New European ‘space truck’ launched into orbit
By DPA
Bremen (Germany) : Europe's first-ever space transporter settled into orbit Sunday after a successful launch from the jungle of South America.
The orbital cargo ship blasted aloft from the Kourou space centre in French Guiana at 0403 GMT atop an Ariane-5 carrier rocket on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The Jules Verne, which is hauling six tonnes of food, fuel and other supplies to the ISS, is the first automated transfer vehicle (ATV) in a series of five.
Eleven plant, animal species discovered in Vietnam
By DPA
Hanoi : Scientists have discovered 11 plant and animal species in tropical forests in central Vietnam and believe that more species remain unknown here, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said.
The new species were a snake, five orchids, two butterflies and three other plants new to science and exclusive to the Annamites Mountain Range, the conservation group said.
Argentina, Italy launch new satellite
By NNN-Prensa Latina
Buenos Aires : Argentina and Italy have launched the second of a group of six satellites for scientific use for monitoring natural disasters and agriculture, Telam official agency informed Friday.
Argentina is a pioneer in the use of satellites, allowing advanced scientific achievements in areas like health, particularly the detection of epidemiological diseases, affirmed Conrado Varotto, executive director of CONAE (National Space Activities Commission).
Sun just another ‘ordinary’ star, finds study
By IANS,
Sydney : The most comprehensive comparison of the sun with other stars has established its ordinariness - and the possibility that life could be common in the universe.
Rather than guess what properties a star should have to enable life, the researchers decided to compare the sun - which already hosts a life-bearing planet - to other stars.
“The question 'how special is the sun' is easier to address because we do have observations of thousands of other sun-like stars,” noted Charley Lineweaver of Australian National University, co-author of the study.
Scientists map genes behind bipolar disorder
By IANS,
New York : In a first, scientists have comprehensively mapped the genes believed to cause bipolar disorder.
Indiana University neuroscientists combined data from the latest gene hunting studies for bipolar disorder with information from their own studies to zero in on the best candidate genes for the illness.
Their findings, reported in the latest issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics, describe how researchers analysed how these genes work together to create a comprehensive biological model of bipolar disorder.
Russia’s Soyuz craft docks with space station
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia's Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three has docked with the International Space Station (ISS), Mission Control said Wednesday.
The spacecraft docked with the ISS in an automated mode at 1:48 a.m. Wednesday.
The crew, comprising Russian Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut Timothy Creamer and Japan's Soichi Noguchi, are joining the current ISS crew of US astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian Maxim Surayev, who have been on the ISS since early October.
The Soyuz was launched early Monday from Russia's Baikonur Space Center in southern Kazakhstan.
NASA declares Phoenix Mars lander dead
By DPA,
Washington : A robotic lander that confirmed the presence of ice on Mars was confirmed dead by NASA scientists Monday.
The Phoenix Mars lander was damaged by harsh conditions during the Martian winter and repeated attempts to contact it have been unsuccessful, the US space agency said.
The lander had wrapped up its mission in 2008 and had not been expected to survive the harsh winter, which is twice as long as that on Earth. But scientists needed to make last attempts to contact it in good weather before officially writing it off.
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.
Researchers uncover music’s secret structure
By IANS,
Washington : More than 200 years after Pythagoras discovered the orderliness of music, three professors have devised a way of analysing music that takes advantage of the deep, complex mathematics seemingly enmeshed in its very fabric.
Writing in the April 18 issue of Science, they have outlined a method called "geometrical music theory" that translates the language of musical theory into that of contemporary geometry.
Small clicks can cause great pain – how to avoid mouse arm
By DPA
Wiesbaden (Germany) : All of a sudden your arm feels heavy as lead and starts to tingle. You tend to drop objects more frequently than you used to. If you're a frequent computer user, mouse arm may be the culprit.
"Mouse arm is a modern form of classical tennis elbow," explains Jan Bernholt, an orthopaedist from Duesseldorf. "Small movements that are constantly repeated can lead to ailments in the upper and low arm. An ergonomic workspace can help prevent this," he said.
Scientists watch evolution unfold in a bottle
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists now have physical proof of how species evolve and the fittest survive, after a 21-year study in which they documented the evolution of single-celled E. coli bacteria over 40,000 generations.
Richard Lenski, Hannah professor of microbial ecology at Michigan State University (MSU), said: "It's extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations."
Best hotel deals at the click of a button
By IANS
New Delhi : Now searching for a hotel accommodation and booking it at the best possible deal is just a click away. With the launch of iXiGO's hotel search, a travel search engine, booking any hotel across the country has become much easier.
IXiGO's hotel search will not only enable customers to look through a list of 4,500 hotels which includes budget hotels, guest houses, service apartments and villas, but also book them with instant confirmation, sitting just about anywhere.
One can search through hotels in 320 Indian cities through this search engine.
We are facing a digital doomsday
By Venkata Vemuri, IANS,
London : The digital doomsday is round the corner. In exactly 1,273 days there will be a web chaos in the world as we run out of internet addresses.
More than 85 percent of the available addresses have already been allocated and the rest will run out by 2011, according to a prediction by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Notebook and desktop upgrades that make sense
By DPA
Washington : With notebook and desktop computer prices at an all-time low, you have to think carefully about upgrading them.
That's because the cost of a few upgrades may come close to the price of an entirely new system.
In general, aside from adding memory or a new hard drive to your computer, you'll probably want to avoid upgrades designed to improve performance.
Russia builds world’s largest telescope in Antarctica
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The construction of the world's largest telescope, worth $271 million, will be completed in 2011, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
"The telescope's size exceeds the overall height of the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Shanghai World Financial Centre," Roscosmos said.
The IceCube telescope designed by researchers and engineers from the University of Wisconsin and sponsored by the National Science Foundation will be inserted into the ice near the South Pole.
Give eyes a rest: keep distance from LCD monitors
By DPA
Dortmund (Germany) : LCD monitors might be pretty, but computer users should still admire them from a distance.
Just like with old-fashioned cathode ray tube monitors, users should be sure to sit at least 50-80 cm from the monitor. Sitting closer means users run the risk of wearing out their eye muscles.
Older monitors, which work just like older televisions, took up so much desk space that workers were often left with no choice but to sit close to the monitor, says Windel. But that's not a problem with the newer liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors.
North Korea a nuclear power state, says IAEA chief
By DPA,
Beijing : North Korea must be regarded as a nuclear power, the head of the UN's international nuclear watchdog said Monday.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also said in Beijing, four days after North Korea forced the agency's inspectors out of the country, that North Korea could restart its main nuclear facility within months.
Therefore, North Korea must be persuaded to return to the negotiating table as quickly as possible, he said.
