Scientists obtain 1st images of asteroid 2007 TU24
By Xinhua
Beijing : Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have obtained the first images of asteroid 2007 TU24 using high-resolution radar data, media reported Monday.
The data indicate the asteroid is somewhat asymmetrical in shape, with a diameter roughly 250 meters in size.
Beijing : Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have obtained the first images of asteroid 2007 TU24 using high-resolution radar data, media reported Monday.
The data indicate the asteroid is somewhat asymmetrical in shape, with a diameter roughly 250 meters in size.
Khamenei congratulates Iranian scientists on satellite launch
By IANS,
Tehran : Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has complimented Iranian scientists for their success in sending the first domestically-produced satellite into orbit, IRNA reported.
In a message Tuesday in response to a letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khamenei expressed appreciation for the efforts of Iranian officials and scientists "for their efforts which made such a praiseworthy move possible".
"This is another sign that the hope that the Islamic Revolution has brought to hearts is true," he stated.
Software to locate stolen laptops launched
By IANS
Mumbai : Mumbai based Micro technologies have launched India's first laptop tracking system to locate stolen laptops.
Micro Lost Notebook Tracking System (LNTS) is a software product that is embedded on notebook hard drives and is tracked as soon as they are connected to the Internet.
"The software was developed to deter, track and recover stolen laptops, notebooks and personal computers," said P. Shekar, Micro technologies chairperson.
Climate change wreaks havoc on coral reefs worldwide
By IANS,
Sydney : Ocean warming is spurring the incidence of virulent coral diseases, already wreaking havoc on reefs worldwide.
David Bourne and colleagues at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) said global warming and increased sea surface temperatures presented a major challenge to the health of the world's coral reefs.
Warming has caused significant damage to reefs in recent hot years (particularly 1998 and 2002) by sparking coral bleaching, which is a breakdown in the symbiotic relationship between the coral and its bacterial partner (zooxanthellae).
Russia doubts defunct US satellite may have nuclear material
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia is suspecting the US spy satellite that has gone out of control may have nuclear material onboard and is closely monitoring its movement in orbit, a top defence ministry official has said.
"Russian military experts suggest the satellite could have an onboard nuclear power source," said Igor Barinov, first deputy chairperson of the State Duma (parliament) defence committee.
Recovery tools: emergency helpers for data crashes
By DPA
Hanover : It can happen very quickly: you empty the Windows Recycle Bin just a bit too quickly, or format a thumb drive unintentionally - and important data is suddenly gone.
Yet hope is not lost, because in most cases the operating system has not actually deleted the file but just released it for overwriting.
"It's similar to a thick book that's had part of the table of contents ripped out. Then you can't find specific pages without a bit of help," says Boi Feddern, an editor at German computing magazine c't.
Google Maps now available in 12 more Indian cities
New Delhi: Starting Tuesday people can see traffic information for 12 new cities, including Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal, on Google Maps, a company statement...
Feast organised during solar eclipse in Orissa
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Pathani Samant Planetarium in Orissa has arranged a special feast at its campus during the solar eclipse Friday to dispel any superstition, said an official.
"There are superstitions prevalent among people that if you eat during a solar eclipse it will have a bad effect. But we want to dispel superstitions. We have arranged a special feast at the planetarium premises. It will be joined by officials and members of the public during the solar eclipse," said Subhendu Pattnaik, deputy director of the Pathani Samant Planetarium, in Bhubaneswar.
Nuclear bill in Lok Sabha likely Monday
By IANS,
New Delhi: With less than a month to go before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to the US, the government is planning to introduce the contentious Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill in the Lok Sabha Monday.
The bill is likely to be introduced in the Lok Sabha Monday, said government sources here.
The passing of the bill, which seeks to limits damages to American nuclear companies in case of an accident, is a crucial step India is required to complete under the 123 civil nuclear agreement with the US.
U.S. space shuttle Atlantis docks with ISS
By Xinhua
Washington : U.S. space shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, kicking off a busy schedule of orbital work for the installation of the Columbus science laboratory.
Washington : U.S. space shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, kicking off a busy schedule of orbital work for the installation of the Columbus science laboratory.
Google Glass 2.0 coming soon?
New York: Google may be testing the next version of the Google Glass called GG1, media reports said.
Google has a new eye wearable device...
Endangered fish may face new threat: sexual harassment
By Xinhua
Beijing : Scientists revealed that the critically endangered Mexican fish Skiffia bilineata might face new threat: male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) are constantly sexually harassing the endangered females, media reported Saturday.
