA) announced here that it has obtained the highest resolution images to date of the moon's rugged south polar region.
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory collected the data using the facility's Goldstone Solar System Radar located in California's Mojave Desert.
"We now know the south pole has peaks as high as Mt. McKinley and crater floors four times deeper than the Grand Canyon.
NASA buys life-like humanoid as tour guide
By IANS,
London : A life-like robot, which speaks more than a dozen languages and has a pawky sense of humour, has been bought by NASA to become a robotic tour guide.
China to launch its second lunar probe this year
By IANS,
Beijing : China will launch its second lunar exploration mission this year to test key landing technologies as well as take high-resolution images of the landing area, China Daily reported Tuesday.
"China should not slow down its pace of lunar exploration even if other countries change their plans," said Ye Peijian, chief designer of the nation's first lunar probe Chang'e-1.
The country plans to launch its second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, in the latter half of this year as well as send a lunar lander and rover by 2013.
Cargo ship to undock from ISS, serve as technical platform
By RIA Novosti,
Russia's unmanned Progress spacecraft, due to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on June 30, will be used as a technical space platform before being dumped in the Pacific, mission control said Monday.
"The undocking is planned for 22:30 Moscow time, June 30. The operation will be carried out automatically," mission control spokesman Valery Lyndin said. "As for when the freighter will be buried, a decision has yet to be made."
Women to be inducted as fighter pilots: IAF chief
New Delhi : Women would soon be inducted as fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said here...
Now search for Internet images in 300 languages
New York, Sep 17 (IANS) Researchers in the US claim to have developed a search engine that enables people to search for images on the Internet in at least 300 languages.
The new service called 'PanImages' has been created by researchers at the Turing Institute at Washington University and details were presented at the recently held Machine Translation Summit held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Russia fails to put U.S. satellite into target orbit
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia failed to put a U.S. AMC-14 telecommunication satellite into its target orbit after a booster rocket malfunctioned during the launch early on Saturday, Russia's Federal Space Agency said.
At 2:28 a.m. Moscow time (23:28 GMT Friday), a few minutes after the Proton-M carrier rocket's launch from the Baikonur Space Center which Russia rents from Kazakhstan, the Breeze-M orbit insertion booster failed during its upper stage, putting the satellite into orbit much lower than required.
Plastic nanosheets can capture solar energy cheaply
By IANS,
Washington : Plastic sheets arrayed with billions of nanoantennas will help collect abundant heat energy generated by the sun and other sources cheaply. The technology, developed at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), is the first step toward a solar energy collector that could be mass-produced on flexible materials.
China launches manned spacecraft on spacewalk mission
By Xinhua,
Jiquan (China) : China launched Friday a manned spacecraft carrying three astronauts on its first-ever spacewalk mission.
The spacecraft Shenzhou VII blasted off from the Jiuquan space centre in the northwestern province of Gansu at about 9:10 p.m. onboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket.
Onboard pilots Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng are expected to orbit the earth for three days, when one of them will float out of the cabin about 343 km above the earth Friday.
Gulf residents can see lunar eclipse Aug 16
By IANS,
Abu Dhabi : People in the Gulf will be able to witness a partial lunar eclipse Saturday evening.
The partial lunar eclipse occurs when a portion of moon passes through the earth's shadow.
Eighty-one percent of the moon's surface will be occulted in Saturday's eclipse, the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) quoted Mohammed Shaukat Audeh of the Islamic Crescents' Observation Project as saying.
People in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be able to see the partial eclipse from 6:23 p.m. GMT (10:23 p.m. local time) Aug 16 till it ends six hours later Aug 17.
European space truck docks at space station
By DPA
Bremen (Germany) : In a first docking by a European spacecraft in orbit, an expendable "space truck", named the "Jules Verne", nosed up to International Space Station (ISS) Thursday and attached itself automatically.
A live telecast, watched with bated breath by the craft's assemblers in Bremen, Germany, showed how computers guided the arriving craft smoothly throughout the slow manoeuvre, succeeding on its first attempt.
How old is your oldest bulb? This one’s 70
By Asit Srivastava, IANS,
Lucknow : Seventy years old and still glowing. It's a light bulb, which has recently become the most prized possession of Lucknow resident Girish Chandra Gupta, who now aims to enter the record books, claiming to have a "rare bulb".
"It was only last month that I came to know the importance of the bulb after coming across an article in a Hindi daily," says Gupta, who runs a grocery shop from his small house located in a congested lane in the Hussainganj locality of this Uttar Pradesh capital.
New planet spotted after discovery of Neptune
By IANS,
Washington : In 2006, astronomer Alice Quillen predicted a planet of a specific size and orbit must lie within the dust of a nearby star.
That planet has now been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, making it only the second planet ever imaged after an accurate prediction. The only other planet seen after an accurate prediction was Neptune, more than 160 years ago.
"It's remarkable," said Eugene Chiang, associate professor of astronomy at the University of California Berkeley (UC-B), and part of the team that imaged the new planet.
Giant Step Ahead As Experts Find Big Cluster Of Dinosaur Footprints
By Bernama
Turpan (China) : Chinese and German experts on Thursday said they had unearthed a large group of fossilized dinosaur tracks, the largest cluster ever found in China, in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
China's Xinhua news agency reported that the find, in a small county east of here, consists of more than 150 tridactyl footprint fossils distributed randomly on the slope of a 100-metre sandstone incline.
Botanist on mission to save rare Indian herbal remedies
By Shudip Talukdar, IANS,
Lucknow : Ethno-botanist Deepak Acharya has spent eight years in the Satpura mountains in Madhya Pradesh, parts of which lie cut off from civilisation, driven by a single goal -- documenting and salvaging India's traditional herbal remedies before they are lost to the world.