Software developed to embed security code in handsets
By IANS,
New Delhi: Over 2.5 crore owners of cheap handsets, that stood to be banned in India as these did not have the regulatory unique 15-digit identity code, can breathe a sigh of relief -- help is on the way.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the organisation representing GSM service operators, Monday said it has developed a software that can embed the code - known as International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) - in these handsets.
COAI in collaboration with handset body Mobile Standard Alliance of India (MSAI) has developed the software.
Antony inaugurates high-end molecular imaging research centre
By IANS
New Delhi : Defence Minister A.K. Antony Saturday inaugurated a Molecular Imaging Research Centre here to undertake high-end research in the development of advanced life support technology.
The state-of-the-art centre was inaugurated at the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (Inmas) in the capital.
Russia launches defense satellite
By Xinhua,
Moscow : Russia launched on Friday a carrier rocket with three defense satellites atop, Itar-Tass reported.
The rocket, also carrying the scientific Yubileyny micro-satellite took off from the Plesetsk spaceport at 7:20 p.m. (1520 GMT), Russian Space Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin was cited as saying.
The launch was made successfully at the north Russia's launch pad, he said.
No funds for Malaysia’s space programme
By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Six months after sending its first man into space, Malaysia says it has no funds for the second phase of its ambitious space programme.
It is "zero cash" for the moment till the entire programme is re-evaluated in terms of knowledge and cost-benefit, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Maximus Ongkili told the media Monday.
In the first phase of the programme, Sheikh Muszaphar Sheikh Shukor and two other astronauts blasted into space in a Russian-built Soyuz 11 rocket from Baikonour in Kazakhstan Oct 10, 2007.
Saharan dust storms sustain life in Atlantic Ocean
By IANS,
London : Saharan dust storms help sustain life over large regions of the North Atlantic Ocean, according to a latest study.
Liverpool University researchers found that plants are able to grow in these regions because they are able to take advantage of iron minerals in Saharan dust storms.
This allows them to use organic or recycled material from dead or decaying plants when nutrients such as phosphorous - an essential component of DNA - in the ocean are low.
90 percent digitisation achieved in Kolkata: Siticable
By IANS,
Kolkata: The percentage of digitisation of cable televisions in Kolkata has currently reached 90 percent, leading multi-service operator (MSO) Siticable said Tuesday.
Study finds cockroaches not so resilient after all
By IANS,
Washington : A single dose of an insecticide can kill three generations of cockroaches for good as they feed off one another and transfer poison, according to a study.
A pest control bait will remain effective when it's transferred twice after the first killing dose, said Grzegorz Buczkowski of Purdue University, who led the study.
"Our findings are exciting because cockroaches are difficult to control since they multiply so rapidly," Buczkowski said. "They are especially bad in urban housing, and they can cause health problems."
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...
Carbon from smokestacks could help produce DVDs cheaply
By IANS
Washington : A US scientist has come up with an innovative idea to cut down on global warming and slough off million of tonnes of carbon from industrial smokestacks for productive use.
The procured carbon could be the raw material for a vast quantity of polycarbonates, required every year for the manufacture of DVDs, beverage bottles, car headlights, eyeglass lenses and other consumables.
Seeking the roots of the modern potato
By IANS
New York : New research into the history of the potato has rubbished two popular theories about how they travelled from their homeland in South America to Europe - and then to the rest of the world.
The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, used DNA to conclude that a whopping 99 percent of all modern potatoes are descendents of varieties once grown in south-central Chile.
North Korea stops IAEA nuclear inspections
By DPA,
Vienna : North Korea informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Tuesday that it would stop all cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog immediately, IAEA spokesman Marc Vidricaire said.
IAEA inspectors are present in North Korea to monitor that the country's nuclear installations remain dismantled and turned off.
North Korea has informed the IAEA that it plans to reactivate all nuclear facilities, which include a reactor and a plant to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
History, geography also seem to shape our genome
By IANS,
Washington : History and geography shape our genome, according to a new study.
The movements of humans within and among continents, expansions and contractions of populations and vagaries of genetic chance, have influenced the distribution of genetic variations.
In recent years, geneticists have identified a handful of genes that have helped human populations adapt to new environments within just a few thousand years - a strikingly short time scale in evolutionary terms.
Smartphones become personal computers
By DPA
Munich : Smartphones can now enjoy plus size screens and keyboards thanks to a new gadget from Palm.
China makes world’s biggest, most powerful smartphones
By IANS,
Washington: Chinese phone-maker Huawei Technologies havs unveiled two phones, terming them the world's "biggest" and the "most powerful" smartphones.
World’s first humpback dinosaur discovered
By DPA,
Madrid : Spanish scientists said Wednesday they have discovered the world's first humpback dinosaur.
Googling also damages the planet: report
By IANS,
London : Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate the same amount of harmful carbon dioxide as boiling an electric kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research quoted Sunday.
A typical search generates about seven grammes of CO2 whereas an electric kettle generates about 15 gm, The Sunday Times quoted a Harvard University physicist as saying.
“A Google search has a definite environmental impact,” says Alex Wissner-Gross, whose research due out soon.
Microsoft unveils microchip driven Windows version
By IANS,
London : Microsoft has unveiled a new version of its flagship Windows software to run on microchips designed by British company ARM.
Our moon uncommon, say astronomers
By IANS
New York : Though moons are common enough in the universe, ours is rather uncommon, according to a new study by US astronomers.
The Earth's moon, the subject of much art, myth and poetry, was formed out of a tremendous collision, a rare event seen in less than 10 percent of moon formations, Sciencedaily.com reported.
The study, based on new observations by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, was undertaken by researchers at the University of Florida and appears in the latest edition of the Astrophysical Journal.
Moon dust particles gave Apollo mission astronauts tough time
By IANS,
Washington : Fine as flour and rough as sandpaper, moon dust gave Apollo astronauts a tough time by causing 'lunar hay fever', problems with space suits, and dust storms in the crew cabin.
Larry Taylor, director, Planetary Geosciences Institute, University of Tennessee and other scientists will present their research on lunar dust at the joint Oct 9 meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) and American Society of Agronomy (ASA), among others.
Dancing electrons could open way to new devices
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have discovered a new way that electrons behave in materials, which could spur the development of futuristic electronic devices.
A team led by N. Phuan Ong, professor of physics at Princeton University, has shown that electrons in an element like bismuth display a highly unusual pattern - a dance of sorts - when subjected to a powerful magnetic field at ultra-low temperatures.
Iran to launch three new satellites
By IANS,
Tehran : Iran plans to launch three new domestically-manufactured satellites, Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said.
Chilling images of ice-shelf collapsing in the heat
By IANS
New York : A US satellite has captured chilling images of over 400 square kilometres of Antarctica's massive Wilkins Ice Shelf collapsing because of rapid climate changes.