Scientists knew that male Trinidadian guppies sexually assault females of their own species, and were concerned over whether they harassed the endangered fish as well.
Beijing : Scientists revealed that the critically endangered Mexican fish Skiffia bilineata might face new threat: male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) are constantly sexually harassing the endangered females, media reported Saturday.
Scientists knew that male Trinidadian guppies sexually assault females of their own species, and were concerned over whether they harassed the endangered fish as well.
‘India to have own satellite navigation system by 2015’
Chennai : India is expected to have its own satellite navigation system by the first quarter of 2015 with four of its satellites in...
China launches new satellite
By IANS,
Beijing : China successfully launched a new satellite into space Sunday, which will improve television and radio broadcasting signals in the country.
The "SinoSat-6" was launched at 12:14 a.m. from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The Long March 3B rocket took SinoSat-6 into a geostationary transfer orbit 26 minutes after the launch, Xinhua reported.
5,000-year-old village ruins found in China
By IANS,
Beijing : Archaeologists in China have found the ruins of two 5,000-year-old villages in Mongolia.
The ruins in Hamin'aile village in Tongliao city in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have been identified as possibly originating from Hongshan culture, dating back 5,000 years, said Ji Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Cultural and Historical Relics and Archaeology.
About 1,200 square metres have been excavated, and houses and tombs had been found, China Daily reported.
Chandrayaan to look for water on the moon
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : Is there water on the moon? India's lunar explorer, Chandrayaan-1, will try to find out by peeking into the moon's dark corners and sending an American probe to dig there.
When Chandrayaan heads for the moon Oct 22, it will carry on board a 6.5-kg mini synthetic aperture radar (MiniSAR) developed by the Johns Hopkins University applied physics laboratory and the Naval Air Warfare Centre. It will look for water-ice in the permanently shadowed regions of the lunar poles by digging a few metres into the surface.
Indonesia launches tsunami early warning system
By DPA,
Jakarta : A tsunami early warning system developed and funded by five donor countries began operations Tuesday in Indonesia, nearly four years after the Asian tsunami of December 2004, which claimed 230,000 lives.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who attended the launch ceremony in Jakarta, expressed pride over the development of the technology in Indonesia but reminded the country that the equipment was not an end-all, be-all but would only provide help.
The German government financed the 45-million-euro ($58-million) project.
Endeavour astronauts finish final spacewalk
By Xinhua,
Washington : Two US astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour Monday finished the mission's fourth and final spacewalk to work on joints on the solar panels that power the International Space Station (ISS), according to NASA TV.
Mission specialists Steve Bowen and Shane Kimbrough completed the cleaning and lube job on the station's right-side solar array joint and replaced the final bearing of the 12 bearings for the massive gear.
A laptop that looks into your heart
By Prashant K. Nanda
New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) An Indian medical technology firm has configured a laptop that can do a heart scan, abdomen scan and even a pregnancy test while retaining its basic functions like writing a note, preparing presentations and sending an e-mail.
"Though portable ultrasound machines are not new in India, this machine doubles up as a laptop and a multi-utility ultrasound machine. It is easy to use, carry and send body images even to your e-mail," A.B. Sivasankar, director (imaging) of Trivitron Medical Systems, told IANS.
India successfully launches Israeli satellite Polaris into orbit
By KUNA
New Delhi : India Monday launched an Israeli satellite "Polaris" from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
The satellite was put into orbit by indigenously developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), a spokesman of the Indian Space Research Organisation told reporters, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
Last year, Italian satellite Agile was also put into the orbit by PSLV, the spokesman said.
Polaris is a radar-imaging, remote-sensing satellite and weighs about 300 kgs.
Other universes exist alongside our own
By IANS,
London : Scientists say they have found evidence that our universe was 'jostled' by other parallel universes in the distant past.
Researchers to explore ‘lost world’ beneath Caribbean
By IANS,
London : Scientists are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a 'lost world' five kilometres beneath the Caribbean.
The team of researchers led by Jon Copley of University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science, will explore the Cayman Trough, which lies between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
This rift in the Caribbean seafloor plunges to a depth of more than 5,000 metres. It contains the world's deepest chain of undersea volcanoes, which have yet to be explored.
Over 80 arrested for cyber crimes in Delhi in 2009-11
By IANS,
New Delhi: Over 80 people were arrested in Delhi in cyber crime related cases during 2009-11, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
NASA green lights Discovery launch
By DPA,
Washington : NASA has given the green light to the launch of Discovery Nov 1 after resolving a problem associated with a small fuel leak.
