NASA astronauts prepare for first of five spacewalks
By RIA Novosti
Washington : US astronauts will make the first of five spacewalks from the International Space Station (ISS) Friday, to attach a node to the station brought by the Discovery shuttle, NASA said.
Douglas Wheelock and Scott Parazynski will leave the ISS at 10:28 a.m. GMT. The second spacewalk to be carried out as part of Discovery's trip to the station will involve Parazynski and Daniel Tani.
Pollen-coated bullets will help find criminals
By IANS,
London : British researchers have developed a new coating for gun cartridges with pollen and grit to help identify criminals that use firearms.
The new technique involves coating batches of cartridges with unique "nanotags" that are invisible to the naked eye and designed to attach to hands, gloves and clothing of anyone that handles such a coated cartridge. Some of the tags also remain on the spent cartridge casing.
Effective way found to produce anti-flu vaccines
By IANS,
Washington: A rapid and effective way to produce vaccines against new flu strains has been developed by scientists.
The virus that causes flu frequently changes its genetic code, making it difficult for scientists to think up an effective vaccine.
But now, University of Miami computer scientist Dimitris Papamichail and researchers from Stony Brook University have developed a way to produce shots against new strains.
Google India unveils new desktop maps
Bangalore : Google, the world's largest search engine provider, Thursday unveiled a new tool to search, navigate and explore Indian cities, streets, landmarks, restaurants...
New tool detects impending quake 10 hours earlier
By IANS,
Washington : Seismologists, using ultra sensitive instruments, have detected minute changes that preceded small quakes along California's famed San Andreas fault by as much as 10 hours.
If follow-up tests show that such signal is widespread, then it could be the basis of a robust early warning system for impending quakes, said researchers.
Canadian scientists to launch miniature asteroid tracker
By Xinhua,
Ottawa : A Canadian research team unveiled a plan Monday to launch a mini-satellite that will be able to track the skies day and night, and send back early warning of dangerous asteroids approaching Earth.
Currently, all asteroid tracking is done on earth. The sun blocks astronomers' view and they can study asteroids only at night.
But the Canadian-designed NEOSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) is expected to launch in 2010 and its 15 cm-diameter telescope will do 24-hour tracking from space, Canadian Television reported.
Google unveils social search function
By DPA,
Hamburg : Google is testing a new social search function to make it easier for people find their friends' blogs and twitter feeds.
The only catch is that users of the service need to have an open profile with Google that includes personal contact data.
Once those conditions are met, the user can access the service at the Google Labs. Typing in "New York" will yield a list of friends in the user's social network who have posted items from the Big Apple. Settings can be altered so that only postings from close friends and acquaintances are included in the "social graph."
Car that changed the world – Tin Lizzie turns 100
By Reino Gevers, DPA,
Hamburg : When the Ford Model T went into production in 1908, it marked the beginning of an era when motoring became affordable to the masses and an end to the horse and cart age.
Thousands of enthusiasts the world over are this week celebrating in Richmond, Indiana, the centenary of the car affectionately known as "Tin Lizzie".
It is just one of several events leading up to the Oct 1 anniversary when the first Model T drove off the assembly line.
Goose Technologies launches risk management product
By IANS
Hyderabad : City-based Goose Technologies has introduced Procon, a risk management solution.
Procon enables global enterprises to have real-time visibility and predictability of key performance indicators (KPI) at different levels and function areas.
Goose Technologies founder and CEO Debasish Pattnaik told a news conference here Wednesday that Procon was uniquely designed to offer real-time visibility of KPIs across all levels and also offers aggregation at both organisation and enterprise levels.
Scientists turn back Doomsday Clock
By DPA,
New York : Citing increased international cooperation to curb nuclear weapons and global warming, scientists Thursday moved the so-called Doomsday Clock back by one minute.
The clock was created by nuclear scientists in 1947 to symbolise the world's proximity to planetary catastrophe with midnight signalling the apocalypse. Following Thursday's move the clock now reads six minutes to midnight.
How do bees land on the spot? Indian-origin scientist finds out
By IANS,
Sydney : A study led by a scientist of Indian-origin has decoded the tricky art of landing by honey bees, a finding that can have huge implications in making better robot planes.
An automatic landing system for an aircraft is expensive and complex. And it is just one of many systems that is required to make a truly robotic aircraft. But a bee can take off, find targets, fly through tunnels, navigate home and land without any of that complexity.
Russian carrier rocket Proton puts military satellite into orbit
By Ria Novosty
Moscow : A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket, launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, has put a military satellite into orbit, Russia's space agency (Roskosmos) said on Sunday.
"A Proton-M carrier rocket, which was launched from the Baikonur space center at 03: 16 a.m. Moscow time (00:16 a.m. GMT) today [on Sunday], successfully put a Kosmos satellite into orbit at 12:17 p.m. Moscow time (09:17 a.m. GMT)," Roskosmos said.
Now websites can track your IP address
By IANS,
London: A new online tracking system will allow websites to pinpoint your location to within a few hundred metres, without your permission.
Wireless sensor EcoNet to monitor environment
By IANS,
Toronto : A wireless sensor network under development will not only collect data from remote environmental locations but also help monitor them anywhere in the world.
A University of Alberta research team recently launched EcoNet, a functional model of a wireless sensor network (WSN) for environmental monitoring in the display house at the University's Agriculture/Forestry Centre.
Moser Baer to develop solar power project in Maharashtra
By IANS,
Mumbai : Moser Baer India, with business interest in optical storage media, is developing a 1 MW solar power project in Chandrapur in Maharashtra.
When completed, it will be one of the largest solar projects in the world using the latest thin film technology, the firm said. Thin films improve the efficiency with which solar cells convert sunlight to electricity.
The company won the contract from Mahagenco, a Maharashtra government-owned power utility, on the basis of a global tender that attracted 20 bids.