The area is part of the much larger shelf of nearly 13,000 square kilometres that is now supported only by a narrow strip of ice between two islands.
"If there is a little bit more retreat, this last 'ice buttress' could collapse and we'd likely lose about half the total ice shelf area in the next few years," warned Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Promising carbon material can act as power reservoir
By IANS,
Washington : A breakthrough in use of 'grahpene', a single-atom thick, carbon-based material, will make massive storage of wind power and solar energies possible.
Texan University researchers believe the breakthrough could double the capacity of existing ultracapacitors (which store electric energy) made out of a different form of carbon.
India places latest communications satellite into orbit
By V. Jagannathan, IANS
Sriharikota : Trailing a plume of orange flame, a rocket lifted off from this launch pad in Andhra Pradesh Sunday evening to place into orbit India's latest communications satellite that will boost direct-to-home (DTH) TV services.
The geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV-F04 lifted off at 6.20 p.m. on a cloudy Sunday evening after a series of delays caused by a technical glitch delayed the launch by 120 minutes.
Did first humans emerge from Middle East, not Africa?
By IANS,
London : Scientists could be compelled to rewrite the history of the evolution of modern man after the discovery of 400,000-year-old human remains.
Using AI to track visual bugs in 3-D games
By IANS,
Sydney : Artificial intelligence will soon replace the tedious and time-consuming -- but highly complex -- process of testing how good or bad 3-D computer games are.
Alfredo Nantes of Queensland University of Technology is building intelligent tools that will detect “visual anomalies” in a 3-D computer game.
“Visual anomalies are things like incorrect shadowing or lighting, texturing problems and all artefacts that corrupt the realism of the game scene,” Nantes said.
Astronomy fair at Jantar Mantar Sunday
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Nehru Planetarium is organising a fair at Jantar Mantar here Sunday to educate people on the astronomical instruments at the 17th century heritage site.
The fair is a part of several activities planned during the International Year of Astronomy, being observed globally this year.
"The fair will highlight and spread awareness about the usage of Jantar Mantar observatory instruments among people in the country," Nehru Planetarium Director N. Rathnasree said.
The fair will start at 11 a.m. Sunday and will go on till sunset.
China sends up 1st data relay satellite
By SPA,
Beijing : China has launched its first data relay satellite in preparation for the inaugural spacewalk by a Chinese astronaut scheduled for later this year, a state news agency said Saturday.
The Tianlian I satellite was launched on a Long March-3C carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province late Friday night, Xinhua News Agency said.
Data from Chandrayaan moon mission to go public
By Bhargavi Kerur, IANS,
Bangalore : Voluminous scientific data, including rare images of the moon, from India's maiden lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 will be made public by the year-end.
"People will have free access to the huge data obtained from our first moon mission on a web portal that will be launched by this year-end," a senior scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS here.
Frog fossil in Madagascar big as bowling ball
By Xinhua
Beijing : U.S. scientists' finding of a frog fossil with the size of a bowling ball in Madagascar provides evidence for competing theories that some bridge still connected South America with Africa about 70 million years ago, perhaps via an Antarctica that was much warmer than today, media reported Tuesday.
Beijing : U.S. scientists' finding of a frog fossil with the size of a bowling ball in Madagascar provides evidence for competing theories that some bridge still connected South America with Africa about 70 million years ago, perhaps via an Antarctica that was much warmer than today, media reported Tuesday.
India’s space odyssey – church to Chandrayaan
By Sanu George, IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : A church as control room, the bishop's house as office, a humble bicycle as ferry and eyes to track the smoke trail of a rocket - these were the humble beginnings when India launched a US-made rocket from Thumba, near here, in 1963. Nearly 45 years later, the country is set to launch its first lunar probe Oct 22.
Clue to why humans and chimps differ
By IANS
Toronto : Why do humans differ so much from chimpanzees despite having genes that are almost 99 percent identical?
The answer, according to researchers at the University of Toronto, lies in the different ways in which humans and chimpanzees splice genetic materials to create proteins.
Splicing is the process by which the coding regions of genes are joined to generate genetic messages that specify the production of proteins, the key element of cells.
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.
Russia’s Progress cargo spacecraft ‘buried’ in Pacific
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The Progress M-65 cargo spacecraft, which undocked from the International Space Station on September 17 and served as a temporary space lab, has been "buried" in the Pacific Ocean, Russia's Mission Control said Sunday.
"The cargo spacecraft's remaining fragments fell into the ocean after re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere is 11:49 a.m. Moscow time [8:49 GMT] on Sunday," Mission Control said.
32 solar cars start trek across Australia
By Syed Azwan Syed Ali, NNN-Bernama,
Darwin, Australia : Thirty-two solar- powered cars including Solar Ranger1 from Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten) on Sunday start long the trek across Australia in the World Solar Challenge 2009.
The solar cars representing teams from 15 countries were flagged off at Darwin parliament house at 8.30am watched by hundreds of spectators and world media representatives who gathered as early as 7am.
The Netherlands Nuon Solar team with the car Nuna5 was the race favourite.
Telecom watchdog calls for digitisation of cable television
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Friday forwarded its guidelines for the digitization of cable television networks to the information and broadcasting ministry.
If implemented, the guidelines would enable broadband Internet services to be beamed to 76 million cable homes across India.
The telecom regulator has set a five-year time frame for the digital cable transmission services to be rolled out.
Human intervention alters natural systems: NASA study
By IANS,
Washington : Human intervention has caused widespread climatic alterations like permafrost thawing, premature blooming of plants across Europe and declining lakes in Africa, according to a NASA study.
Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA and co-author of the study, said it is the first to co-relate global temperature data sets and observed changes in a broad range of physical and biological systems with humans, climate, and impact.
‘Lane 1 advantage’ for sprinters closest to starter’s pistol
By IANS,
Toronto : Sprinters in lane eight may well be at a disadvantage, says a new study that suggests the reaction time of those close to the source of a loud sound - such as a starter's pistol - is faster.
Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who analysed the reaction time of the 100 and 110 metres athletics events at the 2004 Olympics, found that runners closest to the starter reacted much faster than those farther away.
Climatic changes hastened death of ancient empires
By IANS,
Washington : Unfavourable climatic changes might have hastened the decline of Roman and Byzantine empires more than 1,400 years ago.
Based on chemical signatures in a piece of calcite from a cave near Jerusalem, a team of American and Israeli geologists pieced together a detailed record of the area's climate from roughly from 200 B.C. to 1100 A.D.
Their analysis reveals increasingly dry weather from 100 A.D. to 700 A.D. that coincided with the fall of both Roman and Byzantine rule in the region.
