Technology Day should be a day for young people: Kalam
By IANS,
New Delhi: Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Tuesday said Technology Day, celebrated every year since 1999, should be a day for young people who can be inspired to take science as a career.
Speaking at a function to mark the occasion, Kalam said technology was important for the economic development of the country and building a better nation.
"Technology Day should be a day of young people. They should be called at functions like this as it will help them choose a career in science," he added.
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".
Swiss glaciers melting slower now than in 1940s!
By IANS,
London : Contrary to popular perception that glaciers are melting faster the world over due to global warming, a new study says that Swiss glaciers were melting even faster in the 1940s when temperatures were lower.
Significantly, ETH Zurich researchers attribute the melting of glaciers in the 1940s to a lower level of aerosol - a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas - pollution in the atmosphere.
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.
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,...
DNA test on yeti hair found in India
By IANS,
London : Scientists propose to conduct DNA tests on some hair said to belong to the mythical yeti. Apparently the hair was collected by a yeti believer in a dense jungle in northeastern India.
Initial tests on the hair carried out by Oxford Brookes University showed they did not match any of the known animals. University officials said they could belong to an as yet unidentified species of animal that many swear to have seen in the Himalayas or in the northeastern forests.
Dinosaur dance floor! Really?
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists who hiked recently to the northern Arizona wilderness site touted as a "dinosaur dance floor" found no sign of the extinct creatures but plenty of eroded potholes.
They saw dinosaur tracks en route, but none in the pockmarked "dance floor".
One of them, paleontologist Brent Breithaupt, director and curator of the University of Wyoming's Geological Museum, said "there simply are no tracks or real track-like features at this site. We will be investigating the formation of these features in the upcoming study."
Russian manned spaceship blasts off to ISS
By Xinhua
Moscow : A Russian spaceship with a first South Korean female astronaut along with two Russian cosmonauts onboard blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, the mission control outside Moscow said.
The Soyuz TMA-12 lifted off from the space center in the barren steppes of northern Kazakhstan at 15:16 Moscow time (1116 GMT) and is going to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on 17:00 Moscow time (1300 GMT) Thursday.
Instant Messaging cuts workplace interruptions: Study
By IANS,
Washington : Instant messaging could be a way to reduce interruptions at the workplace, rather than cause them, as is popularly believed.
A new study has found that instant messaging, or IM, is now being often used as a substitute for more disruptive forms of communication like the telephone, e-mail and personal chats.
This finding flies in the face of earlier research which concluded that IM - along with phones and e-mail - was the cause of increased interruptions at work and resulted in reduced output.
Research team to explore hydrothermal vent in deep seas
By IANS,
Washington : A research team has embarked on deep sea exploration to study hydrothermal vents.
The team, which will be conducting research on scalding heat, high pressure, toxic chemicals and total darkness, is part of the National Science Foundation-funded "Extreme 2008: A Deep-Sea Adventure."
The scientists are being joined by students from around the world who have signed up for an exciting virtual field trip.
More than 20,000 students from 350 schools in the United States, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Great Britain and New Zealand are participating.
Nine win funding for rural innovation projects
By IANS
Chennai : The Rural Innovation Fund (RIF), promoted by Microsoft India among others, has selected nine innovators, who will receive $15,000 (Rs.590,000) each to implement their projects to empower rural India.
Microsoft India has established a RIF corpus of $200,000 to encourage innovations that will benefit rural India.
Tackling global warming tougher than thought earlier: study
By IANS
Washington : Reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions that are leading to climate change is going to be a lot more challenging than society has been led to believe, according to a new study.
The challenges of reducing emissions of carbon dioxide - the main greenhouse gas - have been significantly underestimated by the UN appointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the study has contended.
It says the IPCC is overly optimistic in assuming that new technologies will result in dramatic reductions in the growth of future emissions.
Endeavour returns to Earth after 17-day mission
By DPA,
Washington: The space shuttle Endeavour landed at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Friday carrying a seven-member crew of US, Canadian and Japanese astronauts.
The landing at 1448 GMT marked the end of the 17-day mission that saw the completion of the Japanese laboratory on the International Space Station (ISS).
The Endeavour brought an external platform to the station that was installed on the Japanese Kibo laboratory during the first of the mission's five spacewalks. The porch will expose experiments to the extremities of space.
Space shuttle Endeavour launch postponed again
By DPA,
Washington : US space agency NASA Wednesday postponed the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour after technicians detected a hydrogen gas leak during fuelling just hours before scheduled lift-off.
The shuttle's launch had been set for 5.40 a.m. (0940 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida for a 16-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It was to carry the final pieces to the Japanese Kibo module of the ISS.
The aborted launch followed a four-day delay caused by a similar leak of the potentially hazardous gas from an external fuel tank.
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?
Earth can recover faster from CO2 emissions
By IANS,
Washington : Cheer up -- the earth may yet be able to recover faster from rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than previously thought.
Endeavour shuttle roars back to Earth
By IANS
For minutes after the precisely timed landing, fire spewed from the spacecraft's engines - a standard phenomenon that often goes unremarked by ordinary viewers during the more common daylight landings.
The shuttle landed at 0039 GMT Thursday.
A crewmember called the mission "rewarding and exciting from start to ending", according to the audio transmission from the landing monitored in Washington.
Mission Ulysses to study sun nearing its end
By IANS
New York : The long-running Ulysses mission, which was launched to study the sun's poles and its influence on surrounding space, is coming to an end.
After more than 17 years in space - almost four times its expected lifetime - the mission is finally running out of power and is likely to finish sometime in the next month or two, a release by the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
A joint mission by ESA and NASA, Ulysses was launched in 1990 from a space shuttle. The data it sent has forever changed the way scientists view the sun and its effect on the space surrounding it.
Scientists hope for a clear sky on solar eclipse
By IANS,
New Delhi : Sky gazers are looking forward to watching the partial solar eclipse Friday even as scientists fear the weather may play spoilsport.
"The southern parts of the country will see between 20-40 percent of the diameter of the sun eclipsed, while the northern parts of the country will see between 40-70 percent of the diameter of the sun eclipsed," N. Rathnashree, Nehru Planetarium director, told IANS Thursday.
In Delhi, the eclipse begins at 4.03 p.m. and ends at 5.56 p.m. The eclipse peaks at 5:02 p.m. when the sun is eclipsed by about 62.4 percent in diameter.