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.
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...
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.
Scientists fear another round of mass extinction
By IANS,
London : One in five of the world's mammals, birds and fish are now endangered, indicating a possible sixth round of mass extinction in the Earth's history, scientists say.
Space tourism comes of age as France hosts symposium
By Xinhua,
Paris : The southwestern French city of Bordeaux is hosting an international symposium on space tourism, what marks yet another sign that this form of travel is no longer confined to the realm of science fiction, the French media reported on Thursday.
With the first space tickets on sale since 2005, the "symposium which is bringing together international experts from Wednesday to Friday" in Arcachon, near Bordeaux, is expected to create more awareness regarding this form of tourism, according to organizers of the event.
High capacity lithium-ion battery developed
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have developed a new lithium-ion battery that can recharge within 10 minutes and hold thrice as much energy as its existing counterparts.
‘France to provide Pakistan nuke technology’
By IANS,
Islamabad : France has agreed to provide Pakistan with civilian nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, state-owned PTV reported Friday, quoting Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
According to Qureshi, France has expressed its readiness for cooperating with Pakistan in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
The affirmation came during President Asif Ali Zardari's discussions with his French counterpart Nicholas Sarkozy.
Further negotiations on this will be held in July this year, Qureshi said.
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.
Chandrayaan spacecraft moved further up in space
Chennai, Oct 26 (IANS) India's maiden moon probe spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 has reached nearly half the distance to the lunar orbit, crossing the 150,000-km mark from the earth Sunday morning.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) completed third orbit-raising manoeuvre initiated at 7.08 a.m. Sunday firing the liquid apogee motor for about nine and a half minutes.
With this, Chandrayaan spacecraft has entered a much higher elliptical orbit around the earth.
Microsoft and Ford team up on electric cars
By DPA,
New York: Microsoft and Ford are to collaborate on the development of an electric car that will use Microsoft technology to streamline the battery-charging process, the companies announced Wednesday at the opening of the New York International Auto Show.
Ford said it will use Microsoft's Hohm electric-car charging optimization service to help drivers determine the best time to charge their vehicles and how to best minimize impact on the grid.
British varsity to train Indian multimedia students
By IANS
Bangalore : University of Teesside, a leading British university at Middlesborough in northeast England, will train students of Takshaa Academy for the Artist in multimedia, animation and gaming under an agreement signed here Monday by the two partners.
In a statement, Teeside deputy vice-chancellor Cliff Allan said the partnership was aimed at producing graduates with proficiency in the fast-emerging areas of multimedia and gaming to meet the growing demand for skilled artists in the animation industry.
France, EU laud India on successful moon landing
By IANS,
New Delhi : France, chair of the 27-nation European Union, Saturday lauded India on the successful lunar exploration mission, which, it stressed, confirmed “India's eminent position among the world-class scientific and technological powers”.
“France, on behalf of the European Union, warmly congratulates India for the successful landing of the Moon Impact Probe and the launch of the lunar exploration programme,” the French embassy said in a statement here.
India to be third largest emitter of greenhouse gases by year-end
By IANS,
Washington : Global yearly carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and manufacturing cement have shot up to 8.5 billion tonnes by 2007, from 6.1 billion tonnes in 1992.
But the source of emissions has shifted dramatically to developing countries like China and India, according to the US Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL).
6,000-year-old skeletons of camels found in UAE
By IANS,
Abu Dhabi : A team of archaeologists from the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) has discovered the skeletons of at least 40 ancient wild camels dating back to over 6,000 years.
The team made the discovery at a place called Al Gharbia in the western region of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the state-run Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported.
Scientists zoom in on infant solar system
By IANS,
Washington : A team led by University of Arizona astronomer Joshua Eisner has observed in unprecedented detail the processes giving rise to stars and planets in nascent solar systems.
The discoveries provide a better understanding of the way hydrogen gas from the protoplanetary disk is incorporated into the star.
They are swirling clouds of gas and dust that feed the growing star in its centre and eventually coalesce into planets and asteroids to form a solar system.
Apple’s latest laptop: Small is in
By DPA
San Francisco : There's never been a laptop as skinny as the new MacBook Air from Apple. At its thinnest, it measures just about four millimetres.
"When you first see MacBook Air, it's hard to believe it's a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display," gushed Apple CEO Steve Jobs while presenting the new laptop at the keynote speech of the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. "But it is."
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."
Japanese scientists plans to send paper airplane into space
By Xinhua
Beijing : Japanese scientists hope to send into space a craft made in the tradition of Japan's ancient art of paper folding and learn from its trip back to Earth, media reported Friday.
A successful flight from space by an origami plane could have far-reaching implications for the design of re-entry vehicles or space probes for upper atmospheric exploration, said project leader Shinji Suzuki, a professor at Tokyo University's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Arctic methane may trigger abrupt climate change
By IANS,
Washington : An abrupt release of methane from ice sheets 635 million years ago triggered a spell of global warming, says a study that contends something similar is just waiting to happen.
Researchers believe the greenhouse gas was released gradually and then abruptly from clathrates - methane ice that forms beneath polar ice sheets. The release had resulted in a series of cataclysmic events and ended the last Ice Age.
Researchers identify gene that may help improve rice yield
By IANS,
Washington : A gene in rice identified by scientists, that controls the size and weight of the grains, might open the way to high-yield variant and benefit vast numbers for whom it is staple.
"Our work shows that it is possible to increase rice yield by enhancing the expression of a particular gene," said Hont Ma, professor at the Pennsylvania State University.