Microsoft issues emergency patch for Internet Explorer
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft has issued an emergency patch for its Internet Explorer browser, aiming to fix a critical flaw that allowed hackers to take over computers merely by steering them to infected websites.
Microsoft Wednesday took the rare step of issuing the patch after numerous security experts advised people to switch to rival browsers until Microsoft fixed the problem. Microsoft usually releases patches on a set schedule and this is only the third emergency patch in the last three years.
NASA launches 2.7 bn-km voyage to Jupiter
By IANS,
London : NASA has launched a 2.7-billion km voyage to Jupiter that will try to discover the secrets behind the largest planet in the solar system.
Chandrayaan enters deep space; on way to moon
Bangalore/Chennai, Oct 26 (IANS) India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 Sunday entered deep space after crossing 150,000 km from the earth on way to the moon, a space agency official said.
"Chandrayaan entered deep space after its third orbit-raising manoeuvre was completed earlier in the day. The exercise involved firing its 440 Newton liquid engine, lasting 9.5 minutes," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish told IANS in Bangalore.
A stick-on film that protects phone users from radiation
By IANS,
Jerusalem: An Israeli firm has invented a stick-on film that would protect cell phone users from the dangers of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the device, a media report said.
Russia to launch Thor 2R telecom satellite from Baikonur Feb. 10
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia is to launch a Proton-M rocket carrying a communications satellite on February 10 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a spokesman for the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on Thursday.
The Thor-2R comsat, owned by Norway's Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, will provide Ku-band fixed telecommunications and direct-to-home television broadcasting services from Telenor's 1 degree West Longitude orbital location.
Tata Communications to lead wireless broadband alliance
By IANS
Mumbai : Leading telecom operator Tata Communications said Wednesday the company has been elected to lead the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).
The company's vice president of planning and retail business, Prateek Pashine, has been appointed the chairman of WBA, a statement released here said.
Into its fifth year of operation, the WBA was created to drive the adoption of wireless broadband technologies and services around the world by developing a common commercial, technical and marketing framework for wireless network interoperability.
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.
Don’t allow MP3 headphones to get too close to pacemakers
By IANS,
Washington : Don't allow MP3 headphones to get too close to pacemakers and implantable defibrillators; they could be potentially dangerous.
Researchers investigated the effects of MP3 headphones, most of which contain the magnetic substance neodymium, on the operation of implanted cardiac devices.
An MP3 player is a popular digital music player. Earlier this year a US government report concluded that interactions between MP3 players, such as the popular iPod, and implanted cardiac devices are unlikely to occur.
Lunar polar craters likely to be live with electricity
By IANS,
Washington : Polar lunar craters may be live with hundreds of volts of electrical energy, potentially triggered by solar winds blowing over natural obstructions.
Polar lunar craters are of interest because of resources, including water ice, which exist there.
The moon's orientation to the sun keeps the bottoms of polar craters in permanent shadow, allowing temperatures there to plunge below minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit, cold enough to store volatile material like water for billions of years.
S Korea’s 1st astronaut leaves space station on return trip
By Xinhua,
Moscow : South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon left the International Space Station (ISS) to return to earth on Saturday.
The Soyuz spaceship carrying Yi, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is expected to touch down at 12:31 Moscow time (0931 GMT).
The landing capsule of the Soyuz TMA-11 spaceship is to land inthe Kazakh steppe 80 km north of the Kazakh city of Arkalyk, Valery Lyndin, a spokesman for the Mission Control Centre based near Moscow, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
Russia puts US satellite in orbit
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia's Proton-M carrier rocket successfully put a US telecom satellite into orbit Monday, space officials said.
Giant observatory comes up 8,000 feet beneath Antarctic
By IANS,
London : The world's strangest observatory, as big as a cubic kilometre, has come up 8,000 feet beneath the Antarctic ice at the South Pole.
Saturn shines brightest, biggest Monday
By IANS,
New Delhi : Look up at the evening sky Monday and you will see Saturn at its biggest and brightest this year.
Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system, is at opposition. An object is at opposition when the Sun is on one side of the Earth and the object is directly on the opposite side. The result is that the object is fully illuminated by the Sun and appears disk-like.
New US Formula One circuit gets the nod
By IANS,
Austin: The new Formula one circuit being built here has got the FIA approval for the upcoming United States Grand Prix to be held Nov 18.
Can the cow help solve the global oil crisis?
By IANS
Washington : What does the cow have to do with the global oil crisis? Well, it may help ease it!
An enzyme from a microbe that resides deep in a cow's gut holds the key to converting corn into a cheap biofuel like ethanol, a new study has found.
The enzyme, which allows a cow to digest grasses and other plants, can be used to turn other plant fibres into simple sugars. These simple sugars can be used to produce ethanol to power cars and trucks, said Michigan State University researchers, who conducted the study.
ISRO designed avionics to guide rockets in 2008
By IANS
Chennai : Rocket navigation systems developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are all set to guide the geo-synchronous launch vehicle (GSLV) slated for launch next year.
ISRO tested its new avionics on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that was launched in April. The vehicle had a second equipment bay - apart from the primary one - housing the navigation and telemetry systems.
India’s moon mission lauded in Dhaka daily
By IANS,
Dhaka : Applauding India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar mission and the discovery of water on the moon, a Dhaka daily has said the find has significantly widened the scope for space research.
But The Daily Star newspaper, in an editorial Saturday, cautioned against rivalry among those engaged in research and exploration on the moon.
"The old big powers and the newly emerging ones like India and China have therefore a big stake in ensuring that the pristine moon may not turn into an object of future rivalry among them in the future.
Partial solar eclipse in Delhi, but clouds play spoilsport
By IANS,
New Delhi : Delhi witnessed the year's first partial solar eclipse Tuesday but cloudy skies prevented many people from having a clear view of the celestial spectacle.
India hopes to send spacecraft to moon: PM
By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday said that India hopes to send a spacecraft to the moon this year and called it "an important milestone".
"This year we hope to send an Indian spacecraft, Chandrayan, to the moon. It will be an important milestone in the development of our space programme," he said on the occasion of India's independence day.
"I want to see a modern India, imbued by a scientific temper, where the benefits of modern knowledge flow to all sections of society," he added.
Feast organised during solar eclipse in Orissa
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Pathani Samant Planetarium in Orissa has arranged a special feast at its campus during the solar eclipse Friday to dispel any superstition, said an official.
"There are superstitions prevalent among people that if you eat during a solar eclipse it will have a bad effect. But we want to dispel superstitions. We have arranged a special feast at the planetarium premises. It will be joined by officials and members of the public during the solar eclipse," said Subhendu Pattnaik, deputy director of the Pathani Samant Planetarium, in Bhubaneswar.