Scientists tackling Internet’s ‘black holes’
By IANS
Washington : You might have heard of distant black holes swallowing up light or crunching ship-sized objects into tiny teaspoon replicas. But what about black holes in cyberspace, here on earth every day?
At any given moment, a portion of the vast computer traffic disappears into these vast sinks, out of reach or trace. Try logging into the web. It could be a very frustrating experience.
Orbiting ISS crew begins space walk mission
By DPA,
Washington : Two crew members aboard the International Space Station (ISS) began a space walk late Monday to collect science experiments attached to the outside of their orbiting home.
US Commander Mike Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov used the Pirs airlock to leave the space station and begin a six-hour retrieval mission.
Indian-American helps design energy-saving PCs
By IANS,
Washington : Personal computers may soon save large amounts of energy by "sleep talking".
Doctoral researcher Yuvraj Agarwal of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in collaboration with computer scientists has created a plug-and-play hardware prototype for personal computers (PCs) that induces a new energy saving state known as "sleep talking".
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.
Helmet-crested, duck-billed dinosaur discovered
By Xinhua
Beijing : U.S., Mexican and Canadian scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of helmet-crested, duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 7 million years ago.
The composition of its skull -- with a nose on top of its head and elongated nasal passages -- meant its call was probably one of its most unique aspects, said Terry Gates, a Utah Museum of Natural History paleontologist.
Beijing : U.S., Mexican and Canadian scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of helmet-crested, duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 7 million years ago.
The composition of its skull -- with a nose on top of its head and elongated nasal passages -- meant its call was probably one of its most unique aspects, said Terry Gates, a Utah Museum of Natural History paleontologist.
Space technology to identify whale sharks off Gujarat
By Sanjeeb Baruah, IANS,
New Delhi : Indian scientists will try to distinguish individual whale sharks off the Gujarat coast, using a technique employed by NASA to identify galaxies.
Just as each tiger is distinguished by its stripes, whale sharks too can be identified through a unique pattern of spots that form points of numerous triangles on their bodies, say experts.
As the whale shark grows, the distance between these spots increases, but angles of these triangles remain the same, thus identifying the whale shark.
The method is also used by NASA to identify galaxies.
Large Hadron Collider gets research programme cracking
By IANS,
London : Beams collided at seven trillion electron volts in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, as the research programme got underway Tuesday.
The LHC lies in a tunnel 27 km in circumference, as much as 175 metres beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland.
Particle physicists worldwide are looking forward to a potentially rich harvest of new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three-and-a-half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator.
New brick-laying machine makes building roads easier
By IANS,
London: A Dutchman has designed a machine that takes the sweat out of bricklaying and also does it in a jiffy, especially in road building.
Find new mineral deposits with a glass of wine
By IANS
Melbourne : Now mineral deposits of silver, zinc, copper and nickel can be detected through a glass of wine or soft drink, a research conducted by scientists in Australia suggests.
An acid present in the drinks dissolves some of the metals to form a solution, and then the metals can be easily detected in routine laboratory tests, the scientists said.
"In many cases, the comparison of metals extracted using wine and soft drink were superior than those extracted using conventional, and much more expensive, commercial solvents," scientists led by Ryan Noble found.
Chandrayaan-1 was a fantastic success: European scientist
By K.S. Jayaraman, IANS,
Bangalore : Indian media should stop criticising the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for abruptly terminating Chandrayaan-1 and instead applaud the success of its moon mission, a European space scientist has said.
Although its life was cut short, ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 was a "fantastic success", Detlef Koschny, European Chandrayaan-1 project scientist, said in an e-mail interview. Chandrayaan-1 had carried three scientific payloads of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Suven to work with US university for cheap HIV drug
By IANS
Hyderabad : Suven Life Sciences Ltd, a Hyderabad-based life sciences company, has entered into collaboration with the University of Minnesota in the US to develop new and inexpensive therapies to treat HIV-1.
The collaboration also includes the US-based Center for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Translational Research (CIDMTR).
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.
UAE to send first Arab spaceship to Mars
Abu Dhabi : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has entered the space race with a project to send an unmanned probe to Mars by...
New device to help Parkinson’s disease patients
By DPA
Singapore : A portable, battery-powered device has been developed in Singapore to help people suffering from Parkinson's disease regain their walking rhythm, Ngee Ann Polytechnic said Saturday.
Physiotherapists from Singapore General Hospital worked with a team from the school's mechanical engineering department to develop the invention.
Parkinson's disease is a slow, degenerative disease that deprives sufferers of steady movement, leading to jerky small steps or freezing in narrow spaces, the team said. To take the next step, patients need a cue.
India launches spy, education satellites
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh):India's all-weather defence surveillance satellite, radar imaging satellite (RISAT-2), and the micro education satellite Anusat were successfully placed into orbit by an Indian rocket that flew from the spaceport here early Monday morning.
At 6.45 a.m., the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) soared up in the sky, defying gravity with a deep throated growl, with 340 kg of luggage - 300-kg RISAT and 40-kg Anusat.
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.
Vietnam Launches First Satellite
By Prensa Latina
Hanoi : Vietnam will soon launch its first telecommunications satellite from South America, Deputy Director Nguyen Quang Hung of State Vinast Agency's Satellite Information Center informed on Wednesday.
The device arrived today at the Kourou launch base in the French Guiana Overseas Department and will be launched by the European Arianespace consortium at the end of March or early April, to be transferred to the National Post and Telecommunication Agency of Vietnam, indicated Hung.
Device that won’t let motorists fall asleep
By IANS,
London : Scientists have developed a device to prevent motorists from falling asleep -- potentially saving 300,000 people from sudden deaths worldwide.
NASA delays Martian soil gathering due to communication glitch
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA has delayed gathering of Martian soil samples by the Phoenix Mars Lander due to a communication glitch on a satellite.