Future refrigerators to run on heat, not electricity
By DPA
Hamburg : The refrigerator of the future will run on heat, not costly electricity, according to a team of innovative scientists in Germany.
The research could be a boon in hot countries where fridges and air-conditioning systems are vital, said the group of young scientists, who are working on at the Innovationszentrum Wiesenbusch Gladbeck (IWG), in cooperation with the University of Applied Science in nearby Gelsenkirchen.
Samsung launches Galaxy Note 800 in India
By IANS,
New Delhi: Samsung Electronics Friday launched a new tablet, Galaxy Note 800, in the Indian market expanding its product portfolio.
Microsoft announces Vista successor
By DPA,
Washington : The next version of the Windows operating system will likely arrive in early 2010, officials at Microsoft has said.
The most important change to the software, currently dubbed Windows 7, will be its multi-touch technology. Customers will be able to use their fingers to perform tasks such as moving documents or displaying photos right on the touch-ready display.
Windows 7 is based on Windows Vista, Microsoft's current operating system.
It should therefore run on the same hardware recommended for Vista.
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.
Milkweed plant evolves new defences to outwit caterpillars
By IANS,
Washington : Some plants are discarding elaborate defences against predatory caterpillars and evolving more favourable stratagems to ensure survival, according to a study.
The latest example is the milkweed plant, which, according to genetic analysis, instead of resisting predators, is now putting greater efforts into repairing themselves faster than their foe monarch butterfly caterpillar can eat them.
Indian-origin engineers create device for faster wireless technology
Washington: Using an inexpensive Rs.3,600 inkjet printer, two Indian-origin electrical engineers at the University of Utah have for the first time produced microscopic structures...
Space exploration gains pace in China
By Andrei Kislyakov, RIA Novosti,
Moscow : China is going to play a major role in the global space exploration programme. Soon, a new centre for space research may emerge in the eastern hemisphere and push the current players aside.
China's achievements in science and technology, as well as its consolidation of space programmes in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, which have a tremendous economic potential, will contribute to its development.
Indian satellite data can be helpful for UAE, Gulf: Kasturirangan
By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS,
Dubai : Data received from Indian satellites can prove to be very useful to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in its infrastructure development work, according to K. Kasturirangan, former chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) K. Kasturirangan.
"The data received from our constellation of satellites have a lot of relevance for the UAE and also for this region as a whole," Kasturirangan, who was here to attend a conference on e-governance in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), told IANS in an interview here.
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.
Defence products major draw at science expo
By IANS
Visakhapatnam : New technologies and products displayed by various defence organisations in the science exposition here have been a major draw for delegates participating in the 95th Indian Science Congress.
Being held as part of the five-day annual event in the sprawling Andhra University campus in this scenic port city, the exhibition, christened Bharat Expo, showcases developments and achievements made by scientific institutions, state-run organisations and private enterprises, using science and technology.
Astronauts go on spacewalk to attach arms to Canadian robot
By RIA Novosti
Washington : U.S. Endeavour space shuttle astronauts completed their second spacewalk to attach a pair of arms to a Canadian-built robot designed for maintenance of the international space station (ISS), NASA said Sunday.
Mission specialists Richard Linnehan and Michael Foreman completed their spacewalk in a little over seven hours at 2:57 a.m. EDT (06:57 GMT) on Sunday. The current shuttle mission STS-123 is the longest to the ISS and will involve a record five spacewalks.
Scientists develop brightest ever x-ray source
By IANS,
Washington : The x-ray has just got 100 million times brighter, thanks to next-generation light sources like free electron laser oscillator - or the X-FELO.
X-FELO will open up breakthrough scientific opportunities in various research fields. Its characteristics are ideally suited for bulk-sensitive, hard x-ray photo-emission spectroscopy.
Existing technology uses undulators to create bright x-ray beams of spontaneous emission at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne.
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.
Huge asteroid flies past Earth
By Xinhua,
Washington : An asteroid as big as a 10-storeyed building flew past Earth Tuesday, the US space website has said.
The space rock was perhaps a bit larger than one thought to have created a colossal explosion in the air above Siberia in 1908 that flattened 500,000 acres (2,000 square km) of forest.
Asteroid 2009 DD45 was closest to Earth Tuesday at about 8.40 a.m. It was some 72,000 km away, which is twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite.
India acquires capability to fire missiles from under water
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the country's premier military research organisation, Monday said it had successfully acquired the technology to launch missiles from the ocean depths, becoming the world's fifth country to do so.
The acknowledgement came when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave away the performance excellence award 2007 to A.K Chakrabarti, under whose leadership a team of 86 scientists achieved the success under this project called K-15.
Online applications can lead to first job
By Rebecca Mueller, DPA,
Stuttgart : Applying for a job used to be expensive what with the costs of printing CVs, buying special binders and then the costs of posting it. The first step into professional life quickly proved expensive and time-consuming.
Nowadays, the Internet has the process simpler. Job applicants can scan job openings quickly and efficiently online and contact potential employers by e-mail. Nonetheless, online applications have their own risks for people just starting their career.
Study: Jupiter’s faint rings are dust and shadow
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Magicians use smoke and mirrors to create mystery, whereas Jupiter uses dust and shadow to conceal the mystery of its faint rings.
Jupiter's rings are now known to be made mostly of dark dust. They were discovered in 1979 by Voyager 1. Not until the Galileo spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, did scientists realize the rings were made of dust dispersed by meteoroids slamming into Jupiter's inner moons.
Soon, solar-powered camera straps to charge batteries
By IANS,
London: Photographers will soon be able to charge their camera batteries with the rays of the sun.
A team of Chinese researchers are developing solar panels to straps that would make the charging easy. Inventor Weng Jie’s idea, of which a prototype may be ready in months, could spell the end of wall-socket charging, reports dailymail.co.uk.
But there is a downside: In case there is not enough sunlight, regular batteries can not be used as a substitute.
Why child-bearing women ‘loathe’ beautiful women?
By IANS,
London : We appreciate beautiful women, but they tend to trigger envy and dislike in other women of childbearing age.
A survey of 97 middle-aged women rated such beauties way below their menopausal counterparts, looks-wise, which Aberdeen University psychologist Benedict Jones said was like putting them down.
Researchers turned their attention to examining how fertility triggered competition within sexes for potential partners, informed Jones, who led the study.