Last decade warmest on record, says NASA
By IANS,
Washington : The last decade from January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest on record, according to a NASA analysis.
Looking back to 1880, when modern scientific instrumentation became available to monitor temperatures precisely, a clear warming trend is present, although there was a levelling off between the 1940s and 1970s.
Study: Jupiter’s faint rings are dust and shadow
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Magicians use smoke and mirrors to create mystery, whereas Jupiter uses dust and shadow to conceal the mystery of its faint rings.
Jupiter's rings are now known to be made mostly of dark dust. They were discovered in 1979 by Voyager 1. Not until the Galileo spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, did scientists realize the rings were made of dust dispersed by meteoroids slamming into Jupiter's inner moons.
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...
Google Chrome is third most popular browser
By IANS,
London : Google Chrome is now the world's third most popular web browser with one in five users preferring it.
Computer glitch blamed for Russian nuclear sub accident
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The accident on the Russian nuclear submarine Nov 8 that killed 20 people could have been caused by a computer glitch, a Russian daily reported Wednesday.
The accident occurred when nuclear submarine Nerpa was undergoing sea trials in the Sea of Japan. Three submariners and 17 shipyard workers died in the accident. There were 208 people, 81 of them submariners, on board the vessel at the time.
Japan, Europe To Launch Satellite In 2013 To Study Clouds, Climate
By Bernama,
Tokyo : The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch a satellite in 2013 jointly with the European Space Agency, to study the effects of clouds in trying to accurately forecast the progress of global warming, Japanese agency officials said Tuesday.
The launch of EarthCARE is expected to increase the accuracy of global warming predictions, such as average temperature rises at the end of the century, a move that would help craft measures to address climate change, said Kyodo News quoted the Japanese agency, JAXA as saying.
Giant sea scorpion fossil found
By IANS
London : A giant fossilised claw of an ancient sea scorpion has been found in Germany, and scientists believe the scorpion itself was some 2.5 metres long -- much taller than the average man.
The find, from rocks 390 million years old, suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought.
GSLV mission: Scientists say cryogenic engine had ignited
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : A team of Indian space scientists has established that the indigenously built cryogenic engine had ignited for a second during the failed GSLV mission Thursday.
"This took place for a second and then the fuel supply to power turbo got blocked. The (Indian Space Research Organisation) chairman and we knew this on Thursday but then we wanted to be doubly sure about it. And now this has been substantiated with the data. By all means this is a great achievement," said a senior scientist who did not wish to be identified.
NASA’s next generation rocket makes booming debut
By DPA,
Washington : A giant next generation space rocket Wednesday shot off its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the US for its very first test flight.
The 100-metre tall Ares I-X rocket sped into the sky over the Florida coast trailing a plume of flames and steam in a trial that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hoped would provide crucial information about technology that is to replace the ageing space shuttle fleet.
US and Russian satellites collide in space
By Xinhua,
Washington : A privately owned US communication satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite in orbit posing a risk to the international space station, US space agency NASA has said.
It was the first such collision in space, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said, adding that the magnitude of the accident was still unknown.
The Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos Thursday confirmed the collision and said that it poses no threat to the International Space Station (ISS).
Microsoft to launch Office 2010 for Indian users in June
By IANS,
New Delhi : Global software giant Microsoft Corp will launch the latest version of its popular application suite MS Office 2010 for Indian users in June, a top official said here Thursday.
"The Office 2010 will be available for both businesses and consumers in June," Microsoft Corp's India chairman Ravi Venkatesan told reporters here on the sidelines of an seminar on social inclusion here.
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...
Technology Frontiers targets retail chains and malls
By IANS
Chennai : City-based Technology Frontiers (I) Pvt Ltd (TFPL) is targeting growing malls and retail chains for its digital kiosks, said a top official here.
"We have signed deals with Future Group to install our kiosks in their malls," M.S. Muralidharan, managing director of TFPL, told IANS on the sidelines of the press conference after launching a multi-broadcast digital kiosk TOUCHME Tuesday.
Manmohan advocates nuclear technology for world growth
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: Advocating greater use of nuclear technology to meet today's developmental challenges, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday announced India's ambitious plans to increase India's installed capacity for nuclear energy more than seven fold by 2022.
"Our target is to increase our installed capacity more than seven fold to 35,000 MWe by the year 2022, and to 60,000 MWe by 2032," he told world leaders from 47 nations gathered here for the global Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama.
German experts detect particles faster than light
By DPA
Hamburg : Two German physicists from the University of Koblenz claim to have done the impossible by finding photons that have broken the speed of light.
If their claims are confirmed, they will have proved wrong Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, which requires an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.
However, Gunter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen say they have possibly breached a key tenet of that theory.
Global cyber security experts meet in Kuala Lumpur
By DPA,
Kuala Lumpur : More than 100 government officials and cyber security experts from around the world gathered Tuesday in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur for a summit aimed at discussing policies to ensure tighter security on the internet.
"Just as there are malicious individuals bent on causing harm to societies and nations in the real world, governments around the world must prepare to deal with similar threats in cyberspace," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
New headphones for deep, refreshing sleep
By IANS,
London: A headband with built-in earphones could lull you to deep sleep, without even waking a partner sleeping by your side.
Molecular machines drive plasmonic nanoswitches
By IANS,
Washington : Plasmonics may open the way to the next generation of computers that operate faster and store more information than electronically-based systems and are also smaller.
"If plasmonics are realised, the future will have circuits as small as the current electronic ones with a capacity a million times better," said Tony Jun Huang, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State University.
"Plasmonics combines the speed and capacity of photonic (light based) circuits with the small size of electronic circuits," he added.