The NASA Phoenix team was confident to start delivering soil samples to instruments on the Lander's deck on Wednesday, using its robotic arm after two practice rounds of digging and dumping the clumpy soil at the Martian arctic site this week.
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."
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.
WHO: 700 deaths from swine flu recorded
By DPA,
Geneva : The World Health Organisation Tuesday said the death toll from swine flu had risen to 700 globally.
By comparison, seasonal flu, the common variety of influenza which normally hits during the winter months, kills about 500,000 people each year.
An official at the WHO headquarters in Geneva said the organisation did not have a death ratio for the virus and was still compiling data.
The disease was first reported to have broken out in mid-April in North America, which remains the hardest-hit region.
US space shuttle Endeavour lands in California
By Xinhua,
Los Angeles : US space shuttle Endeavour landed in California Sunday afternoon after a 16-day trip, as unfavourable weather conditions in Florida prevented the shuttle from landing in its home base in Cape Canaveral.
Residents across Southern California heard the twin booms around 1.25 p.m. (2125 GMT), when Endeavour broke the sound barrier under the sunny sky as it was gliding into local airspace en route to Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles.
Cutting soot emissions best hope for saving Arctic ice
By IANS,
Washington : Soot from the burning of fossil fuels contributes far more to global warming than has been thought. But, unlike carbon dioxide (CO2), soot lingers only a few weeks in the air, so cutting emissions could have a significant and rapid impact on the climate.
If soot emissions were eliminated, more than 1.5 million premature deaths from soot inhalation could be prevented worldwide each year, reports the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Scientists develop fast, accurate test to detect bio-terror agent
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have developed a simple, accurate and highly sensitive test to detect and quantify ricin, a highly lethal toxin with potential use as a bioterrorism agent.
Ricin, a protein extracted from castor beans, can be in the form of a powder, mist, pellet or solution. When injected or inhaled, as little as one-half mg of ricin is lethal to humans.
Satellite for European navigation system successfully launched
By SPA,
Moscow : Space officials say a Russian rocket has successfully shot an experimental satellite for the EU's planned navigation system into orbit, the Associated Press reported.
Officials say the Giove-B satellite was fired into space from the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan atop a Soyuz rocket.
The Russian and European space agencies say the launch early Sunday was successful.
The Giove-B is the second satellite in the EU's delayed Galileo system. The Galileo is meant to rival the American GPS system. It is scheduled to be operational by 2013.
Critically endangered seabirds unable to find mates
By IANS,
Washington : Alarmed by the probability that one of the world's rarest seabirds might soon be extinct, scientists are creating a protected breeding colony to help them attract females.
The rapidly dwindling species, Magenta Petrel, now has only between eight and 15 breeding pairs. Molecular analysis of the endangered species discovered that 95 percent of non-breeding adults were male, hence unable to attract a mate.
Abu Dhabi to host international IT conference
By IANS/WAM,
Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi will host an international conference on information technology supported by the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Solar, wind energy to provide villagers with hot water
By IRNA-AzerTAj
Baku : The Institute of Radiation Problems of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences has prepared the rural hot water supply system by the use of the solar and wind alternative energy.
By utilizing wind and solar energy in March-October, it is possible to ensure normal temperature conditions of the device and improve environmental sanitation and hygiene for villagers.
Iran ready to send six satellites into space
By IANS,
Tehran : Iran is preparing to launch five to six satellites into the space as part of its aerospace development programme.
"We are currently carrying out a project which will see the design, production and launch of 5 to 6 satellites. We hope to send one satellite into space in the first half of the coming year," Iranian Telecommunications Minister Reza Taqipour said.
"Iran has laid the foundation for the development of its aerospace industry in the past three to four years," Taqipour told Fars News Agency.
Four South Asian countries agree to improve information communication
By TwoCircles.net news desk
New Delhi: Senior officials from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal have agreed to collaborate on a subregional information communication technology (ICT) project to improve connectivity among the four countries.
The agreement by the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) countries was reached at the fourth ICT working group meeting to discuss the proposed SASEC Information Highway Project in New Delhi, India on 8-9 October 2007.
How to avoid e-mail threats
Washington, Feb 14 (DPA) Checking your e-mail has become a dangerous business. The number and types of e-mail borne threats that can cause harm to your computer or your privacy are growing.
Sometimes the actual danger imposed by these threats can be over hyped, but you still need to know what could constitute a dangerous e-mail message and how to respond to the threat.
Q: Can I get a virus just by reading an e-mail message?
Symantec unfolds vision to safeguard digital world
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Mumbai : Symantec Corp, the $5.2-billion leading security and information management solutions provider, Thursday unveiled its vision for securing the digital world and ensuring stakeholders stay connected anywhere, anytime.
Outlining the vision, Symantec India managing director Vishal Dhupar told about 1,000 delegates that securing IT infrastructure from end-to-end had become critical in the digital world, as pervasive technology was not only converging but also connecting everyone through multiple devices and applications.
Move over Orkut, here comes India’s BigAdda
By Azera Rahman, IANS
New Delhi : Check the scribbles in your phone scrapbook, send friend requests on the wireless, have discussions in as many as eight different languages...all on India's social networking site, BigAdda, which could give Orkut and Facebook a run for its money.
With an estimated 1.24 million users so far, this five-month old networking site is fast catching up among Indian youth, especially in tier 2 cities like Guwahati, Nashik, Surat, Tuticorin, Bhilai and Amritsar.
Humans first covered their nakedness 170,000 years ago
By IANS,
Washington : A research suggests that humans first covered their nakedness some 170,000 years ago, something which helped them move out of Africa.
Scientists trigger 52 downpours in Abu Dhabi desert
By IANS,
London : Scientists triggered 52 downpours last year in Abu Dhabi's eastern Al Ain region using technology designed to control weather.
India to set up new science research body
By IANS,
New Delhi : To boost scientific research in India, the government Thursday decided to set up a Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).