Resarchers analyse compound that can help detect weapons of mass destruction
By IANS,
Washington : A light-transmitting compound with potential use in fibre optics and sensors to detect weapons of mass destruction like biological and chemical agents, went virtually undiscovered because its structure was too difficult to examine.
Luckily, scientists from US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and Northwestern University were able to determine the structure of the compound using the Chemistry and Materials beamline of the Centre for Advanced Radiation Sources (ChemMatCARS) at the Advanced Photon Source.
Haryana launches e-tendering for its projects
By IANS
Chandigarh : The Haryana government Thursday launched an e-tendering facility for its projects.
The process has initially been launched in the public works department (PWD) as a pilot project.
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda launched the facility for the prime minister's rural roads project involving 15 tenders worth Rs.2.66 billion.
Hooda announced that e-tendering will be started in other government departments shortly.
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.
Kalam favours generating nuclear energy from thorium
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Hyderabad : Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Thursday advocated the use of thorium deposits apart from uranium to generate nuclear energy for meeting India's burgeoning needs.
Interacting with about 1,000 students at the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2007) here, Kalam said if India had to generate about 400,000 MW of power by 2020, it was essential to utilise thorium deposits, which were abundantly available in the country, especially in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
Life-changing innovations vie for top global tech honour
By Jaideep Sarin, IANS,
Helsinki (Finland) : Few would know that it is an algorithm that helps us use the mobile phone technology that has made our lives simpler. Or that an optic fibre cable that couldn't send a communication one metre across is now a basis for the global information super highway of over 10,000 km.
These are just two of the four top innovations developed by six scientists and inventors in the last few years, which are in the fray for this year's Millennium Technology Prize - the highest prize in the world of technology and considered Nobel Prize in this area.
New software to convert ordinary laptops into supercomputers
By IANS,
Washington : A new software will convert ordinary laptops into powerful supercomputers to extract features and patterns from enormously complex data sets.
The tool - a set of problem-solving calculations known as an algorithm - is compact enough to run on computers and laptops with as little as two gigabytes of memory.
It has been designed and developed by scientists at University of California, Davis (UC-D), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Microsoft, Mammootty to launch Kerala e-literacy programme
By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Software giant Microsoft and veteran Malayalam superstar Mammootty are planning to launch an e-literacy programme in Kerala.
Mammootty told IANS Tuesday that he is in discussions with Microsoft for the launch of the statewide education project.
He is also the brand ambassador of the state-sponsored Akshaya IT programme.
Mammootty said he wants to launch the project to help make all sections of the society IT literate.
Sun goggles sell like hot cakes in Taregna
By IANS,
Taregna (Bihar) : In the last three days specially designed sun goggles sold like hot cakes in Taregna village near the state capital, where the solar eclipse Wednesday will be best viewed.
"Thousands of the specially designed sun goggles were sold in Taregna area ahead of the total solar eclipse," an official of the Indian Red Cross Society at Masaurih said Tuesday.
Stock your anti-spam tool chest
By DPA
Washington : E-mail users today can't afford to ignore spam. The unwanted e-mail that clogs inboxes everywhere costs people time, and time, of course, is money.
If you're curious about exactly how much spam is costing you on either a personal level or a corporate level, you can check in at Computer Mail Service's handy Cost of Spam Web site (http://www.cmsconnect.com/Marketing/spamcalc.htm).
There you'll be able to break down how much you lose in salary and productivity by dealing with average amounts of spam.
Washington : E-mail users today can't afford to ignore spam. The unwanted e-mail that clogs inboxes everywhere costs people time, and time, of course, is money.
If you're curious about exactly how much spam is costing you on either a personal level or a corporate level, you can check in at Computer Mail Service's handy Cost of Spam Web site (http://www.cmsconnect.com/Marketing/spamcalc.htm).
There you'll be able to break down how much you lose in salary and productivity by dealing with average amounts of spam.
Nitrogen dioxide level exceeds limit in 10 cities
By IANS,
New Delhi : Air pollution is increasing at an alarming rate in the country with the national capital being one of the 10 cities where nitrogen dioxide levels have exceeded prescribed standards, Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has said.
"Nitrogen dioxide levels are exceeding the prescribed standards in 10 cities, namely Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Asansol, Bengaluru, Jamshedpur, Faridabad, Meerut, Patna and Pune. There is an increasing trend of nitrogen dioxide levels in Asansol and Bengaluru," Ramesh said.
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.
Your mobile phone can also be a credit card
By IANS,
Istanbul : Imagine swiping a mobile phone to pay for all the things that you buy! This has just been made possible by latest technology that allows bank information to be stored in your mobile phones' memory cards.
Global credit card giant Visa has entered a partnership with a Turkish bank to launch this technology, the first of its kind in Europe.
This technology is used to store bank information in memory cards placed in mobile phones and allow them to be waved in front of credit card payment points, Visa Europe, which has collaborated with Turkey's Akbank, said.
Scientists find way of protecting computers against virus
By IANS,
Washington : Code Red, a virulent computer virus, wreaked havoc, infecting more than 350,000 machines in 14 hours in 2001, besides causing a worldwide loss of $2.6 billion.
Now techies at Ohio State University have discovered a way to contain worms like Code Red, which blocked network traffic to subway stations and 911 call centres in the US, and also sought to target the White House website.
"We wanted to find a way to catch infections in their earliest stages, before they get that far," said Ness Shroff, who led the team that worked on the project.
China Announces 186-mph Bullet Train
Beijing, Dec 22 (Prensa Latina) China announced on Saturday its first 186-mph bullet train, wholly designed and built in this Asian country.
China thus joins Japan, France and Germany as the fourth country worldwide in position to build state-of-the-art high-speed trains, a spokesman for the Railway Ministry said.
Science with cartoons: Lucknow scientist invited to Europe meet
By IANS,
Lucknow : A Lucknow-based scientist, who uses cartoons to make complex scientific works easy to understand, has been invited to participate in a European science festival in Spain.
At the festival organised by the European Science Events Association (EUSCEA), P.K. Srivastava, a senior scientist with the chemical toxicology division of the Central Drugs Research Institute (CDRI), will make a presentation on 'sceintoons' invented by him in 1988.
US rocket ready to crash into moon
By DPA,
Washington : A US rocket is to crash into the moon Friday in an experiment scientists hope will provide data about ice hidden in the perpetually dark lunar craters.
Astronomers around the world are prepared to capture the impact of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the moon's Caebus crater at 1130 GMT. The rocket will deliberately crash into the moon, kicking up a plume of dust that scientists hope to analyse for traces of water that they believe are abundant in the
cold, shadowy craters.