China aims to launch first lunar probe this year
By Xinhua
Beijing : China was "losing no time" in preparing its first lunar orbiter, Chang'e I, which will most likely be launched in the second half of 2007, a space official said here Sunday.
Nanoscale process to help computers run faster, better
By IANS,
Washington : A new nanotechnology will help make computers much smaller, faster and more efficient.
A team led by Craig Hawker, materials professor at California University Santa Barbara, (UCSB) with professors Glenn Fredrickson and Edward J. Kramer, has developed a novel process for creating features on silicon wafers that are between five and 20 nanometres thick. (A nanometre is as thin as a thousandth of human hair).
The new process has been described in Science Express, the online version of Science.
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.
Stressed seaweeds cause cloudy skies: Study
By IANS,
London : When under stress, the large brown seaweeds known as kelps are likely to contribute to dark and gloomy cloud formations over coastal regions.
Stressed kelps release a huge quantity of inorganic iodine into the coastal atmosphere, where it is likely to contribute to cloud formation, according to a study.
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.
Why WhatsApp is so big in India
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
While much of India slept Thursday morning, one news of a big-time sale spread in minutes through the country, on...
Caveman’s 4,500-year-old doodle on rock discovered
By IANS,
London : Scientists have discovered what is believed to be one of the world's oldest doodles - an ancient scrawl carved onto a rock by a caveman 4,500 years ago.
Cambridge University experts believe the crudely etched circles are the Neolithic version of a modern office worker's scribbles on a post-it note.
The 17 square cm chunk of sandstone was discovered by an amateur archaeologist, Susie Sinclair, from the bottom of a deep quarry in Over, Cambridgeshire, during a university fun day, reports the Telegraph.
Scientists identify brain’s tiny timekeepers
By IANS,
Washington : How does your brain recall that you brush your teeth before you took a shower, and not the other way around? A study has now identified groups of neurons in the primate brain that code time with extreme precision.
Keeping track of time and remembering past events is one of the brain's most important tasks, amid the welter of sights and sounds that it processes.
Chinese to train Bolivians how to operate satellites
By IANS,
La Paz : Seventy-four Bolivians will get training from Chinese scientists on how to operate communication satellites, Bolivia's vice-minister for telecommunications Roy Mendez said.
The trainees will learn the techniques of construction, pre-launch testing and gathering data from the satellites from the space.
He said a newly formed Bolivian Space Agency will also give training to professionals, especially young Bolivians, on how to operate and administrate Tupac Katari satellites, Prensa Latina reported.
U.S. space shuttle Endeavour lifts off
By Xinhua
Washington : The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour, with seven astronauts aboard, lifted off at 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT) on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,NASA TV live broadcasting showed.
The shuttle is delivering a two-armed robot made by Canada, the first part of Japan's space laboratory Kibo and a collection of experiments to the International Space Station.
Scientists dispute virtues of ‘black gold’
By IANS,
London : The virtues of biochar -- or “black gold” -- in the soil, which was being touted as a possible carbon sink to counteract global warming, has been disputed by scientists.
A new study suggests that the supposed benefits of biochar (charcoal derived from wood) may be exaggerated. When charcoal was mixed with humus, there was a substantial increase in soil micro-organisms (bacteria and fungi), the study found.
Russia to use Baikonur space centre until 2050: Roscosmos
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia will use the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan until 2050, the head of the Russian space agency said.
"The Russian president has set the task to use the Baikonur space centre in full until 2050. We have approved the proposal," Anatoly Perminov, head of the federal space agency Roscosmos told journalists on Cosmonautics Day Saturday.
Baikonur, built in Kazakhstan in the 1950s, was first leased by Russia from Kazakhstan under an agreement signed in 1994 after the break up of the Soviet Union.
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.
New soil tester to assess earth’s health
By IANS,
Washington : Our planet has a fever. But global warming's effects on farming and water resources is still a mystery. Now an invention may provide a new diagnostic tool for assessing the health of the earth's soil.
A Tel Aviv University (TAU) invention, the Optical Soil Dipstick (OSD) designed by Eyal Ben-Dor will help scientists, urban planners and farmers understand the changing health of the soil, as well as its agricultural potential and other associated concerns. It could be used as a whistle-blower to catch polluters.
Killer algae is key player in mass extinction
By IANS,
Washington : Super volcanoes and crashing asteroids corner all the horrific glory for mass extinction, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world's great species annihilations.
Today, just about anywhere there is water, there can be toxic algae. The microscopic plants usually exist in small concentrations, but a sudden warming in the water or an injection of dust or sediment from land can trigger a bloom that kills thousands of fish, poisons shellfish, or even humans.
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.
India’s moon mission operation suspended
By IANS,
Bangalore : India suspended its first moon mission operation after the lunarcraft Chandrayaan-1 lost radio contact with the earth in the wee hours of Saturday, a top official of the Indian space agency said.
"At the moment, we have suspended the operation. Calling off the mission depends on what elements we get back. Whether there is any possibility of restoring contact with the spacecraft. These things are being investigated," the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G. Madhavan Nair told news channels at his residence in this tech hub.
Mild tremors felt in Delhi, parts of north India
By IANS,
New Delhi : Mild tremors were felt Monday in parts of North India, including New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh at 11:57 a.m.
Endeavour blasts off for mission to space station
By DPA,
Washington : Space shuttle Endeavour lit up the Florida coast before dawn Monday as it blasted off for a mission to the International Space Station.
The start, at 10.14 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time was the final night-time launch for the ageing shuttle fleet, which is to be mothballed later this year.