Pirated Windows 7 generates $100,000 in India
By Rajat Rai, IANS,
Lucknow : About 50,000 pirated DVDs of Microsoft Windows 7 are estimated to have been sold here since the official launch on Oct 22, generating unaccounted business of around Rs.50 lakh (nearly $100,000).
The reason for the allure of the pirated versions: These cost Rs.40-Rs.250 in Naza Market in Hazratganj here, drawing buyers from not only the rest of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand but also Nepal and Bangladesh.
India’s next moon mission banks on Russia, no Mars race with China: ISRO chief
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Yahoo! to develop nest-generation products from India lab
By IANS
Bangalore : Leading search engine and news and entertainment portal Yahoo! has set up a laboratory here to develop next-generation products for its global customers and users, a company official said Tuesday.
"As an extension of our research and development (R&D) operations here, Yahoo! India Lab will initially have 100-member team of scientists and engineers. They will work on multiple projects to make the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers worldwide," Yahoo! India Research head Prabhakar Raghavan told reporters here.
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.
Astronomy fair at Jantar Mantar Sunday
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Nehru Planetarium is organising a fair at Jantar Mantar here Sunday to educate people on the astronomical instruments at the 17th century heritage site.
The fair is a part of several activities planned during the International Year of Astronomy, being observed globally this year.
"The fair will highlight and spread awareness about the usage of Jantar Mantar observatory instruments among people in the country," Nehru Planetarium Director N. Rathnasree said.
The fair will start at 11 a.m. Sunday and will go on till sunset.
Guard your electrical systems – the sun is frowning
By IANS
New York : The sun has just entered a 11-year cycle of heightened activity that could throw electrical and electronic systems including cell phones and ATMs out of gear, scientists say.
A sunspot that marks the beginning of the cycle appeared late Tuesday in the sun's northern hemisphere, scientists of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said, reports Sciencedaily.
Point and click guidance for Ellie the robot
By IANS
New York : Ellie helps people with limited mobility accomplish everyday tasks, getting them things like towels, tablet bottles and telephones. Thank her, and you will probably receive a hum in response.
Ellie (written El-E) is a robot - an extremely versatile one. And what makes her unique is the fact that unlike robots struggling to respond to speech or gestures, Ellie works on a unique point-and-click model.
Chandrayaan confirms moon was once completely molten: Scientist
By IANS,
Panaji : Chandrayaan's moon mineralogy mapper has confirmed the magma ocean hypothesis, meaning that the moon was once completely molten, a senior scientist said Wednesday.
"It proves beyond doubt the magma ocean hypothesis. There is no other way this massive rock type could be formed," said Carle Pieters, science manager at the NASA-supported spectroscopy facility at Brown University in the US.
Pieters, who was in charge of the moon mineralogy mapper on Chandrayaan, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference here.
Space age prosthetic leg helps conquer world record
London, Oct 27 (IANS) German athlete Wojtek Czyz set a new world record at the Beijing Paralympics 2008, leaping an amazing 6.50 metres, beating the existing record by 27 cm.
He achieved the amazing feat with the help of space-technology enhanced prosthetic leg. In 2004, European Space Agency's (ESA) 'technology transfer programme' (TTP) broker MST Aerospace met Czyz and his trainer to perform a pre-screening of the most crucial elements of the prosthesis used by Czyz.
Italian expert to spend months in cave
By DPA,
Cagliari (Sardinia) : An Italian speleologist or cave specialist plans to descend 50 metres below the ground in an effort to break the world record for time spent living in a cave which currently stands at 366 consecutive days.
Doctors will wire up the body of the 51-year-old Giancarlo Sulas with electrodes allowing them to constantly monitor his health during what was described Saturday as a scientific experiment.
Infosys pitches for greater affirmative action
By Rajeev Ranjan Roy, IANS
New Delhi : India's software giant Infosys Technologies wants to expand its affirmative action initiative for the country's disadvantaged groups in association with the government.
Having already trained around 100 graduate and postgraduate science students free of cost as a pilot project in 2007, Infosys has written to the social justice and empowerment ministry, offering to continue the training programme for poor students, mainly from the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Other Backward Classes (OBC).
Chandrayaan spacecraft moved further up in space
Chennai, Oct 26 (IANS) India's maiden moon probe spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 has reached nearly half the distance to the lunar orbit, crossing the 150,000-km mark from the earth Sunday morning.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) completed third orbit-raising manoeuvre initiated at 7.08 a.m. Sunday firing the liquid apogee motor for about nine and a half minutes.