After a cabinet meeting Thursday, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters that the contours of advanced basic scientific research are changing extremely fast at the global level and India needs to effectively respond to this reality.
All India Science Conf. concludes in Bhopal with emphasis on promoting traditional scientific knowledge...
By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: Curtain was drawn on the three-day Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan (All India Science Conference) 2007 with 10-point recommendations that emphasized on promoting traditional scientific knowledge along with modern science and increased community participation for balanced and sustainable development here on Sunday.
For Chandrayaan launch, weather gods relented at last moment
By Venkatachari Jagannathan and Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh): Hopes of launching India's first moon mission Chandrayaan-1 were almost given up in the final phase of countdown early Wednesday as the weather gods played truant till the last hours before relenting, a top space official said here.
Russia to launch two European satellites
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia will launch two European satellites Nov 2 from the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia, a report said Tuesday.
The dry run of the launch began early October at the space center as per schedule.
"The launch is scheduled for Nov 2. A deal to launch Rockot with the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) spacecraft [primary payload] and the Proba-2 mini-satellite was concluded between the ESA (European Space Agency) and Eurockot Launch Services GmbH (a joint venture of the Khrunichev center and EADS Astrium)," a Khrunichev center report said.
Microsoft wants to be part of unique identity project: Gates
By IANS,
New Delhi : Terming the unique identity project as a "great initiative", Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates Friday said the software giant wanted to partner with India in the ambitious project that will give a unique identity number to each of its citizens.
"Microsoft wants to be a part of the unique identification project," Gates told a conference organised by the IT industry lobby, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).
Google offers to 3D map Goa
Panaji : Goa may soon be one of the first states in India to have a 3D digitized mapped presence online if the state...
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.
Dolphins surface, rationalists feast during eclipse
By IANS,
Chennai : Joggers on the Chennai beach were surprised to see dolphins swimming and jumping very near the shore early Wednesday, the day of the century's longest eclipse, even as Dravida Kazhagam cadres ate food in public to debunk superstition linked to the celestial event.
As news about the dolphins being close to shore spread, a large number of people gathered on the beach to enjoy seeing them swim.
The sighting of dolphins is being attributed to the solar eclipse and the resultant changes in the sea.
Tube Investments to launch electric scooters
By IANS,
Chennai : Tube Investments of India Ltd, part of the Rs.95.82 billion ($2.3 billion) Murugappa group, inaugurated its new electric scooter plant here Thursday.
Tube Investments manufactures cycles, automotive and industrial chains, car door frames and steel tubes.
"The investment at the plant is around Rs.200 million. We will be launching the product sometime this September," TI Cycles senior vice-president Arun Alagappan told IANS.
TI Cycles is the company's cycle manufacturing division.
The initial capacity of the new plant will be 100 scooters a day.
France to introduce `Google tax’ Jan 1
By DPA,
Paris : France will introduce its so-called "Google tax" on online advertisements Jan 1, parliament decided Tuesday.
Coming soon: self-repairing building materials
By IANS,
Washington : Buildings may be capable of repairing themselves in the future. It sounds like science fiction, but scientists are developing self-repairing polymer materials whereby cracks can be sealed automatically.
The technology being developed has been inspired by the human body's ability to repair minor cuts without any external intervention.
Launch of Mars lander delayed
By DPA
Washington : The planned launch of the Phoenix Mars lander has been pushed back, according to NASA.
Phoenix is now scheduled to be fired into space from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket Saturday at either 5.26.34 a.m. or 6.02.59 a.m.
Poor weather at the space centre kept NASA from fuelling the rocket Tuesday afternoon and led to the decision to delay the launch.
Washington : The planned launch of the Phoenix Mars lander has been pushed back, according to NASA.
Phoenix is now scheduled to be fired into space from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket Saturday at either 5.26.34 a.m. or 6.02.59 a.m.
Poor weather at the space centre kept NASA from fuelling the rocket Tuesday afternoon and led to the decision to delay the launch.
‘No fresh evidence to indicate Bay of Bengal tsunami’
By Avijit Chatterjee, IANS
Kolkata : The Geological Survey of India has allayed fears of a tsunami hitting the Bay of Bengal soon - though the findings of an Australian geologist suggest that a giant undersea earthquake could inundate India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
79,924 panchayats have broadband connections
By IANS,
New Delhi: As many as 79,924 panchayats (village councils) in India had broadband connectivity by February this year, says the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Data on the DoT website shows the numbers have been achieved against the target of providing all 242,279 panchayats with broadband connectivity by May 2012.
With 182.88 million rural subscribers in January, the rural tele-density stood at 22.18 percent.
As many as 564,225 villages had public telephones by January and the number for rural broadband connections stood at 462,168 in February.
India has just two unique IP addresses per 1,000 people
By IANS,
New Delhi : India has only two unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses per 1,000 people. But a just-released study says the country's net penetration could "significantly increase in the coming years", with its economic boom and growing IT adoption.
Every machine that is permanently connected to the Internet has a unique identifying number, called an IP address. A typical IP address looks like this: 59.95.29.46.
Som Mittal stays as Nasscom president till 2014
By IANS,
New Delhi: Som Mittal will continue as president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) for two more years.
Ozone hole just got bigger this year
By IANS,
Washington : The 2008 ozone hole - a thinning in the ozone layer over Antarctica - is larger both in size and ozone loss than 2007.
The ozone layer, 25 km above the earth, filters sunlight, shielding life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays which can increase the risk of skin cancer and cataracts and harm marine life.
In 2007, CSIR has a vision for 2001!
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India's oldest and largest scientific institution, has not just been headless for nine long months, but in 2007, to go by its website, it has a vision for 2001!
The vision document flashing on its website, the institute's global interface, says: "CSIR in 2001 would be a model organisation for scientific industrial research and path setter in the shifting paradigms of self financing research and development (R&D).