Black buck gives birth after artificial insemination
By IANS
Hyderabad : For the first time in the world, scientists here have succeeded in artificial insemination of a black buck by non-invasive method, leading to the birth of a live fawn.
Scientists at the Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) of the prestigious Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CCMB) here are excited about their success.
Mystery of self-destructing rockets solved
By IANS
Washington : The racket that rockets make may be causing them to self-destruct, according to a new study that seeks to explain a phenomenon that has puzzled engineers and scientists for years.
One reason the inexplicable destruction of rocket engines remained a mystery was because scientists were unable to replicate or investigate the problem under controlled lab conditions.
They, however, believed that powerful and unstable sound waves, created by the combustion process, caused failures in several US and Russian rockets.
Astronomers find nearby baby black hole
By DPA,
Washington : Scientists have identified a young black hole formed from an exploding star witnessed 30 years ago.
Cars still drive China’s development-first strategy
By DPA
Beijing : Giant power plants belching out clouds of filthy coal smoke often spring to mind when people mention China's worsening air quality. But the exponential growth of the car industry over the past 10 years has also added enormously to the noxious mix of pollutants swirling across urban centres.
As hundreds of new vehicles take to China's roads every day, the government is left in something of a bind between enforcing new environmental policies and its long-term development of the economically vital auto industry.
Spanish discovery sheds light on early humans in Europe
By Sinikka Tarvainen, DPA
Madrid : More than a million years ago, a group of early humans lived in a cave in a lush green area in northern Spain, making stone tools and eating small herbivores and other animals.
Their presence in what is now the fossil site of Atapuerca near Burgos has become known thanks to the discovery of a lower jawbone with teeth, lithic tools and animal remains.
Scientists find 635-million-year-old animal fossils
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists may have discovered the oldest ever fossils of animal bodies, primitive sponge like creatures that lived in ocean reefs about 635 million years ago.
The shelly fossils, found beneath a glacial deposit in south Australia, represent the earliest evidence of animal body forms in the current record, predating other evidence by at least 70 million years.
Scientists identify conservation’s future battlegrounds
By IANS
New York : Scientists have developed a series of global maps that show where projected habitat loss and climate change are expected to drive the need for future reserves to prevent biodiversity loss.
The study found that many regions that face the greatest habitat change are in globally threatened and species-rich developing tropical nations that have the fewest resources for conservation, Sciencedaily reported.
Google teams with Intel, Sony on new TV platform
By DPA,
San Francisco : Tired of flipping through hundreds of cable channels to find something to watch? Google may be able to help you.
The web search giant has teamed up with Intel, Sony and Logitech to develop a new television platform that the company hopes will extend its dominance from computers and cellphones to televisions, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
MIT edges closer to making fusion power real
By IANS,
Washington : The prospect of fusion as a future power source is still decades away, but MIT scientists have edged closer to making it a reality.
Fusion has enormous potential because it produces no emissions, fuel sources are abundant and it produces relatively little (and short-lived) radioactive waste. But it still faces great hurdles.
"There's been a lot of progress," said physicist Earl Marmar, division head of the Alcator Project at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Centre (PSFC). "We're learning a lot more about the details of how these things work."
Shuttle Discovery returns safely to Earth
By DPA,
Washington : The space shuttle Discovery landed safely at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Saturday.
Commander Lee Archambault guided the shuttle to a picture-perfect landing at 1914 GMT, ending the shuttle's 13-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
"Welcome home after a mission to bring the ISS to full power," the NASA ground crew said, adding a special welcome to astronaut Sandra Magnus, who returned to Earth after spending 129 days living aboard the ISS.
"Thank you very much. It's good to be back home," Archambault replied.
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.
India to launch satellite for measuring greenhouse gas emissions
By IANS,
New Delhi : India will launch a dedicated satellite by 2012 for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and aerosols, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said Tuesday.
"India needs to have an aggressive domestic method to check emissions as this will benefit us while negotiating at the international forum. We are planning to launch a satellite to study GHG emissions," Ramesh told reporters.
India is also planning to launch a satellite by 2013 for assessment of forest cover in the country.
Universal Cable, Furukawa Electric join hands
By IANS,
Kolkata, April 21 (IANS) Power cable manufacturer Universal, an M.P. Birla group company, has signed a pact with the Japan-based Furukawa Electric for manufacturing and marketing optical fibre in India.
"By combining the pre-eminent position of the M.P. Birla Group in optical fibre and cable business in India, with significant experience and technical expertise of Furukawa, we will bring our customers a strong product," D.R. Bansal, Chief Mentor and chief executive officer of UCL said in a statement here Tuesday.
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.
New species discovered in Atlantic Ocean
By IANS,
London : In a major breakthrough, scientists have found over 10 new species under the Atlantic Ocean, including creatures close to the missing evolutionary link between backboned and invertebrate animals.
The bizarre creatures, oddly-shaped, brightly-coloured or even transparent, that scientists have uncovered during a new study has "revolutionised" thinking about deep-sea life.
Scientists believe they have discovered more than 10 new marine species by using the latest diving technology, Daily Mail reported.
With Indian-built satellite, Ariane set for lift-off from Kourou
By Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Bangalore : The countdown has begun for the launch of Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, South America, early Sunday, carrying the Indian-built European satellite W2M along with Eutelsat's Hot Bird 9 satellite for broadcasting services, a top space official said here Saturday.
The 3,462-kg W2M was designed and built at the satellite centre of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bangalore at $80 million (Rs.4 billion) for the European satellite operator (Eutelsat) under the ISRO-EADS-Astrium alliance formed in 2006.
NASA mission to help unravel climate mysteries
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide is in final preparation for a Feb 23 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Carbon dioxide is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's climate.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) will provide the first complete picture of human and natural carbon dioxide sources as well as their "sinks", the places where carbon dioxide is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored.
Marine organism bypasses photosynthesis for survival
By IANS
Washington : Some marine organisms are able to get much of their energy bypassing photosynthesis - the most vital biological process on earth, responsible for all our food.
Two recent studies by Carnegie Institution scientists suggest that these micro-organisms neither release oxygen nor take in carbon dioxide.
If true, this discovery impacts not only our basic understanding of photosynthesis, but also how micro-organisms in oceans affect rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, Sciencedaily reported.
Global warming will push up sea level
By IANS,
Amsterdam : Sea levels worldwide are expected to rise by several metres in the coming centuries if global warming continues unabated.