Iran arms embargo should be lifted: Russia
Moscow: Moscow wants arms embargo on Tehran lifted as soon as possible, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday, adding that no insurmountable...
Social Media backlash over Toyota’s silence in Service Centre death
By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi : Three weeks after the alleged hate crime in...
Scientists duplicate keys with help of zoom lens
By IANS,
Washington : Computer scientists can now duplicate keys without looking at them; all they need is a photo or an image of the object, thanks to a new software.
They successfully decoded the image of a key, lifted from a distance of 195 feet with a cellphone camera, fed it into their software which then produced the information required to create copies.
In yet another example, they used a five-inch telephoto lens to capture images from the roof of a campus building and duplicate keys sitting on a café table more than 200 feet away.
GII: A group that tracks Indian cyberspace
By Frederick Noronha, IANS,
Bangalore : Does India have too many "cyber law experts"? What's wrong with the Blackberry service in India? How is BSNL's IPO shaping up? These and several such issues routinely crop up on India-GII.
So what is India-GII? Located in cyberspace, it is a network of techies and others fleshing out cyber issues in the country, tracking its progress from one of the most expensive and monopolistic telecom markets to one of the most competitive.
India-GII describes itself as a "list (that) has existed since 1995".
Microsoft unveils Windows 7, a fix for disappointing Vista
By DPA,
Los Angeles : Microsoft released key details Tuesday of the next generation of software that it hopes will run the world's computers.
The software giant, whose dominance is under threat, said Windows 7 will replace the disappointing Windows Vista in January 2010.
Microsoft said the new operating system was designed to function like a tighter version of Vista, which launched in 2006 but was widely derided as a "system hog" that slowed down computers with features that most users never accessed.
Yahsat signs letter of intent with Arianspace to launch satellite in 2010
By NNN-WAM
Abu Dhabi : Al Yah Satellite Communications Company PrJsc (Yahsat), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, has signed a letter of intent with Arianespace, the world's leading launch service and solutions company, to launch the Yahsat 1A communications satellite.
The satellite is currently being manufactured by the consortium of EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. The expected launch date is the second half of 2010.
Interstellar dust darkens the universe
By Xinhua,
Beijing : The universe is dustier than previously thought, which is why astronomers now suggest it is twice as bright as it appears.
Astronomers have known about interstellar dust for a while, but they haven't been able to quantify just how much light it blocks. Now a team of researchers has studied a catalogue of galaxies and found that dust shields roughly 50 percent of their light.
Goojje not to change logo despite Google objection
By IANS,
Beijing : Chinese web portal Goojje has said it "will not change" its logo despite US search giant Google's threat to sue it over copyright infringement, according to a media report Wednesday.
Goojje's logo resembles the logo of Google Inc and also bears a paw print sign like that of Baidu Inc, the biggest Internet search engine in China and Google Inc's arch rival in the country.
Man on Moon revolutionised ideas behind vehicles, medicine
By IANS,
Washington : Forty years ago, on July 20, 1969, the United States achieved a historic feat when Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," were Neil Armstrong's prophetic words that opened the pathway for new medical procedures and 'holistic reinvention' of vehicles.
America's race to the moon also launched a generation of scientists. They were inspired by a sense of patriotism and the wonders of space.
Melting tundra will tumble vast carbon waste into Arctic Ocean
By IANS,
London : Rise in temperature is already causing the sea ice in the Arctic to melt. If Arctic tundra also follows suit, it will tumble vast organic wastes into rivers heading for the Arctic Ocean, upping carbon dioxide emissions, fear scientists.
"Large amounts of organic carbon are currently stored within the permafrost. If released, they will result in an increased release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere," says Sofia Hjalmarsson, who submitted her doctoral thesis at Gothenburg University.
Suicide method websites outnumber counselling sites
By IANS
Washington : A first-of-its kind study on Internet and suicides has found that a net search throws up more sites that detail methods of self-annihilation than those offering help and support.
The study also concludes that people bent on taking their lives are most likely to find sites that offer detailed and factual methods of killing themselves rather than sites that discourage them.
Researchers from the universities of Bristol, Oxford and Manchester replicated a typical search, visiting popular websites like Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.
Google Helps US Intelligence Expand
By Prensa Latina
Washington : US intelligence bought Google data base to enhance espionage on the Internet through restricted Intellipedia network for the 16 intelligence agencies.
San Francisco Chronicle says several branches within the community, among them the National Security Agency, the CIA and FBI, are now able to process information collected from Google.
The contracts are part of the accords the company sales team promoted with the Feds that already signed similar pact with the Coast Guard, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
World’s most advanced robot walks like a human
By IANS,
London : Researchers trying to make robots walk have so far met with limited success, but one developed by a university in Netherlands walks as naturally as humans do.
The robot, called Flame, is arguably the most advanced walking machine in the world, at least in the category that applies the human method of walking as a starting principle.
Since the robot, built at the Delft Technology University, mimics how people walk, it is likely to provide insights into problems associated with walking - and lead to better diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment.
Scientists tune world’s brightest X-ray beam in Germany
By DPA,
Hamburg : The most intense X-ray beam of its type in the world has been generated inside a 2,300-metre circular tunnel under the German city of Hamburg, the Desy research institute said Monday.
The machine, which cost 225 million euros ($297 million), was switched on in April, but unlike a light bulb it takes weeks to tune up.
The X-ray light came Saturday. More months will now be spent adjusting measuring devices. Next year, scientists can begin actually using the machine to peer at atomic structures in proteins, cancer cells and the like.
Phoenix probe makes scheduled landing on red planet
By DPA,
Washington : NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander arrived on the red planet to an exuberant reaction by mission scientists Sunday on Earth.
The scene at Jet Propulsion Laboratory mission control in Pasadena, California, was punctuated by hoots and high fives as the probe achieved key milestones leading up to the successful touchdown. Radio contact was confirmed and a parachute critical to a soft landing deployed to ease the landing of the craft on three legs.
The robotic probe landed on tundra above the Martian arctic circle, a terrain never before explored, NASA scientists said.
Cloudy sky plays spoilsport in Bihar’s ‘eclipse village’
By IANS,
Taregna (Bihar) : Thousands of people who have gathered in this Bihar village to witness the century's largest total eclipse were disappointed Wednesday as the sun remained hidden under cloudy skies.
The eclipse was to begin at 5:29 a.m just after the sunrise but cloudy skies spoiled the mood of the thousands of people, children and adults, who thronged there to watch the celestial spectacle
However, people are optimistic for a more clear picture when the eclipse will reach its totality at 6:24 a.m.
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.