What to look for in a photo printer
By DPA,
Washington : the best digital camera on the block, but that won't matter if your prints are no good. The fact is that to get the most out of digital photography, you need to devote as much time to learning about photo printers as you do about digital cameras.
Part of the challenge lies in knowing which photo printer will best suit your needs. Another part is understanding which features that are commonly touted by printer manufacturers really matter.
Have you experienced a vague feeling of familiarity in a new place?
By IANS,
Washington : You might be overcome with a vague yet familiar feeling when you find yourself in an entirely new place.
Somehow you sense that you have been there before, but when and how, you have not the remotest idea. You are also dead sure that it is your first visit. But something is missing and the experience keeps nagging you.
For a long time, this eerie sensation has been attributed to everything from paranormal disturbances to neurological disorders.
India: with newer tech, language users log on to Internet
By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Not familiar with English but still keen to access the Internet and communicate through the medium?
Not a problem, thanks to localisation of the online medium one can access favourite content-related features in various regional languages.
Corporates are now bending over backward to tap the huge regional language section of the online medium with a host of keyboards and software applications designed to cater to the needs of regional language users.
Why India’s $35 computer joke isn’t funny
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
Here we go again! India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has "launched" a $35 computer, evidently a "dream project" of his. The touch-screen, Linux-based device looks iPad-inspired, but we know little about how it works.
It emerged from a student project with a bill of material adding up to $47, a price that the minister wants to bring down to $10 "to take forward inclusive education". It promises browser and PDF reader, wi-fi, 2GB memory, USB, Open Office, and multimedia content viewers and interfaces.
NASA suspends recovery testing of next generation spacecraft
By IANS,
Washington: The US space agency -- NASA -- said Friday it has suspended the recovery testing of a test version of its next...
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.
Desktop search tools make computer use easier
By DPA
Washington : With computers these days, it's all about search and there's a good reason. With mounds upon mounds of data on our hard drives, the primary obstacle we face is finding what we need when we need it.
The irony is that it's almost easier to find information online than it is to find it on our own PCs. Thankfully, that's changing. New tools are going some way toward making our own hard drives as accessible as what we see online.
ISRO to launch more satellites this year
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : After successfully placing five satellites in orbit Monday, India's space agency ISRO said it will launch more satellites this year and efforts were on to put two Indians in space orbit.
"We will launch GSat-5, a communication satellite, using GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket. The other launch will be Resourscesat-2, a remote sensing satellite, using the rocket PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan said here.
Virus of infidelity infects 76 percent of relationships: Study
By IANS,
Washington : Infidelity is widespread with people tending to cheat on their partners very often, which may be as high as 40 to 76 percent, according to a study.
The probability of someone cheating... (is) very high," said Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier, doctoral student at the Université de Montréal's Department of Psychology.
Camera captures comet’s fiery end as it grazes sun
By IANS,
Washington: NASA's solar observatory caught for the very first time on camera a comet's fiery end as it flew too close to the sun's blazing surface.
India tests n-capable Agni-I missile
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: India Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Agni-I missile from a military base in Odisha, a defence official said.
Space shuttle Atlantis docks at ISS
By IANS,
Washington : US space shuttle Atlantis has docked at the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday after nearly two days of journey.
Commander Charles Hobaugh steered the shuttle to a docking with the station at 1651 GMT, Xinhua reported quoting US space agency NASA.
Before the docking, Hobaugh maneuvered Atlantis through a backflip rotation to expose the heat shield to station flight engineers and photographers Jeffrey Williams and Nicole Stott.
Microsoft unveils new Internet search engine
By Xinhua,
San Francisco : Microsoft has unveiled a new search engine named Bing, renewing its efforts to challenge the dominance of Google in the Internet search market.
The company said the new service will begin to roll out over the coming days and will be fully deployed worldwide June 3.
"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Maveric Systems to set up research centre in IIT-Madras
By IANS,
Chennai : City-based Maveric Systems Ltd (MSL), an independent software testing company, will set up a 40-member research centre in the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) Research Park, a top official said here Wednesday.
"The company has set a goal of generating around 30 percent revenue from intellectual property (IP)-based services by 2012. The alliance with IIT-M Research Park will enable us to achieve that goal," MSL executive director V.N. Mahesh told reporters.
Midas touch: scientists discover gold nanoparticles
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists have for the first time discovered gold nanoparticles, setting to rest speculation about whether they existed at all.
Scientists of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said they discovered these particles in western Australia.
“In the southern areas of the state, groundwater is very salty and acidic. This water dissolves primary gold and re-deposits it as pure gold crystals on fracture surfaces and in open pore spaces,” said Rob Hough, who led the search for the nanoparticles.
Is there more oil deep within the earth?
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have found that petroleum can be formed under the very high pressure and temperature conditions found deep within the earth. The finding potentially multiplies underground oil deposits manifold.
The oil and gas that fuel our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the earth and formed without organic matter.
Ignore superstitions, watch solar eclipse with proper gear
By IANS,
New Delhi : As the world looks forward to the millennium's longest annular solar eclipse Friday, there are superstitions galore in India. But science experts have urged people to shed "false beliefs" and watch the celestial spectacle the right way.
"People have various false beliefs regarding solar eclipse. Some think that during eclipse 'bad rays' come to earth and they lock themselves up in their homes to avoid it. This is really rubbish and people should shed such superstitions," Nehru Planetarium director N. Rathnashree told IANS.
Space shuttle Endeavour lands safely after successful mission
By RIA Novosti,
Washington : The US space shuttle Endeavour has made a successful landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California after being forced to abandon plans to land in Florida, US space agency Nasa said.
The shuttle touched down at 4.25 p.m. (2125 GMT) Sunday.
The crew was unable to return to Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the initial landing site, due to weather concerns, Nasa said.
Endeavour will now travel some 2,500 miles from California to Florida on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet within the next seven to 10 days.