University students win robotic car race
New York, Nov 5 (IANS) A robotic car built by university students won a $2 million US military-sponsored race in California, it was announced Sunday.
Backed by General Motors (GM), a team called Tartan Racing -- formed by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- built the robotic car nicknamed 'Boss'. It won Saturday by covering a distance of about 85 km in less then six hours on a simulated town created on a disused US Air Force base in Victorville, California.
Do animals think like autistic savants?
By IANS
New York : Animal scientist Temple Grandin's argument that animals and autistic savants share cognitive similarities could spur a better understanding of autism.
Grandin had put forth the idea in her best-selling 2005 book "Animals in Translation", which provides an unprecedented look at the autistic mind, according to an essay in the latest edition of the journal PloS Biology.
Grandin said animals, like autistic humans, sense and respond to stimuli overlooked by 'normal' humans.
China to launch its second lunar probe this year
By IANS,
Beijing : China will launch its second lunar exploration mission this year to test key landing technologies as well as take high-resolution images of the landing area, China Daily reported Tuesday.
"China should not slow down its pace of lunar exploration even if other countries change their plans," said Ye Peijian, chief designer of the nation's first lunar probe Chang'e-1.
The country plans to launch its second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, in the latter half of this year as well as send a lunar lander and rover by 2013.
Communication malfunction delays Phoenix Mars lander digging
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Phoenix lander's first scoop of the Martian soil was delayed Wednesday as a result of a communication malfunction on a spacecraft that relayed commands from Earth to Mars, according to media reports Thursday.
The orbiting Odyssey satellite failed to send instructions to the lander to dig into the permafrost to search for evidence of life, said Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
China launches third resource satellite with Brazil
By Xinhua
Taiyuan (China) : China launched the third earth resources satellite jointly developed with Brazil Wednesday with the two nations pledging to develop two more satellites in future.
The satellite, named 02B, was launched on a Chinese Long March-4B carrier rocket, which blasted off at 11.26 a.m. from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi province.
The satellite separated from the rocket 12 minutes after lift-off, entering its preset sun-synchronous orbit, at a perigee of 738 km and an apogee of 750 km.
World’s smallest atomic clock in matchbox size
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have created an amazing, matchbook-sized atomic clock 100 times smaller than commercial versions with both military and commercial applications.
States to have scientific innovation councils: Sibal
By IANS,
New Delhi : Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal Monday asked state governments to set up scientific innovation councils within a month and promised to set up seven top-class research institutes in states that did not have them.
“The states should take the initiative in promoting science, and we appeal to all states to set up scientific innovation councils modelled after the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),” Sibal said after a science minister's conference here.
Insat-4CR launch delayed by two hours
By IANS
Sriharikota : The launch of India's latest communication satellite Insat-4CR has been rescheduled by two hours to 6.10 p.m. after three delays caused by a technical hitch 15 seconds before the scheduled blast-off.
The satellite was to be launched at 4.21 p.m. by the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV-F04 and was initially put off by 50 minutes.
It was then pushed back to 5.40 p.m. and again.10 p.m. as scientists worked furiously to get over the technical glitch that had arisen, an official here said, without specifying what the problem was.
A year of tweets, smartphones and green tech
By Andy Goldberg, DPA,
San Francisco : Any review of the major technology developments of 2009 would inevitably include copious copy on the Googles, Microsofts and other giants of the tech world.
But it was also a year in which the tiny company called Twitter became a major communications force, and when political, economic, social and technological trends combined to put green technology at the forefront of innovation.
Supercomputer helps design drugs faster
By IANS
Sydney : A supercomputer is helping speed up the design of new drugs manifold, doing away with cumbersome, time-consuming procedures.
The results are as accurate as those obtained from the lab, saving time and resources, besides calculating the desired 'redox' potential of drugs much faster than existing methods.
The 'redox' potential is the ability of drug molecules to exchange electrons, which determine how powerfully they can act on the body, said researcher Mansoor Namazian of Australian National University (ANU).
Experts to study animal behaviour during solar eclipse
By Richa Sharma, IANS,
Bhopal : How would animals and birds behave during a total solar eclipse? Experts at the Van Vihar National Park in this Madhya Pradesh capital will study animal behaviour during the phenomena July 22.
The eclipse Wednesday will be the longest solar eclipse of the century. Lasting six minutes and 39 seconds, it would be visible across Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.
Astronomers discover earliest ever black holes
By IANS,
New Delhi : Scientists from prestigious Yale University of the US have discovered the earliest black holes ever detected, a statement from the university said Thursday.
Mozilla leads push to reimagine Web browsers
By Xinhua,
Los Angeles : Mozilla, the group that oversees scores of volunteer programmers collaborating on the free Firefox Web browser, hopes to attract more visionaries to help change the way people surf the Internet, a newspaper report said on Tuesday.
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.
Scattering light causes blazing colours of sunsets
By IANS
New York : Ever wonder why the sky turns a deep and blazing red or orange at sunset? It's thanks to a phenomenon called scattering, explains a new study.
Scattering happens when light collides against molecules in the atmosphere, causing it to scatter.
The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, shows how scattering determines the colours you see in the sky at sunset or sunrise.
According to Steven Ackerman, who led the study, the colour blue, being of shorter wavelength, is scattered more than other colours by the molecules.
Russian spaceship delivers food, water to International Space Station
By Xinhua,
Moscow : A Russian cargo spaceship has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) to deliver food, water, fuel and equipment for the crew, the Mission Control said Saturday.
The Progress M-14 spaceship docked with the station at 1.39 a.m. Moscow time Saturday.
The spaceship delivered some 2.5 tons of cargo as well as gifts from the crews' families to Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko and NASA astronaut Garrett E. Reisman.
Coral reefs growing in cold, deep ocean
By IANS,
London : In the icy, inky depths of the Atlantic ocean, 800 metres below the surface, lie a range of hills covered with large coral reefs.
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) researcher Furu Mienis studied the formation of these unknown cold-water kins of the better-known tropical corals.
These reefs can be found along the eastern continental slope from Morocco to Norway, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and on the western continental slope along the east coast of Canada and the US. Mienis studied the area to the west of Ireland.
Germans developing battery that never needs recharging
By DPA
Hamburg : Tired of mobile phones that always need recharging at the worst moments, researchers in Germany are developing a revolutionary new battery that will never need recharging.
Mobile phones, notebook computers and iPods are all devices dependent on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to deliver power.