Endeavour is carrying a six-window viewing area that will give astronauts a panoramic look at earth, the station and visiting spacecraft.
A planned Sunday launch for the shuttle had to be postponed due to low cloud cover at the launch site.
Dinosaurs survived mass extinction by 700,000 years
By IANS,
Toronto : A fossilised dinosaur bone unearthed in New Mexico shows that dinosaurs survived mass extinction by 700,000 years, according to a new dating method.
Increase in greenhouse gas emissions despite cuts
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have recorded higher emissions of a greenhouse gas thousands of times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, in spite of global efforts to curb its release.
The substance HFC-23 is a by product of HCFC-22, a refrigerant in ACs and refrigerators and a starting material for producing heat and chemical-resistant products, cables and coatings.
Apple announces new iPhone software
By DPA,
San Francisco : Apple announced a new operating system for its market-leading iPhone Thursday, as it seeks to thwart challenges to its smartphone supremacy from rivals like Google, Microsoft, Nokia and the Blackberry.
The new software was announced just days after Apple made headlines with the launch of its iPad tablet computer, and amid reports that the company was planning a smaller version of the device to help boost sales.
Twitter may transmit misinformation about antibiotics
By IANS,
Washington : Social networking sites like Twitter can spread misunderstandings about proper use of antibiotics, a new study says.
Columbia University and MixedInk (New York) researchers studied the content of Twitter updates mentioning antibiotics, to determine how people were sharing information and assess the proliferation of misinformation.
"Research focusing on microblogs and social networking services is still at an early stage," Daniel Scanfeld of Columbia University said.
Fossils show mysterious human species lived 30,000 years ago
By IANS,
London : A mysterious new species of the human beings which lived alongside our ancestors 30,000 years ago has been discovered by the scientists.
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.
Iran inaugurates its first space terminal for satellite launching
By NNN-IRNA
Tehran : President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has inagurated here Iran's first space terminal for launching satellite.
Speaking at the ceremony, he urged the people to make ultimate use of all the existing scientific potentials and capabilities to achieve the zenith of progress and development.
The country's first space terminal comprises of the Omid satellite, Iran's first locally developed research satellite which has been designed and constructed by Iranian experts.
The Omid satellite will be launched in the near future.
Hoax, Wiki-style: Internet encyclopaedia spoofs mock reality
By DPA
Bad Salzuflen (Germany) : Most surfers get annoyed when they fall for fake or fictional news on the web. Some web users thrive on that kind of hoax, though: spoof encyclopaedias bring together all manner of nonsense and push rumour and innuendo to the limits.
Their makers parody the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia by turning the concept on its head.
The German website Kamelopedia.org, for example, has gathered around 10,000 joke articles explaining the world's doings from the point of view of camels.
Punjab to have police station to tackle cyber-crime
By IANS,
Chandigarh : The Punjab Police Monday announced that a state-of-the-art cyber crime police station and forensic science laboratory would be set up in the state.
Laying the foundation stone of the new project Monday, Director General of Police N.S. Aulakh said that the cyber crime police station was required to cater to technology related crimes committed in the state.
The cyber crime police station and the forensic lab to be set up in Mohali town, 10 km from here, will cost Rs.80 million, Aulakh said.
Can Chandrayaan find water on Moon?
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's Chandrayaan-1 has begun its journey to the Moon -eagerly to find water on its surface - but there is a disappointing news from the Japanese lunar explorer Selene that has been circling the Moon for about a year.
Scientists, who are operating Selene, say that new images taken by a stereo camera onboard the spacecraft indicate that there may not be water or ice in Shackleton crater, the most likely place on Moon that was thought to have water.
The findings were published online Thursday by the American journal Science.
Iran plans manned spaceflight by 2021
By RIA Novosti,
Tehran : Iran would send its first man into space on board its own spacecraft by 2021, the head of Iran's Aerospace Agency announced Thursday.
"Scientific research has already begun in Iran," Reza Tagipur was quoted by Iranian media as saying. "According to our plans, a successful Iranian manned spaceflight will be carried out before 2021."
"India and China were able to send their astronauts into space after 15 years of research and preparations. We will also go the same route, but believe we will achieve our goal in a shorter period," he said.
Indian, Italian tanners sign technology transfer accord
By IANS,
Chennai : Indian and Italian tanners' associations Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to improve skills and efficiency of the leather industry in Tamil Nadu.
According to the agreement, signed between the Indian Finished Leather Manufacturers and Exporters Association (IFLMEA) and Italy's Associazione Conciatori, both sides will promote technology transfers, joint ventures and business partnerships.
Funded by the Italian government, the project will be implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido).
Microsoft-Yahoo deal faces tough scrutiny
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: Microsoft and Yahoo's blockbuster deal to form a 10-year partnership in Internet search and advertising is expected to face tough scrutiny with US authorities taking a hard look at consolidation in the hi-tech industry.
Already, Congress has shown interest in the deal with Democrat Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, saying the partnership "warrants our careful scrutiny".
Chandrayaan moved to launch platform for rehearsal
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 has been moved to the launch platform for rehearsals ahead of its Oct 22 launch, a top Indian space agency official said Saturday.
The fully integrated Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) with the lunar spacecraft atop was moved to the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 km from Chennai, and off the Bay of Bengal.
All going well and weather permitting, India's first unmanned lunar mission is set for launch at 6.20 a.m. Wednesday.
Chang’e I survives its darkest hour
By Xinhua
Beijing : Chang'e I, China's pioneering lunar probing satellite, came through its first lunar eclipse yesterday and has regained full operations.
The moon orbiter was temporarily hidden from solar rays and lost contact with Earth for two-and-half hours during a blackout that started at 10 am, Ye Peijian, chief commander and designer in charge of the satellite system, said.