3G spectrum auction to begin by October-end
By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Thursday said the auction for allotment of 3G spectrum will begin by October-end, while services will roll out this year.
"Auction of the 3G spectrum will begin by the end of October, and I plan to roll out services by the end of this year," Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja said at a function here.
"Since the availability of spectrum in 3G space for CDMA operators has increased and so has competition, we are allowing more than one operator in this space," he added.
MIT improves fuel cell output 50 percent
By IANS,
Washington : An improved fuel cell, developed by MIT engineers, not only delivers 50 percent greater output, but is also substantially cheaper than older counterparts.
"Our goal is to replace traditional fuel-cell membranes with these cost-effective, highly tunable and better-performing materials," said Paula T. Hammond, who led the research team.
The Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) team focussed on direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), in which the methanol is directly used as the fuel and reforming of alcohol down to hydrogen is not required.
What will you eat on the moon, how will you travel?
By IANS,
Chennai : Can countries engaged in exploration and exploitation of the moon introduce plant and animal life there? The issue is back in focus as India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 gets ready to drop a probe on to the moon's surface.
An explosion 11 billion years ago, billion times brighter than sun
By IANS,
Sydney : The Zadco telescope has recorded a massive gamma ray burst that happened 11 billion years ago, long before our own planet had even been formed. The burst was a billion times brighter than our sun.
"As if seeing one of the biggest explosions in the universe wasn't dramatic enough, we had a catastrophic computer crash on the night," said David Coward, University of Western Australia (UWA) senior research fellow and Zadko Project leader.
Google, HTC and Verizon set to challenge iPad
By DPA,
San Francisco : Google is teaming up with Taiwanese phone-maker HTC and the largest US cellphone carrier Verizon to launch a challenger to Apple's iPad in time for the holiday season, PC World reported Wednesday.
The as-yet-unnamed tablet would run on Google's Chrome operating system, and is likely to be heavily subsidized for buyers who opt to purchase the device along with a monthly data plan from Verizon, the report said.
Microsoft ordered to stop selling Word software by Jan 11
By IANS,
Toronto : Upholding patent-infringement charges by a small Toronto firm agaist Microsoft Tuesday, a US appeals court ordered the software giant to stop selling Word by Jan 11 and pay $290 million in damages.
Microsoft said it will introduce the copies of Word 2007 and Office 2007 without the offending technology by the court-ordered deadline. Tuesday's ruling upholds an earlier injunction against Microsoft that banned the technology giant from selling Word.
VXL Technologies launches safety device for seafarers
By IANS,
Kolkata: To help the seafarers in distress, VXL Technologies has launched a global positioning system (GPS) based search-and-rescue beacon, called Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT), a company official said Thursday.
"By pressing a button of this transmitter, fishermen can save themselves when they are in danger," the company's executive director B.D. Bose told reporters here.
Destruction of wetlands will release massive greenhouse gases
By IANS,
Washington : Destruction of wetlands will release a staggering 771 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, with devastating consequences.
Meeting in Cuiaba at the edge of South America's Pantanal wetland on Monday, 700 experts from 28 nations at the 8th INTECOL International Wetlands Conference will prescribe measures urgently needed to manage these vibrant ecosystems.
Researchers locate ‘lost’ Greek town
By IANS
Washington : Along an isolated, rocky stretch of the Greek shoreline, researchers are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged "lost" harbour town, possibly built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago.
The settlement, referred to as Korphos-Kalamianos, rests on the shores of the Saronic Gulf in the western Aegean Sea about 60 miles to the southwest of the Greek capital, Athens, reports ScienceDaily.
Five more exoplanets found in Milky Way
By DPA,
Washington : NASA scientists said Monday they have identified another five planets orbiting stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.
But none of them appears to be the long sought after Earth-twin that could support life the way the home planet does, Kepler telescope specialists said at a news conference in Washington.
Google Voice: The next killer app?
By Jay Dougherty, DPA,
Washington : Google releases so many products - most of them free - that it's easy to overlook one that's really special. Google Voice qualifies.
Managing Internet Explorer plug-ins
By DPA
Washington : Everyone knows the story: When Internet Explorer (IE) is first installed, it flies. The browser itself opens quickly, and pages load without incident.
But after a while, things start to break down. The browser crashes, freezes, or loads slowly. Sometimes it won't load at all. Typically the blame falls on security holes in IE. But there can be other causes too - plug-ins.
You could ditch IE altogether and move to Mozilla's Firefox, but most Firefox users swear by plug-ins, so there's really no escape from plug-in issues there, either.
Seismicity study was done before selecting Jaitapur: NPCIL
By IANS,
Mumbai: The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Tuesday asserted that it had conducted comprehensive seismicity study before selecting Jaitapur for a nuclear power plant.
Memory chip of future promises massive storage capacity
By IANS,
New York : A hardy, heat-resistant, graphite-based memory device holds the potential of making massive amounts of storage available for computers, handheld media players, cell phones and cameras.
Rice University researchers, who are currently developing the device, said the solid-state device takes advantage of the conducting properties of graphene and would have many advantages over today's state-of-the-art flash memory and other new technologies.
21,000 respond to teen’s party invite on Facebook
By IANS,
London : A teenager in Britain set up a Facebook group for his birthday party, but was left stunned when 21,000 people confirmed themselves as guests.
US commercial cargo capsule launched to space station
By IANS,
Washington : An unmanned rocket carrying the Dragon cargo capsule blasted off Friday to deliver the second commercial shipment to the International Space Station.
ISS austronauts contacted from ancient Incan city
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Buenos Aires : The ancient Incan civilisation city of Machu Picchu in Peru made history Thursday when a radio contact was established from there with the Intetrnational Space Station (ISS).
The Russian and Peruvian delegations talked with the ISS crew for 10 minutes Thursday.
The conversation was made in three languages -- Russian, Spanish and the Peru Indian language of Quechua. ISS Commander Alexander Skvortsov said it was the first time Quechua had ever been heard on the ISS.