But the German researchers have developed a new class of inorganic ionic conductor with a structure analogous to that of the mineral argyrodite.
U.S. space shuttle Endeavour lifts off
By Xinhua
Washington : The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour, with seven astronauts aboard, lifted off at 2:28 a.m. EDT (0628 GMT) on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida,NASA TV live broadcasting showed.
The shuttle is delivering a two-armed robot made by Canada, the first part of Japan's space laboratory Kibo and a collection of experiments to the International Space Station.
The computer helper: Building versus buying
By DPA
Washington : Just about anyone who is handy with a screwdriver these days can build a computer. Computer parts are available everywhere, and with a little know-how, you can assemble them into just the computer you want. But does it really make sense to build your own PC? Read on for some answers.
Q: A friend of mine said I could save money by building my own computer. Is this true, and if so, how much could I save?
Chip to make instant home test for illness possible
By IANS,
Washington : A new tool "lab-on-a-chip" would make a new generation of instant home tests possible for illnesses, food contaminants and toxic gases in the near future.
These portable, efficient tools are at the lab stage, where researchers alone know how to fabricate them from scratch.
Michigan University (M-U) engineers are now working on a 16-piece lab-on-a-chip kit that brings micro-fluidic devices to the masses.
The kit cuts costs and the time it takes to make such a device from days to minutes, said M-U's Mark Burns, who developed it with graduate Minsoung Rhee.
Partial solar eclipse in Taiwan
By DPA,
Taipei : Tens of thousands of people in Taiwan watched Wednesday's partial solar eclipse, but few said they still believe in superstitions that the eclipse could spell disaster.
In Taipei, clusters of people gathered in squares, parks and on rooftops to try to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon, which appeared as a total eclipse in parts of India, Nepal, China and Japan and a partial eclipse in other areas of Asia.
Japan’s space lab set, Canada’s new robot next
By SPA
Houston : Spacewalking astronauts will work on assembling a Canadian robotic system on Saturday following the successful installation of the first segment of Japan's lab on the International Space Station.
According to Reuters, Saturday's spacewalk will be the second of five planned during space shuttle Endeavour's busy 16-day mission in space.
The plans had been in doubt until late on Friday when power was restored to the robotic system.
But Friday was Japan's moment of space glory.
NASA to test faulty sensors of shuttle Atlantis
By Xinhua
Washington : With a trouble shooting plan in hand, NASA will begin to test the erratic fuel sensors which had halted the launch of space shuttle Atlantis, a top NASA official announced Tuesday at a teleconference.
The test work is tentatively planned for Dec. 18, said Wayne Hale, NASA's Space Shuttle Program Manager. Technicians and engineers plan to test the sensor system onboard Atlantis by pumping super-cold liquid hydrogen into the external fuel tank.
I have been concentrating on motivating the youth
By A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, IANS,
I did not realize that I have already completed one year after demitting office on 25 July 2007. This one year has been an extremely eventful one me having visited over 12 states in India and nine countries.
It is pertinent to note here that I have not been able to accept more than 10 per cent of the total invitations received.
Sunita Williams wants to see Indians smiling from the moon
By IANS
New Delhi : Indian students have enough capability and they should concentrate on exploring the universe more, American-Indian astronaut Sunita Williams said Monday. She expressed her desire to see Indian students smiling from the moon.
"There is a lot to know and explore about the universe. Now you should dream of going to the moon, Mars and space. I want to see your smiling faces from the moon," Williams said while interacting with school students in the capital.
Billions of life bearing planets float in the milky way
By IANS,
London : A few hundred thousand billion free-floating life-bearing earth-sized planets may exist in the space between stars in the Milky Way, says a study.
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.
Indian-American scientist on trail of polluters
By IANS,
Washington : Cloaked in the clouds of emissions and exhaust that hang over the city are clues about the polluting culprits.
A University of Houston (UH) research team, headed by Shankar Chellam, is hot on their trail. The case hinges on unique identifiers found in fine particulate matter, a mixture of organic, inorganic or metal material.
This material is given off by natural sources, such as sea spray and grassfires, and manmade sources, such as vehicles and industrial operations, and then suspended in the air.
Carbon levels may trigger disastrous climate change
By IANS,
Washington : Carbon levels have reached a point of no return and may trigger disastrous climate change -- unless they are reversed, scientists have warned.
Their study is a departure from recent estimates that truly dangerous levels would be reached only later in this century.
"There is a bright side to this conclusion," says James E. Hansen, the study's co-author and director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, part of Columbia University's Earth Institute.
Platypus genome holds key to mammalian evolution
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have decoded the genome of one of the most unusual creatures in existence - the duck-billed platypus. And now they know why it is part bird, part reptile and part mammal.
The platypus represents the earliest offshoot of mammalian lineage - a branch-out that occurred 166 million years ago from primitive ancestors with both mammalian and reptilian features.
"At first glance, the platypus appears as if it was the result of an evolutionary accident," said Francis S. Collins of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
Google plans superfast internet
By DPA,
San Francisco : Google plans to build a fibre optic broadband network that will connect customers to the internet at speeds 100 times faster than most existing broadband connections in the US, the company announced on its corporate blog.
"Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make internet access better and faster for everyone," two Google product managers, Minnie Ingersoll and James Kelly, wrote in the blog post Wednesday.
NASA developing navigation system for moon
By IANS,
Washington : Ohio State University researcher Ron Li is leading a team to help humans navigate the moon after being instrumental in designing Mars rovers.
During NASA's scheduled moon landing in 2020, astronauts won't be able to use a global positioning system (GPS) because the moon lacks satellites, said Li, acting professor of civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science.
ISRO to launch man mission in seven years
By NNN-PTI,
Thiruvananthapuram, India : India's space agency ISRO is confident of carrying out a man mission to outer space within six to seven years, its Chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair said here Saturday.
A detailed report on this had already been submitted to the Union Government by ISRO, Nair said at the 'Space Salute' programme organised by Asianet television channel jointly with ISRO to felicitate the scientists associated with the PSLV-C9 mission here.
Lowly scrap iron can detoxify pollutants in wastewater
By IANS,
London : A Chinese researcher has used scrap iron to do the unthinkable - clean up and detoxity pollutants in industrial wastewater.
Wei-xian Zhang, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Tongji Univesity, Shanghai, concluded a five-year research project with the help of colleagues to detoxify pollutants.