Chang'e I had to switch off some of its equipment and rely on onboard batteries during this challenging time, when it was blocked from solar energy, Ye said.
Electronic passports to be launched Wednesday
By IANS,
New Delhi : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present electronic passports to President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Vice-President Hamid Ansari Wednesday, marking the introduction of the new scheme in India.
The e-passport, also called biometric passports, will carry the biological features and facial imprints of a holder and will be at par with international civil aviation standards.
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...
Found: Second smallest planet outside solar system
By IANS,
Washington : Astronomers have detected an extrasolar planet with a mass just four times that of Earth.
The planet, which orbits its parent star HD156668 about once every four days, is the second-smallest world among the more than 400 exoplanets (planets located outside our solar system) that have been found to date.
It is located approximately 80 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hercules.
Indian-American detects black holes with 10 billion times sun’s mass
By IANS,
Washington : There are limits to how big super gigantic black holes can grow, according to the latest research led by an Indian-American astrophysicist of Yale University.
These "ultra-massive" black holes have been shown to have masses upwards of one billion times that of our own Sun, which is where they have set the limit on themselves.
Priyamvada Natarajan, associate professor of astronomy at Yale and Ezequiel Treister, a postdoctoral fellow at Hawaii University, have shown that even the biggest of these gravitational monsters can't keep growing forever.
Specialised search engines bring you more info
By DPA
Washington : If your search for information on the Web starts and ends with Google, Yahoo, or MSN, you're missing out. Sure, you can use the big three search engines to find more types of information than ever before.
But there are still some specialised search engines that do better with less. If searching the Internet is part of your daily routine, consider putting the following tools in your toolbox - and your bookmark list.
Future robots will perform surgery in remote locations
By IANS,
Washington : Robots may possibly play more complex roles in future such as performing surgeries in remote or dangerous locations like the battlefield or in space.
Duke University engineers have taken the first concrete step towards realising this space age future, based on feasibility studies conducted in their lab.
On a more immediate level, the technology that they have developed could make existing medical procedures safer and better for patients.
China approves second-phase lunar probe program
By Xinhua
Beijing : China's State Council, the cabinet, has approved the country's second-phase lunar probe program, the Beijing Times reported on Wednesday. It cited Luan Enjie, the director-in-chief of the China Moon-orbiting Program.
"We are organizing people to make detailed plans for the program," Luan told a conference on Tuesday.
He also said that investment in the second phase would exceed that for the first lunar probe but didn't give specific figures, the Times said.
Lunar eclipse coincides with winter solstice in 400 years
By IANS,
London : If the skies are clear just before dawn, you could be treated to the sight of the moon's surface turning a blood red in the western hemisphere Tuesday.
70 scientists focussing on Bigfoot research
San Francisco : Seventy scientists from around the world, defying widespread scepticism, have been involved for the past four decades in the search for...
Mars’ violent, volcanic past comes to light
By IANS
London : Mars has undergone massive volcanic upheavals that alternatively spewed lava and water onto its surface, giving the red planet its current contours.
German scientists have come to this conclusion after viewing the latest images of those contours - captured by the high-resolution stereo camera (HRSC) of Mars Express, the European Space Agency's (ESA) spacecraft circling the planet, reports Scincedaily.
I have been concentrating on motivating the youth
By A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, IANS,
I did not realize that I have already completed one year after demitting office on 25 July 2007. This one year has been an extremely eventful one me having visited over 12 states in India and nine countries.
It is pertinent to note here that I have not been able to accept more than 10 per cent of the total invitations received.
Anti-virus software losing effectiveness
By DPA
Hanover : Anti-virus software is increasingly losing ground in the battle to provide reliable protection for PCs.
The Hanover-based c't magazine tested 17 current programmes recently. Each piece of software was tested for recognition of more than a million different pests, including trojans, viruses, worms and bots.
Two products were able to identify more than 99 percent of the malicious intruders. Four other virus scanners caught at least 95 percent and were hence awarded a grade of very good.
‘Scientists a step closer to Jurassic Park’
By IANS,
London : Scientists are a step closer to resurrecting extinct animals after successfully cloning living mice from the cells of frozen animals, according to findings published Wednesday.
A team of Japanese scientists at the Centre for Developmental Biology, at the RIKEN research institute in Kobe, produced the clones after thawing mice that had been frozen at minus 20C for up to 16 years, British newspapers reported.
Gene that aids drought-resistant plants identified
By IANS
London : A gene involved in regulating carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and water evaporation could help grow drought-resistant crops, a new study has found.
The discovery will enable understanding of mechanisms that regulate the stomata, central to the development of hardier crops that will thrive in arid zones.
Stomata are tiny pores on the plant leaf surface that absorb carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and release moisture into the air.
Scientists discover hottest ever planet
By IANS,
London : An exoplanet has been found to be the hottest planet discovered so far with a record-breaking temperature of 3,200 degrees Celsius.
World’s largest telescope spells golden age of astronomy
By IANS,
Toronto : Hailing it as the beginning of a golden age of astronomy, researchers say the latest data beamed back to earth by the Herschel Space Observatory (HSO) is providing them a rare peep into distant galaxies. Herschel is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space.
Global warming and the ‘thaw and freeze’ syndrome
By IANS
Washington : It's been happening a lot in recent times: a warming which suggests an end to winter that even fools spring flowers and birds, followed by a sudden freeze.
Some scientists say this unusual weather pattern is a fallout of global warming - and, worryingly, a new study says the 'thaw and freeze' syndrome is causing widespread damage to plants.