Yahoo! hosting 24-hour ‘hacking’ event in India’s tech hub
By IANS,
Bangalore : Global search engine Yahoo! is hosting a non-stop 24-hour "hacking" event from Saturday noon in this tech hub where about 300 whiz-kids will use its web tools and services to develop new applications, a company official said Friday.
"About 300 developers across India will participate in the 24-hour hacking event, which involves using our web tools, services and application programming interfaces (APIs) to innovate new solutions for our global netizens," Yahoo! India Research and Development Head Shouvick Mukherjee told IANS here.
MIT researchers work on more powerful batteries
By IANS,
Washington: A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is developing a technology that could lead to more powerful, lightweight batteries than existing ones.
Yang Shao-Horn, MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering, says that many groups have been pursuing work on lithium-air batteries, a technology that could advance work on energy density.
But, there has been a lack of understanding of what kinds of electrode materials could promote the electrochemical reactions that take place in these batteries.
Apple releases new operating system for Mac computers
By DPA
Los Angeles : Apple has released a new operating system for its ever more popular Mac computers.
The upgraded OS 10.5, nicknamed Leopard, was released Friday and includes some 300 improvements including a 'time machine' that tracks and resurrects lost data, and improved video-conferencing abilities.
The eagerly awaited system was delayed by several months while the company's engineers worked on developing the iPhone.
Rival Microsoft, whose software powers 90 percent of the world's computers, released its newest operating system, Vista, in January.
Telescope captures first light of universe
By IANS/EFE,
Paris : The Planck space telescope has captured an image of the residual glow from the Big Bang, the European Space Agency reported Thursday.
NASA starts back to moon
By DPA,
Washington : NASA launched its dual moon mission Thursday that will pave the way for humans to return to the moon.
The Atlas V rocket launch lifted off at 05:32 p.m., just 20 minutes after planned, from NASA's Cape Canaveral in Florida.
A scheduling conflict with the Endeavour shuttle delayed the launch by a day.
How to keep your PC cool during summer
By DPA,
Washington : Computers hate heat. So this summer, be sure to think about keeping your computer cool. Computer components themselves run hot, and yet they're not designed to operate above a certain temperature.
When the temperature outside gets uncomfortable for humans, you can be sure that your computer isn't liking the situation any better. So for a trouble-free summer of computing, take steps now to ensure that your PC stays cool.
Indian lunar probe starts remote sensing of Moon
By RIA Novosti,
New Delhi : India's first lunar probe entered its final polar orbit around the Moon late on Wednesday and has now begun remote sensing of the surface, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on Thursday.
Chandrayaan-1, meaning "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit, was launched on an Indian-built PSLV-C11 rocket on October 22.
No solution yet to BlackBerry security issue
By IANS,
New Delhi : A solution to the security concerns over BlackBerry services in India has still to be hammered out as its licensor Research-in-Motion (RIM) has sought more time from the Indian government to reach an agreement.
Executives from the Canada-based firm, senior government officials, representatives from security agencies and services met Tuesday here for the second time after India raised concerns that BlackBerry services may be used by terrorist outfits as the e-mails between these cannot be intercepted.
Researchers create world’s first diamond laser
By IANS,
Sydney : Researchers in Australia have built the world's first diamond laser, harnessing its capability to transmit heat and light very effectively.
A research team led by Richard Mildren at Macquarie University in New South Wales built the first laser using a technique based on the Raman effect.
Besides demonstrating a more effective way of generating a powerful beam, it has also shown that synthetic diamonds are of the right size and quality to enable exploration of a new class of laser devices.
French Space Ship Connects to Intl Station
By Prensa Latina
Toulouse : Images broadcast directly from the control center in this French city showed the successful connection of the Automated Transference Vehicle VERNE with the International Space Station Thursday.
The ATV and supplier VERNE -as it was baptized- connected with the ISS at 14:45 GMT, setting a new space stage for France and Europe in general.
Experts in Toulouse, south of France, said VERNE, with its 17 tons of weight, was moving at a relative speed of 6 to 7 centimeters a second, to connect to Russian space module Zvezda, in the rear part of the ISS.
No threat to pacemakers from iPods: Study
By IANS
New York : Here is relief for gizmo-lovers with a heart condition - no, "electronic noise" from iPods does not cause cardiac pacemakers to trip, a new study says.
Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston were intrigued by a widely reported study last May that concluded errant electronic noise from iPods could cause implantable cardiac pacemakers to malfunction.
This just did not sound right to the hospital's cardiac electro-physiologists who have seen hundreds of children, teens and young adults with heart conditions requiring pacemakers, ScienceDaily reported.
First earth-like planet seems to be volcanic wasteland
By IANS,
Washington : The first Earth-like planet spotted outside our solar system seems to be a volcanic wasteland.
The rocky planet CoRoT-7b was discovered circling a star some 480 light years from Earth. It is, however, a forbidding place and not likely to harbour life.
That's because it is so close to its star that temperatures might be above 2,200 Celsius on the surface lit by its star and as low as minus 210 Celsius on its dark side.
Iran pledges support for Iraq in fight against terrorism
Tehran: Tehran will continue supporting Baghdad in its fight against terrorism as Iraq's security was intertwined with that of Iran, President Hassan Rouhani has...
NZ astronomers measure smallest planet outside solar system
By Xinhua,
Wellington : Researchers in New Zealand have made the initial measurements of the smallest planet found outside the solar system, the New Zealand Press Association reported on Saturday.
Using the new MOA-II telescope at the Mt John Observatory, near Temuka in South Canterbury, they found the planet outside the solar system which is three times bigger than Earth.
More than 300 planets have been found outside the solar system, and the latest is the smallest planet orbiting a normal star, which is as little as one 20th the mass of the Earth's sun.
British astronomers discover three new planets
By Xinhua
London : Britain's astronomers from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP), a leading planet-hunting team, have announced the discovery of three new planets, according to a press release issued by Keele University.
These extra-solar planets named WASP-3, WASP-4 and WASP-5 were seen to transit their host star.
WASP-3 is the third planet that the team has found in the northern hemisphere, using the SuperWASP camera sited in the Canary Islands.
NASA beams chants of ‘Jai Guru Deva’ into outer space
By Dipankar De Sarkar, IANS
London : If there were any outer space aliens out there Monday at the crack of dawn Indian time, chances are they were grooving to a song with the words "Jai Guru Deva... Om".
The words form the beautiful refrain of a famous Beatles song, "Across the Universe", which was beamed into outer space in a celebration of the band's music at 0530 Indian time (midnight GMT).
NASA rules out asteroid collision with Mars
By DPA
Washington : Scientists have drastically reduced the chances of a 50-metre-wide asteroid striking Mars later this month, saying the rock will likely keep a distance of about 26,000 km.