The project, carried out in Shanghai, used iron, called zero valent iron (ZVI) because it is not oxidized. They obtained it in the form of shavings or turnings from local metal-processing shops for about 30 cents a kg.
CyberMedia launches technology news service on mobile phones
By IANS,
New Delhi : Leading specialty media house CyberMedia has tied up with Netcore Solutions of Mumbai to offer technology news on mobile phones, a Netcore statement said here Thursday.
MyToday Dailies, which offers a news-based short messaging service (SMS), will offer the news service free of charge.
With this service, CyberMedia has for the first time entered the rapidly emerging mobile news medium.
To sign up for the free updates, all that a mobile phone user has to do is to SMS START TECH to 09845298452, for instance, START TECH MUMBAI, the statement said.
Russian cockroach conceives, delivers babies in space
By RIA Novosti
Voronezh (Russia) : A cockroach called Nadezhda (Hope) has given birth to the first creatures ever conceived in space, Russian scientists said.
Nadezhda conceived during the Foton-M bio-satellite Sep 14-26 flight. "We recently received the first batch of 33 cockroaches conceived in micro-gravity," Dmitry Atyakshin said in Voronezh Tuesday.
Though the newborn creatures already eat and drink, micro-gravity conditions may have had an impact on the natural darkening of their chitinous carapace, a part of a cockroach's exoskeleton.
A perfect 13th successful launch for PSLV
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : The launch of Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to probe the moon, from here Wednesday morning marked the 13th consecutive successful score for the India-built polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) which had failed in its very first attempt.
The 320-tonne PSLV-C11, which roared into skies at 6.22 a.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) with the 1,380-kg Chandrayaan, is a modified version of PSLV, described by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as its "trusted workhorse".
Strong demand for IT services, says Wipro’s Premji
Bengaluru: There was a strong demand for IT services in Europe and the US where the economy gained a lot of strength, Wipro chairman...
Low coastal regions will be flooded by 2100: Scientists
By IANS,
Copenhagen : Even in the best case global warming scenario, low lying countries and coastal regions will be regularly flooded by 2100, when the sea is expected to rise by at least 50 cm.
This implies that if emissions of greenhouse gases is not cut down quickly and substantially, low lying coastal areas will be flooded, hitting 10 percent of the global population really hard. The emissions are leading to climate change.
Salt-tolerant gene may revolutionise farming
By IANS
New York : The secret of why a plant withers or thrives in salty condition has been found in the cellular mechanism of arabidopsis, a plant species, according to a study. The findings could have enormous implications for salt-affected croplands, which form half the world's
cultivated area.
Salty soil means plants don't grow as well and therefore yield less.
Researchers have discovered that a complex carbohydrate called N-glycan, which is linked to protein in the plant, may be responsible for its ability to contend with salt water.
PM lays foundation stone of ISRO campus in Delhi
By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday laid the foundation stone of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) first campus in the national capital and urged space scientists to continue their focus on need-based science for nation building.
"I am very happy to lay the foundation stone of ISRO's Space Complex in New Delhi. The complex will go a long way in fulfilling the needs for utilisation of space based services in this part of our country," Manmohan Singh said in his speech here.
Space shuttle Atlantis makes final landing
By IANS,
Washington : Space shuttle Atlantis Thursday landed at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, bringing to a close the US's 30-year orbiter programme.
‘Consciousness is brain’s Wi-Fi network’
By IANS,
Washington : Your fingers start to burn after picking up a hot plate; should you drop the plate or save your meal? New research suggests it is your consciousness that resolves these dilemmas by serving as the brain's Wi-Fi network.
"If the brain is like a set of computers that control different tasks, consciousness is the Wi-Fi network that allows different parts of the brain to talk to each other and decide which action 'wins' and is carried out," said Ezequiel Morsella.
Morsella, who led the study, is professor of psychology at San Francisco State University (SFSU).
Robot chef who can make rasam, sambar
By IANS,
Chennai : Here is a chef that can prepare lip-smacking sambar, rasam and vatta kozhambu and may give the best cooks in Tamil Nadu a run for their money. But the secret of Chef-bot's culinary skills lies not in a kitchen but in a laboratory.
Four students of the Saveetha Engineering College in Sriperumbudur, Chennai's industrial suburb, have designed a robot, Chef-bot, as part of their college project. As of now, Chef-bot's skills are limited to Tamil preparations.
Singapore plans to create animals with human DNA
By DPA
Singapore : Scientists eager to splice human genes with animal cells are seeking public feedback on the prospect of such controversial research, a news report said Wednesday.
As Singapore moves into performing clinical trials for drugs, research in this field could prove to be a boon for scientists," The Straits Times quoted Lim Pin, chairman of the Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC), as saying.
Robotic ants being designed to build homes on Mars
Washington, Oct 27 (IANS) Human beings might colonise Mars one day, but ant-sized microbots will have to build homes for the first group of pioneer scientists there.
"We now know there is water and dust so all they would need is some sort of glue to start building structures, such as homes for human scientists," said Marc Szymanski, robotics researcher at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
He is part of a team of scientists developing tiny robots that can perform different tasks collectively like termites, ants or bees, for the greater good of the colony.
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.
Greenhouse gases increased sharply in 2007
By IANS,
Washington : Global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of climate change, increased by 0.6 percent or 19 billion tonnes last year.
Additionally methane rose by 27 million tonnes after nearly a decade with little or no increase. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists released these and other preliminary findings as part of an annual update on agency's greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites worldwide.
Students from India, Pak create space craft for Earth to Mars
By IRNA,
New Delhi : Notwithstanding the chill in Indo-Pak ties, students from both the countries have come together in designing an innovative crew ship to travel from Earth to Mars and jointly compete with students from other countries at NASA.
Under the Sixteenth Annual International Space Settlement Design Competition, sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boeing, school students from Lahore and Delhi have prepared a novel project on future of human civilisation in Mars.
China’s army goes digital
By Xinhua
Nanning (China) : While digital technology allows commanders of China's People's Liberation Army's (PLA) to electronically monitor borders round the clock, cooks in the barracks conjure up tasty dishes using recipes from e-books through computers in the kitchen.
Wireless spectrum assessment to be over by September
By IANS
Chennai : The assessment of the availability of the wireless spectrum for communication services is likely to be over by the first week of September, IT and Communications Minister A. Raja said here Thursday.
Raja was speaking on the sidelines of a function to inaugurate global computer giant IBM's sixth global delivery centre in India, to be housed in Chennai.