In a report in the latest issue of the journal Bio-Science, researchers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory studied plants after a similar 'thaw and freeze' in eastern US last winter.
India’s science body signs deal with MeadWestvaco
By IANS
Mumbai : India's leading scientific research organisation Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has inked an agreement with global packaging solutions major MeadWestvaco Corp (MWV) for developing and packaging applications in consumer, agriculture and transportation sectors.
After signing the umbrella agreement for research and development collaboration, S.K. Brahmachari, director general of CSIR, said research partnership would address critical areas in the sponsored research projects in the applications of packaging.
This February was the Earth’s ninth warmest since 1880
By IANS,
Washington : The combined land and ocean surface average temperature for February was the ninth warmest since records began in 1880, according to an analysis by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The analysis in NOAA's National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) global reports are based on preliminary data, which are subject to revision. Additional quality control is applied to the data when later reports are received several weeks after the end of the month and as increased scientific methods improve NCDC's processing algorithms.
Making computers more user-friendly for disabled
By IANS,
Washington : Efforts are underway to come up with a more user-friendly computer that responds to physically challenged individuals.
Current designs are particularly frustrating for the disabled, the elderly and anybody who has trouble with a mouse.
A new approach developed by Washington University researchers would put each person through a brief skills test and generate a mathematically based version of the user interface optimised for his or her vision and motor abilities.
Shenzhou VII ready for final test
By Xinhua,
Beijing : The team that developed Shenzhou VII, China's third manned spacecraft, will begin the final test at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province in a few days.
Zhang Bainan, chief designer of the spacecraft, said on Tuesday that the research and development team of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC) will leave for Jiuquan early this month.
This, according to insiders, signals the final preparation stage of the country's third manned space mission.
‘Creating diverse workforce greatest challenge for global firms’
By IANS,
Bangalore : Creation of diverse workforce would be the greatest challenge for corporations in a globalised world, Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy said here Saturday.
"As corporations grow and globalise, I am convinced that the greatest challenge they will face will be the creation of a diverse workforce," Murthy told shareholders at the company's 27th annual general meeting (AGM) for fiscal 2008.
Net savvy 96-year-old blogs to share ideas in online world
By Shubha Singh, IANS,
At an age when people begin to lose interest in many aspects of the world around them, 96-year-old Randall Butisingh not only mastered the intricacies of the internet but also began his own blog, which describes him as one of the world's oldest bloggers and shows him as a man with a remarkable catholicity of interests.
The grandson of indentured workers who were taken to Guyana to work on sugar plantations, Butisingh has watched the world transform many times over in the past nine decades and has adjusted himself to the changes.
Link between seeing and processing visual information uncovered
By IANS,
Sydney : Researchers have isolated an important new link between how we see and the way our mind processes that visual stimulation.
Queensland (University) Brain Institute (QBI) scientists Jason Mattingley, Ross Cunnington and their colleagues have demonstrated the human brain does indeed have a mechanism to capture observed and executed actions.
"Data gathered from these experiments show that a particular part of the brain encodes specific actions, regardless of whether those actions are executed or passively observed," Mattingley said.
सेवाओं से लैस है ज़ियाउल इस्लाम का मोबाइल एप्लीकेशन
फहमिना हुसैन, TwoCircles.net,
सवाई माधोपुर(राजस्थान): आज जब पूरा देश डिजिटलीकरण की ओर बढ़ रहा है और लगभग सभी क्षेत्र डिजिटल होते जा रहे हैं, ऐसे...
China launches new satellite
By IANS,
Beijing : China successfully launched a new satellite into space Sunday, which will improve television and radio broadcasting signals in the country.
The "SinoSat-6" was launched at 12:14 a.m. from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The Long March 3B rocket took SinoSat-6 into a geostationary transfer orbit 26 minutes after the launch, Xinhua reported.
Evolution pace differentiates climate on Venus, earth
By IANS
London : Venus, considered earth's 'prodigal twin', has a climate that is vastly different. And experts say it is because of the pace of evolution on the two planets.
According to Fred Taylor of Oxford University, Venus evolved very rapidly compared to the earth in the initial years - a crucial difference.
The new information is being beamed to us from the European Venus Express spacecraft now orbiting Venus.
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.
Seven nations planning missions to the moon
By IANS
Hyderabad : Seven nations, including India, the US and China, are planning to launch lunar missions in the near future, even as experts have sounded a word of caution about the impact these missions would have on moon's environment.
Japan, Germany, Britain and Italy are the other countries whose delegates made their countries' plans clear at the ongoing 58th Astronautical Congress Wednesday.
Telenor acquires 49 percent stake in Unitech Wireless
By IANS,
Mumbai : Norway's Telenor has acquired another 15.5 percent stake in Unitech Wireless, the telecom arm of realty major Unitech, for Rs.1,130 crore (Rs.11.3 billion/$237 million), taking its shareholding in the Indian company to 49 percent, it was announced Wednesday.
"Unitech Wireless on May 19, 2009, received an amount of Rs.1,130 crore in aggregate from Telenor Asia Pte Ltd for acquisition of further 15.5 percent stake in Unitech Wireless by way of issuance of fresh shares," the Indian telecom operator said in a regulatory statement.
Global warming to imperil tropical species
By IANS,
Washington : Global warming is likely to imperil tropical species much more than fauna in the Arctic regions, even with a slight rise in temperature.
"Many tropical species can only tolerate a narrow range of temperatures, as the climate they experience is pretty constant throughout the year," said Curtis Deutsch of the University of California and co-author of a new study.
14 cities around Delhi are quake prone
By IANS
New Delhi : The national capital and 14 cities around it, from Alwar in Rajasthan to Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, are highly quake prone, the ministry of earth sciences said Monday.