Quechua is spoken by some 10 million native South American Indians.
Smartphone games a hit in Tokyo
By IANS,
Tokyo: Social networking games installed on smartphones are the rage at a game show in Tokyo.
‘Helicopter parenting’, bonding issues: New challenges for urban Indian parents
By Sahana Ghosh
Kolkata : Hollywood's latest animation offering "Inside Out" has struck a chord with parents globally. Parallels with modern parenting...
Swiss solar plane makes first flight
By DPA,
Geneva : A solar-powered airplane took off on its first major test flight Wednesday morning, from an airfield in western Switzerland.
The flight of the plane, named Solar Impulse, comes ahead of plans to use a similar solar-powered plane to fly around the world in 2012.
"We want to demonstrate what can be achieved with renewable energy," Bertrand Piccard, the man behind the project, was quoted by the Swiss ATS news agency as saying.
The plane has the wing span of an Airbus A340, the weight of an average car, and is powered by some 12,000 solar cells.
Seminar on Scientific Arbitration in offing
By SPA
Riyadh : The Riyadh-based Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic university will organize on Zil-Hajjah 28-29, 1428 AH, a seminar on the scientific arbitration with the participation of a number of researchers and arbitrators from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and abroad in addition to a number of heads of the scientific councils at the academic and research institutions and editors-in-chief of scientific magazines in some Arab and foreign countries.
First Japanese mother to travel into space in 2010
By DPA,
Tokyo : Naoko Yamazaki was selected to become the first mother and the second Japanese woman to travel into space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Tuesday.
Yamazaki, 37, was chosen to board the US space shuttle Atlantis on a planned two-week mission in February 2010 to transport components to add on to the International Space Station, where Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi is to stay for six months starting around November next year.
Cell phones will now display lifelike 3-D images, animations
By IANS,
Washington : If texting, talking, e-mailing and snapping pictures on cell phones leaves you craving for more, you can now access or even display 3-D virtual reality simulations and animations on your device.
By merging communication architecture with optics, researchers have created a new approach based on outsourcing to servers all the heavy number crunching required by computer animations and virtual reality simulations.
Software generates faces that display moods, emotions
By IANS,
Washington : A computer model developed by researchers can generate faces that display emotions and moods according to personality traits.
"The aim of this work has been to design a model that reveals a person's moods and displays them on a virtual face," said a co-author of the study, Diana Arellano from University of Balearic Islands (UIB) Artificial Intelligence Unit.
"In the same 3-D space we have integrated personality, emotions and moods, which had previously been dealt with separately," Arellano explained.
Two more carriers offer pan-India number portability
New Delhi: Two more service providers will provide pan-India mobile number portability from Friday, enabling customers to retain their mobile phone number while relocating...
Kepler orbiting Sun as scheduled: NASA
By Xinhua,
Los Angeles : Kepler, a telescope that will scour the Milky Way for evidence of Earth-like planets, is orbiting the Sun as expected, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said Saturday.
Aboard a three-stage Delta 2 rocket, the Kepler telescope blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida around 7:50 p.m. Friday and successfully reached its orbit about an hour later.
‘Chances of asteroid hitting earth is very real’
By IANS,
London : A football field sized asteroid hitting say New York will obliterate the city in a matter of seconds and all that moves within it.
The tidal waves of energy unleashed by the collision would be equivalent to several Hydrogen bombs going off at once, a scenario brought to life by 1998 hit movie Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis.
The chances of an asteroid hitting the Earth one day are very real and blowing up an asteroid in real life, says a Tel Aviv University (TAU) researcher, will be more complicated than in the movies.
Electrotherm launches new e-bike
By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Engineering firm Electrotherm, which manufactures the electric bike YO Byke, Tuesday launched another battery-operated two-wheeler, the Yoelectron.
Addressing the media at the launch, Electrotherm chairman and managing director Mukesh Bhandari said the success of its YOSmart in the 250W category goaded the company to come out with another premium model.
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.
Researchers crack key HIV riddle after decades
By IANS,
London : Researchers have cracked a key riddle that has foxed scientists for decades, potentially opening the way to better treatment of HIV, says a new study.
Imperial College London and Harvard University researchers have grown a crystal that reveals the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in retroviruses like HIV.
When HIV infects someone, it uses integrase to paste a copy of its genetic information into their DNA.
Grazing cattle have magnetic sense of direction
By Ernest Gill, DPA,
Hamburg (Germany) : Grazing cows tend to face the North and South Poles, according to German scientists who studied 308 herds using Google Earth satellite photos.
The Boreal bovine orientation suggests that they, like migratory birds, sea turtles and monarch butterflies, tune into the Earth's magnetic fields, says Hynek Burda, a biologist at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
Access to indiscreet Facebook updates a click away
By IANS,
London : Indiscreet updates posted by the users of social networking website Facebook for their small group of friends can now be read by anyone with the help of a new internet search engine.
The search engine Openbook scans all "public" updates left by members of the social networking site, making them available to anyone through internet.
The software has been created to highlight Facebook's complex privacy settings, which have been blamed for confusing users into disclosing personal information more than they intend.
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.
New virus test technology experimented
By Xinhua
Hangzhou (China) : A new diagnostic technology to detect epidemic diseases has entered the phase of clinical experiments, claimed a Chinese scientist.
Different from traditional methods that rely on antigen or antibody test, the new technology is based on genetic substances of the viruses, namely DNA or RNA, to confirm epidemic diseases such as hepatitis or AIDS, said Charlie Xiang, chief scientist of the Microarray Centre of US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Internet highly vulnerable to phishing attacks
By IANS,
London : You are browsing a particular website thinking that it is perfectly secure, but it may not be the case as experts have uncovered chinks in Internet security.
For instance, a weakness in the Internet digital certificate infrastructure allows attackers to forge certificates completely trusted by all commonly used web browsers.