The US space agency NASA said Thursday it was "effectively ruling out" a collision, reducing the probability to 1 in 10,000. Ten days ago the odds stood at 1 in 25 - nearly 4 percent.
Artificial reefs to support corals in Persian Gulf
By IANS
Abu Dhabi : Dolphin Energy Limited, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) based natural gas company, is conducting the first artificial coral reef growth study in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Qatar, WAM news agency reported Friday.
The project is being implemented by the Continental Shelf Associates International (CSA) of the US.
The CSA will use 'EcoReef' technology in the project that includes construction of complex reef habitats using ceramic modules that mimic natural branching corals. The ceramic is non-toxic, pH neutral, food-grade stoneware.
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.
Report: iPhone system hacked, made usable in Israel
By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Three Israeli computer engineers have managed to hack Apple's iPhone system, and made it available for use through Israeli carriers, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its website on Sunday.
According to the report, the three were also able to lend the iPhone a Hebrew interface, thus breaking Apple's restriction on using the phone only through the AT&T company in the United States.
Jerusalem : Three Israeli computer engineers have managed to hack Apple's iPhone system, and made it available for use through Israeli carriers, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its website on Sunday.
According to the report, the three were also able to lend the iPhone a Hebrew interface, thus breaking Apple's restriction on using the phone only through the AT&T company in the United States.
New technique to stamp out microchip piracy, save billions
By IANS
Washington : A new technique developed by Rice University will block piracy of microchips, something that causes billions of dollars in losses to chipmakers every year.
The cutting edge technology will allow designers to lock and remotely activate chips with a unique ID tag. Only the patent-holder can decipher the key and activate the chip, rendering stolen chips worthless.
Hardware piracy has worsened as the skyrocketing costs of microchip production have led chip-design companies to get out of the manufacturing business.
India successfully tests own cryogenic rocket engine
By IANS,
Bangalore : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully conducted a test of its indigenous cryogenic (supercooled fuel) engine to be used in the next geosynchronous launch vehicle (GSLV-D3) mission, the space agency said here Saturday.
"The flight acceptance hot test of the Cryogenic engine was carried out at the liquid propulsion systems centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu Thursday. This engine will be used in the next GSLV launch in April 2009 for carrying the 2.3-tonne geo-stationary experimental satellite (GSAT)," ISRO said in a statement.
Australians now the fattest on earth
By IANS,
Sydney : Australia has acquired the dubious distinction of being the fattest on earth - with four million people classified as obese and another 5.4 million as overweight.
New research by Victoria University's Erin Pearson shows that when it comes to changing people's exercise behaviour, having the right messenger is as important as having the right message.
"What we have found is that the person delivering the message needs to be someone the audience identifies with and respects in order to bring about a desired change in behaviour," Pearson said.
Youngsters use Facebook, MySpaceTeens to create flattering self-images
By IANS,
Washington : Youngsters are using popular networking websites like Facebook and MySpace to create flattering self-images, one that they would like to be but are not.
"People can use these sites to explore who they are by posting particular images, pictures or text," said University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) psychology graduate Adriana Manago, researcher with the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles (CDMCLA), and co-author of the study.
Meteorite that killed dinosaurs was six km wide: study
By IANS
Washington : The meteorite linked to the mass extinction of dinosaurs and other life forms 65 million years ago was four to six kilometres in diameter.
That's the conclusion of a team of Hawaii University researchers who have evolved a mechanism to measure the size of meteorites that have rammed into earth over millennia.
François Paquay and his team used isotopes of the rare element osmium in sediments at the bottom of the ocean to estimate the meteorite sizes and also the frequency with which they hit earth.
Endeavour astronauts finish first space walk
By DPA
Washington : Two astronauts from the crew of US shuttle Endeavour completed their first space walk of a scheduled 11-day mission to expand the International Space Station (ISS).
Astronauts Rick Mastracchio of the US and Canadian Dave Williams successfully installed a truss segment during six hours of work Saturday, the US space agency NASA announced from mission control in Houston.
The truss, which is designed to hold a new solar panel, was part of the shuttle's payload.
Hubble discovers methane on exo-planet
By DPA
Garching (Germany) : The Hubble space telescope has discovered methane gas, a useful fuel and precursor of life, on a planet outside the Solar System.
The European Hubble Centre at Garching, near Munich, said Wednesday it was the first time any organic molecule had been found on the new class of heavenly bodies, the exo-planets.
The orbiting telescope detected methane (chemical formula CH4) by analysing light shining through the atmosphere of exo-planet HD 189733b, which is 63 light years from earth, in the constellation Vulpecula.
Turkey launches new generation communication satellite
By Xinhua,
Ankara : Turkey has launched its new generation communication satellite "Turksat 3A" from the Kourou base of French Guiana, the semi-official Anatolia news agency has reported.
The report said that the satellite launched Thursday would be located in the orbit of 42 degree east longitude and the control of the satellite will be pursued in the Golbasi Satellite Ground Station near the Turkish capital Ankara.
The satellite, which has three uplink and two downlink beams, will replace Turksat 1C satellite, the report said.
Largest ice-shelf fractures into three
By IANS,
Toronto : The largest ice-shelf in the northern hemisphere has fractured into three pieces, the first intimation of which has come from images clicked by the Radarsat satellite.
A team of scientists patrolling the area inspected an 18-km long network of cracks running from the southern edge of the Ward Hunt Ice-Shelf to the Arctic Ocean.
A similar large fracture was detected in 2002, prompting concerns that the remaining ice-shelf too would disintegrate within a few years.
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.
India to launch first manned spaceship in 2013
By NNN-Bernama,
Moscow : India would launch its first manned space flights by sending two astronauts in an orbit in a Russian spaceship in 2013, Press Trust of India (PTI) said Wednesday quoting local media reports.
For this, the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) is to finance the acquisition of a Soyuz spaceship and train its astronauts by a Russian commander.
The Russian cosmonaut would lead the two-member crew on an independent space flight lasting several days, 'Voice of Russia' radio reported.
Special goggles, telescopes – Lucknow set for solar eclipse
By IANS,
Lucknow : Scientific institutions and schools in Lucknow have made elaborate arrangements - from acquiring special goggles to installing telescopes - for people to watch the annular solar eclipse Friday.
The Indira Gandhi Planetarium has purchased as many as 6,500 special goggles and installed several telescopes so that people can view the eclipse.
"We have made enough arrangements to watch the solar eclipse. Only 51.12 percent of the eclipse will be visible in Lucknow," Anil Yadav, officer-in-charge of the planetarium, told IANS Friday.
Google splashes $2 bn on New York office
By DPA,
New York : Internet powerhouse Google is muscling in on New York. The web search giant confirmed Wednesday that it had bought one of the most prestigious office buildings in Manhattan.