He said once the defence ministry freed some of the spectrum it held, his ministry would be able to provide more communication depth.
Profiles of 100 mn Facebook users leaked online
By IANS,
London : The personal details of 100 million users of social networking website Facebook are now available for download after they were leaked online.
Ron Bowles, an online security consultant, used a code to scan Facebook profiles, collected data not hidden by users' privacy settings, and compiled a list, which is now available as a downloadable file, containing the URL of every "searchable" Facebook user's profile, their name and unique ID, the BBC reported Thursday.
Biofuels may harm environment: Experts
By IANS,
Panama City : Extensive cultivation of biofuel crops, aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas or carbon emissions, have posed the "risk of ultimately harming the environment", experts have said.
Scientists taking part in an ecology conference here said that deforestation and land-use changes for biofuel crops are harming environment as much as fossil fuels like coal and petroleum, EFE reported Sunday.
The forum was organised by the Panama-based Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).
Scientists have better insight into how we see
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists now have a better insight into how the mammalian brain transfers, processes and stores visual information.
The study, led by Mark Williams, senior lecturer at the Macquarie University, said: "The inner workings of the mammalian brain are incredibly complex and our understanding of the processes at work is still rudimentary."
"If we think of the visual system as a complicated web of connections at the rear of the brain, these findings allow us to make better sense of this web by more effectively mapping the way information is transferred and processed."
Spacewalkers work outside International Space Station
By DPA,
Cape Canaveral (Florida) : Two US astronauts left the safety of the International Space Station Thursday to install spare parts that will help it continue running smoothly in the future.
Space shuttle Atlantis crew members Michael Foreman and Robert Satcher spent six hours and 37 minutes on the spacewalk.
They installed a backup antenna to the outside of the station and completed other maintenance with extra time to spare, NASA said.
China to Build Solar Power Plants in 2009
By Prensa Latina,
Beijing : Two large solar power plants will be built in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Yunnan this year, as part of a nationwide project to boost renewable energy.
Qinghai's solar station will cost 146 million dollars and will be jointly built by China Technology Development Group and Qinghai New Energy Group.
In the beginning, the plant will generate 30 megawatts, but after completion, it will produce one gigawatt and will be the world's largest solar power plant, investors said.
eBay settles Skype software suit
By DPA,
San Francisco : E-commerce giant eBay has settled its long-running legal feud with the founders of Skype, clearing the way for a $2-billion sale of the internet telephony pioneer, the company announced Friday.
Under the terms of the settlement, Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will get a 14 percent stake in the consortium buying Sykpe from eBay in return for an undisclosed cash investment and the withdrawal of their lawsuits.
Argentina aims at free wireless internet access
By IANS/EFE,
Buenos Aires : The Argentine government has said it is working to create areas of free public access to the internet across the country through wireless networks.
"We're going to have extensive areas with free internet," Planning Minister Julio de Vido said.
President Cristina Fernandez has given instructions to "work hard" in order to "install within the next 120 days a strong application of the WiFi system in public places", the minister said.
Installation of the service is quick and easy, De Vido told Radio Continental Monday.
China launches new search engine
Beijing: A new Chinese-language online search engine --Chinaso.com -- was launched Friday, marking China's first search service set up by the country's major news...
Cooling of unique arctic biodiversity vault begins
By IANS
Geneva : Work on cooling an underground vault that will preserve seeds of vital food crops from around the world for up to 1,000 years has begun in an arctic archipelago off Norway.
Refrigeration units Friday began pumping cold air deep into a mountain on the Svalbard archipelago that lies midway between Norway and the North Pole so as to speed up the opening of the fail-safe repository of vital crops.
Marine algae most promising bet for green fuel
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists see marine algae as the most promising bet for a green fuel that would help ease the dependence on fossil fuel and power vehicles of the future.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Californa San Diego (UCSD), scientists along with their counterparts from its division of biological sciences are part of an emerging algal biofuel consortium that includes academic collaborators, CleanTECH, public and private partners.
ISRO must market aggressively for global contracts
By R. Ramaseshan, IANS,
The success of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Monday in putting into orbit 10 satellites with a single launch is certainly a commendable achievement marking as it does the second largest number of satellites launched at one go. Now it needs to push aggressively for more contracts in this niche market.
Besides ISRO's own two primary satellites, Cartosat-2A (690 kg) and IMS-1 (83 kg), Monday's payload included seven nanosatellites (1-10 kg class) and one microsatellite (10-100 kg class) from foreign customers, which together weighed about 50 kg.
Space tourism comes of age as France hosts symposium
By Xinhua,
Paris : The southwestern French city of Bordeaux is hosting an international symposium on space tourism, what marks yet another sign that this form of travel is no longer confined to the realm of science fiction, the French media reported on Thursday.
With the first space tickets on sale since 2005, the "symposium which is bringing together international experts from Wednesday to Friday" in Arcachon, near Bordeaux, is expected to create more awareness regarding this form of tourism, according to organizers of the event.
US scientists create HIV-resistant cells
By IANS,
Los Angeles: American scientists have created HIV-resistant cells that could one day pave the way for controlling the virus without using harsh anti-retroviral drugs.
Scientists at the Keck School of Medicine, at the University of Southern California, used mice to test the cells that target one of the two "gateway" molecules that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) uses to enter human cells, Meghan Lewit, spokeswoman for the team of researchers, said.
Scientists advocate new method for better rice yields
By IANS
Agartala : India could meets its food grain demand of 220 million tonnes in the next five years if farmers adopt the Madagascar model of cultivation instead of the conventional method, scientists Thursday said.
Journey to NASA owes to AMU: Hashima Hasan
TCN News
Aligarh: For Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) alumna, Dr Hashima Hasan, Program/Discipline Scientist at the NASA, USA, the fascination with space science began when she...
Asteroid could hit Earth in 2029: Russian astronomer
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : An asteroid, discovered in 2004, could pose a threat to Earth in 2029, the director of the Russian Institute of Astronomy said.
Boris Shustov said at an international space forum in Moscow Monday that the Apophis asteroid, which is due to cross earth's orbit in 2029 at a height of 27,000 km, could under certain conditions hit earth in 2029.
The explosion could surpass the famous Tunguska explosion of June 30, 1908, which affected a 2,150 square km area of Russia felling over 80 million trees in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in Siberia.