The 15 cities - Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Hapur, Panipat, Rohtak, Palwal, Bulandsehar, Khurja, Alwar, Bahadurgarh, Kundali and Rewari - fall under seismic zone 4.
Seismic zone 4 is considered to be highly prone to earthquakes.
Pentagon developing stealthy sensors for bat-inspired spy plane
By IANS
Washington : A tiny six-inch spy plane modelled on a bat would gather data from sights, sounds and smells in urban combat zones and transmit information back to soldiers in real time.
University of Michigan (U-M) Centre for Objective Microelectronics and Bio-mimetic Advanced Technology (COM-BAT) will develop sensors, communication tools and batteries for the US Army for this micro-aerial vehicle that's been dubbed "the bat".
India to launch maiden mission to moon on April 9 next year
By NNN-APP
New Delhi : India has planned to launch its maiden mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-I on April nine next year.
Media reports said the mission planned by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Hyderabad.
Quoting Mylswamy Annadurai, Project Director of Chandrayaan-I, the reports said “a launch windows are available for the next two days in case the launch does not happen on that day.”
Chandrayaan launch has realised the dream of Vikram Sarabhai: Modi
By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday drove down to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) centre here and congratulated the scientists for the successful launch of India's maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-1.
Micromax to invest Rs.400-Rs.500 crore in Hyderabad plant
Hyderabad: Mobile phone manufacturer Micromax will set up its manufacturing plant in Hyderabad with an investment of Rs.400 crore to Rs.500 crore, a Telangana...
NASA spacecraft takes look at comet from closest
By IANS,
London : NASA's Deep Impact craft flew within 435 miles (700 km) of comet Hartley 2 -- the closest ever any man-made object got to such a celestial body.
Delhi schoolchildren ‘journey into outer space’
By Richa Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi : What makes the earth go around the sun, aeroplanes fly and volcanoes erupt? A group of 35 Delhi school students has been busy unravelling the mysteries of the universe and understanding basic science through a programme prepared by US space agency NASA.
The children - from at least eight schools in the capital - were part of a five-day summer camp 'Journey into Outer Space' being run by Mad Science, a global organisation working to spread science literacy among children in the age group of 7-12 years.
Indian IT firms will consolidate, focus on Europe, Asia-Pacific
By Gyanendra Kumar Keshri, IANS,
INSAT 3D to boost weather forecasting accuracy
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : India is expected to launch the INSAT 3D satellite later this year to boost its weather forecasting accuracy, Shailesh Naik, Secretary in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said here Tuesday.
"The country will achieve more accuracy level within a few years in short-term and long-term weather forecasts," Naik said while delivering a lecture on 'Weather, Climate and Environment' at the ongoing 97th Indian Science Congress.
Israel successfully launches communications satellite
By SPA,
Tel Aviv : Israel says it has launched a new communications satellite, the Associated Press reported.
According to the satellite's operator, Spacecom, the AMOS-3 lifted off Monday from Russia's main space facility, the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. Later in the day, it is to enter orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers (22,500 miles).
The $170 million (¤109 million) satellite is designed to offer increased capacity, expanded coverage and improved links between the Mideast and Europe and the eastern U.S.
Stop accusations over Internet freedom, China tells US
By IANS,
Beijing : China Friday asked the US to "respect facts and stop unreasonable accusations in the name of so-called Internet freedom".
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu made the remarks while responding to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comment in Washington.
"Countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation," DPA quoted Clinton as saying in a speech on internet freedom.
Secret UFO files revealed to British public
By DPA,
London : Secret files about the sighting of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) over Britain were opened to the public for the first time Wednesday, arousing anew the interest of "sceptics and believers", officials said.
The information, recording among many others a saucer-shaped UFO hovering over Waterloo Bridge in London, is based on details kept by police stations and airbases around the country.
It is being published by the National Archives in Kew, near London, which has kept the information secret for the past 30 years in line with legislation.
Bangalore IT expo starts on subdued note
By IANS
Bangalore : The tenth edition of Bangalore IT.in, arguably Asia's biggest technology expo, got underway Monday on a restrained note due to the political crisis in Karnataka.
In the absence of an executive government and the IT-savvy state under President's rule, Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur inaugurated the four-day technology event at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre on the outskirts of the city.
Flowers don’t smell as sweet in polluted air
By IANS
Washington : A rose smells as sweet by any other name but not in any other air, especially polluted air. A new study has found flowers are fast losing their fragrance, and the culprit is air pollution.
Air pollution is also gradually eroding the quality of our life, besides undermining our health and well being, according to the study that found smoke from power plants and automobiles is destroying something as basic as fragrance of flowers and diminishing the ability of pollinating insects to follow scent trails to their source.
Gmail outage challenges Google engineers
By DPA,
San Francisco : A disruption to Google's Gmail service frustrated users throughout the world Tuesday and flummoxed engineers at the giant internet company.
Google said the problems started early in the morning and were not resolved until approximately 2330 GMT.
The problem prevented users from accessing Google email and stymied customers who use the popular software to sync their information with the Microsoft Outlook email programme.
Robot goalkeeper better than the Bundesliga’s human goalies
By DPA,
Stuttgart (Germany) : A robotic goalkeeper is better than human keepers in Germany's football Bundesliga, its inventors boasted Monday as they demonstrated the computer-controlled device, Goalias, to the media.
Players from first-division side VfB Stuttgart, including Germany team player Mario Gomez, tried last week to outwit Goalias, shooting indoors at a full-size goal mouth from 11 metres out. Scientists have since fine-tuned Goalias.
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.