Consequently, it is possible to impersonate secure websites and email servers and to perform virtually undetectable phishing attacks, implying that secure websites are porous and unsafe.
Spot five planets in night sky this week
By IANS,
New Delhi : Sky gazers are up for a treat this week as five planets of our solar system will be visible in the night sky for the next few days.
According to scientists, four planets - Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn - will be visible in the evenings while Jupiter can be seen in the morning.
"Mercury, which is always hidden in sun's glare would be visible up to April 10 whereas other four planets can be spotted for many months to come," said N. Sri Raghunandan Kumar, general secretary of Planetary Society of India.
Successful 3G bidders eligible for 2G spectrum space: DoT
By IANS,
New Delhi : Successful bidders for spectrum allocation for third generation (3G) telecom services will also be eligible for second generation (2G) spectrum space, the government said here Tuesday.
“Successful 3G bidders will be eligible for acquiring second generation (2G) spectrum as well,” Member (Finance) of Telecom Commission R. Ashok said at a conference ahead of the 3G auctions.
However, 2G-spectrum allocation will be subject to availability and operators will have to wait in queue, he said.
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.
Russia launches navigation satellite
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Plesetsk (Russia) : Russia Monday launched a navigation satellite from its Plesetsk Space Centre, Space Forces spokesman Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.
Tech really goes mobile as carmakers look for edge
By DPA
Las Vegas : Advances in digital technology are set to transform the automotive world, making cars safer, more efficient and more fun to drive, GM chairman Rick Wagoner has said.
From voice activated control and entertainment systems, to new power systems and even cars that drive themselves, Wagoner's speech at the Consumer Electronics World, the world's largest technology fair, signified how fast cars are integrating electronic gadgets.
World’s smallest silicon sensor to monitor environs
By IANS,
London : Researchers are fabricating the world's smallest silicon sensor that will be extremely powerful and yet consume very little power.
The sensor, with applications in bio-sensing and ecological monitoring, is being developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.
“Power consumption is a big issue at the moment as devices use current whether they are switched off and on,” said Hiroshi Mizuta, project head.
A mobile-based security system for BPO employees
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : Even as the rape and murder of a Pune call centre employee by her cab driver is fresh on everyone's mind, a software analyst has developed a mobile phone-based system that may provide better protection to BPO staff in transit.
"After two cases of rape and murder of female call centre employees, BPO firms have an uphill task so far as security is concerned. And here comes our system - simple and effective," said Chennai-based V.M. Sankaran Nampoothiri.
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.
Google encrypts all emails for a spy-free Gmail
Washington: In a bid to stop snooping on its users, Google has overhauled its Gmail service in a big way - encrypting every single...
Google comes to the aid of Yahoo!
By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Google Inc has joined the Internet war by offering its help in any effort to thwart its chief rival Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo!, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt called Yahoo! Inc. CEO Jerry Yang to offer his company's help as Yahoo! assessed its options for responding to Microsoft's aggressive "bear hug" bid, which has sent aftershocks through the media and technology industries.
Hanover Fair highlights Japanese robots and sumo
By Yuriko Wahl, DPA,
Hanover (Germany) : Innovations from Japan, including robots and a virtual power station, are to have pride of place at the Hanover Fair in Germany next week alongside sumo wrestlers and traditional taiko drummers.
The April 21-25 fair has appointed high-tech Japan this year as partner nation. The annual fair, with 5,100 companies from 62 nations exhibiting, is a major venue for showing heavy industrial equipment.
China launches new space tracking ship to serve Shenzhou VII
By Xinhua
Shanghai : China launched a new space tracking ship on Saturday, expected to serve the Shenzhou VII spacewalk mission scheduled for autumn, said a spokesman of the maritime space surveying and controlling operation.
The new space tracking ship was the sister ship of the Yuanwang-5, which was put into use in September, said the spokesman, adding the two vessels would play a key role in the Shenzhou VII mission.
Chandrayaan-1 in lunar orbit after successful manoeuvre
By NNN-PTI,
Bangalore, India : India's first unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 entered the lunar orbit on Saturday after ISRO scientists successfully carried out a highly complex and tricky manoeuvre crossing another historic milestone in the country's space programme.
ISRO scientists at the Mission Control Centre near here fired the spacecraft's liquid engine at 1651 hours for a duration of 817 seconds in a hit or miss Lunar Orbit Insertion(LOI) operation in the maiden moon mission, 18 days after it was launched from Sriharikota spaceport.
NDA okayed Rs.1,60,000 crore proposals to modernise forces: Parrikar
New Delhi : The NDA government has sanctioned acquisition proposals worth over Rs.1,60,000 crore for modernisation of the armed forces since coming to power,...
Yahoo to take time evaluating Microsoft offer
By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Yahoo Inc says it's "going to take time" to thoroughly evaluate Microsoft Corp's unsolicited $45 billion offer keeping in mind its strategic options, including keeping the company independent.
It was undertaking a deliberate review of Microsoft's offer to pay Yahoo shareholders either $31 in cash, or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock, Yahoo said in a media release posted on the company Web site.
Technologies that don’t disappoint
By Jay Dougherty, DPA
Washington : Some technology products can really improve your life, allowing you to work more productively or accomplish tasks that you couldn't before. Others just promise to fall into that category but ultimately lead you to question why you bothered.
The challenge for buyers, of course, is discerning the must-haves from the rest. While all new technologies these days vie for your attention, there are a few out there now that truly deserves it. Here's a rundown.
India discovers 67 animal species, 29 plant species
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS,
New Delhi : Indian scientists have discovered 67 new animal species, including fishes, spiders and crop eating insects, and 29 plant species, including grass and flower varieties, last year.
"All these discoveries were made in 2007 and they are vital additions to the plant and animal science of India and the world," Ramakrishna, director of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), told IANS Thursday.