India seeks inclusion in Russian space station project
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : India has expressed its intention to participate in the Russian International Space Station construction project, according to Russian space agency head Anatoly Perminov.
"As regards the list of nations wishing to join in the construction and operation of the International Space Station, India has recently applied," Roskosmos chief said last week.
He added that India was a major space power with a series of achievements in non-manned aerospace projects, and would like to make a contribution to the space station project.
Google dedicates doodle to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
New Delhi: Internet search giant Google on Tuesday paid tributes to Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan on his birth anniversary.
The doodle showed the...
Google Earth helps youth to trace lost home – after 13 years
By Brij Khandelwal, IANS
Agra : Orphaned at seven, he ran away from home to escape the tyranny of his uncle and was taken care of by an affluent Muslim family in northern India. Now at 20, Rakesh Singh has through Google Earth traced his village near Agra and is fighting to get his property back.
Rakesh, who developed an early fascination for computers, has found his village in Kiraoli, about 22 km from the Taj Mahal city, thanks to his interest in the internet.
Chandrayaan fine, spinning in earth’s elliptical orbit
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 is doing fine and has completed four orbits around the earth, a top space official said Thursday, a day after it was launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
"The health of the spacecraft is normal and (it is) doing fine. Spinning in elliptical orbit once in every six hours and 30 minutes, it has completed four orbits and is in the fifth orbit," the official told IANS.
Unitech allotted spectrum for three service areas
By IANS,
New Delhi : Real estate major Unitech has been allotted 4.4 MHz of spectrum in three service areas, the company said Monday.
“The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued the letter to the company`s telecom subsidiaries for allotment of 4.4 MHz of spectrum in 1800 MHz GSM band in respect of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Kolkata service areas,” a company statement said.
With this, the company has been allotted initial spectrum in 16 service areas out of the total 22 service areas.
Report: Early Mars water too salty for life
By Xinhua
Beijing : Scientists believe that early life forms on Mars were most likely snuffed out by the extremely salty water on the Red Planet, media reported Monday.
"In fact, it was salty enough that only a handful of known terrestrial organisms would have a ghost of a chance of surviving there when conditions were at their best," said Harvard biologist Andrew Knoll, a member of the Mars rover science team.
Beijing : Scientists believe that early life forms on Mars were most likely snuffed out by the extremely salty water on the Red Planet, media reported Monday.
"In fact, it was salty enough that only a handful of known terrestrial organisms would have a ghost of a chance of surviving there when conditions were at their best," said Harvard biologist Andrew Knoll, a member of the Mars rover science team.
Global warming brings tropical birds to Hong Kong
By DPA,
Hong Kong : The sighting of two rarely seen tropical birds in Hong Kong could be due to climate change, bird experts here have said.
The birds - a great frigate and the white-tailed tropic-bird - were both spotted around Po Toi, Hong Kong's southern most island, over the last month.
It was the first time the white-tailed tropic has ever been spotted in Hong Kong and only the fourth sighting of the frigate.
Both birds are usually seen in more tropical climates such as the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
American west is new global hot spot
By IANS
New York : The American west is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world, according to a new study that analyses the latest temperature figures.
The average temperature rise in the southwest's largest river basin was more than double the average global increase, likely spelling even more parched conditions, ScienceDaily reported.
TCS bags $100 mn deal with NXP
By IANS,
Mumbai : India's leading IT firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) has signed a five-year contract worth $100 million with Dutch chip maker NXP Semiconductors B.V., founded by Philips.
TCS will provide consultancy services as well as application management, development and support services across NXP's supply chain operations.
TCS chief operating officer and executive director N. Chandrasekaran said, "The engagement with NXP is a perfect demonstration of our business credentials in a specialist sector and enables TCS to develop a deep relationship with NXP."
Scientists use bacteria to find oil, natural gas
By IANS,
Bangalore : Vengannapalli, a nondescript village in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, may be sitting on a reservoir of gas or oil, say scientists who have been able to make the discovery with the help of soil bacteria that live exclusively on a diet of hydrocarbons like methane, ethane and propane.
A high concentration of these bacteria is an indication that gaseous hydrocarbons are seeping out to the surface from oil or gas reservoirs below the ground, says Anurodh Dayal, a scientist at the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) in Hyderabad.
Website with 900,000 pictures launched
By IANS,
Mumbai: A website with a bank of over 900,000 news images has been launched to tap the estimated Rs.300 crore image market in India.
Internet’s 40th anniversary celebrated in US
By IANS,
San Francisco : The 40th anniversary of the birth of the Internet was celebrated in the US with events being organised at the University of California and the Computer History Museum in Los Angeles to mark the occasion.
Industry leaders, researchers and analysts, among others, attended the function at the California University Thursday, Xinhua reported.
Computer science professor of the university, Leonard Kleinrock, who on Oct 29, 1969 headed a team to send the first message over the ARPANET, which later came to be known as Internet, also attended the event.
Shuttle Discovery launch postponed until Feb 27: NASA
By RIA Novosti,
Washington : The US space agency NASA has set a new date for the launch of space shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) due to technical reasons, an official said.
The launch has been postponed twice and is now tentatively set for Feb 27, following an assessment of shuttle flow control valve testing.
"More time was needed to complete analysis and testing," said Allard Beutel, a spokesman with NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
German scientists readying Indian Ocean tsunami warning system
By DPA
Hamburg : Scientists in Germany are putting the finishing touches on an Indian Ocean tsunami early-warning system.
The German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System for the Indian Ocean (GITEWS) is on schedule, according to project coordinator Joern Lauterjung of the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), Germany's National Lab for Geosciences.
Sunlight can damage your eyes
By IANS,
London : Sunlight doesn't just damage your skin, it can also ruin your eyes and increase the risk of cataract and damage to the retina.
The best way of protecting eyes is always to wear quality sunglasses, reports express.co.uk.
A research in Britain has, however, found that over 60 percent of Britons are influenced by fashion and price rather than whether or not the glasses are effective.
Protecting children's eyes is especially important, yet nearly half of parents put cost ahead of protection.
Monster Saturn electrical storm longest on record
By Xinhua,
Beijing : The longest running electrical storm on Saturn recorded by scientists is creating lightning bolts 10,000 times more powerful than any seen on Earth.
The monster storm appeared in Saturn's southern hemisphere five months ago, when it was first spotted by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and has persevered to become the planet's longest continuously recorded tempest to date.