With this, Chandrayaan spacecraft has entered a much higher elliptical orbit around the earth.
Sea salt worsens coastal air pollution: study
By IANS
Washington : When salty air and sunshine around busy ports mingle with industrial and shipping pollution, they aggravate the problem manifold, according to a study.
Emissions from marine vessels may be polluting the globe to a greater extent than hitherto suspected. The disturbing phenomenon substantially raises the levels of ground-level ozone and other pollutants in coastal areas
"This is a problem everywhere industrial pollution meets the ocean, as is the case in many of the largest cities around the world," said Hans Osthoff of university of Calgary.
Scientists, farmers fast to protest Bt Brinjal
By IANS,
Kolkata : A group of scientists, academicians and farmers observed a day's protest fast at the Kolkata Book Fair Saturday against the possible release of genetically modified crop Bt Brinjal for commercial cultivation.
"The volunteers from Green Peace, city-based green body Development Research Communication and Services Centre (DRCSC) and the farmers of an organisation called Seva participated in the fast," Green Peace's sustainable agricultural campaigner R. Jaykrishna told IANS.
U.S. company unveils two-seater rocketship for private space tourism
By Xinhua
Washington : A U.S. aerospace company based in California on Wednesday unveiled a new suborbital spaceship with two seats for private space tourists.
The company, XCOR Aerospace announced that its two-seat, rocket-powered Lynx spaceship, is capable of suborbital flights to altitudes of more than 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the Earth.
The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and is expected to be capable of making several flights a day, according to XCOR.
N-bombs to destroy earth-bound asteroids in space!
By IANS,
Washington : Nuclear bombs - itself a threat to the humanity - to save the earth from dangerous space rocks?
Sounds like a new...
Ocean plankton do their bit to control global warming
By IANS
London : Microscopic marine plankton increase their carbon intake in response to increased concentrations of dissolved carbon dioxide and thus contribute to curbing the greenhouse effect on a global scale, a new study has found.
Researchers led by scientists at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany, have documented this biological mechanism in a natural plankton community for the first time, Sciencedaily.com reported.
IBS Software to open new centre in Bangalore
By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala-based IBS Software Services, provider of new-generation IT solutions to the global travel, transportation and logistics (TTL) industry, plans to open a new development centre in Bangalore by next month.
"This has been on our cards for sometime now and we are opening (another centre) in Chennai in the next fiscal itself," IBS chief V.K. Mathews told IANS Wednesday.
The Bangalore centre would initially have 300 professionals but would be expanded soon, he said.
Chandrayaan descends into lower lunar orbit
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 descended further into the lunar orbit Tuesday following the third orbit-reduction manoeuvre, a top space official said here.
"The manoeuvre was carried out at 18.30 (IST) for 31 seconds to push the spacecraft into a lower orbit at 102-km periselene (nearest point to moon) and 255-km aposilene (farthest point from moon)," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish told IANS.
In the current lower elliptical orbit, the spacecraft will revolve around the moon once in two hours and nine minutes.
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.
Now, technology to see through fog
By IANS,
Washington: Engineers have developed a new technology that will enable pilots to peer through fog and doctors to see more precisely into the human body without surgery.
Developed by Princeton engineers, the method relies on the surprising ability to clarify an image using rays of light that would typically make the image unrecognisable, such as those scattered by clouds, human tissue or murky water.
Egypt starts manufacturing new satellite
By NNN-KUNA,
Cairo : Egypt has started to manufacture a new satellite in cooperation with France to meet the growing demand for its satellite in the Arab region, especially after NileSat has used up all existing capacities of the existing Nilesat 101 and NilSat 102.
The Egyptian Satellite Company (Nilesat) said in a statement Thursday that it will launch its new satellite NileSat 201 in the first quarter of 2010, the first second-generation NileSat satellite based on a contract with a French company.
World’s most powerful supercomputer becomes operational
By IANS,
Washington : The world's fastest and most powerful supercomputer, named Novo-G, has become operational at the University of Florida.
Novo-G gets the first part of its name from the Latin term for "make anew, change, alter" and the second from "G" for "genesis." A "reconfigurable" computer, it can re-arrange its internal circuitry to suit the task at hand.
Seeking the roots of the modern potato
By IANS
New York : New research into the history of the potato has rubbished two popular theories about how they travelled from their homeland in South America to Europe - and then to the rest of the world.
The study, by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, used DNA to conclude that a whopping 99 percent of all modern potatoes are descendents of varieties once grown in south-central Chile.
‘Designing Chandrayaan was like writing lyrics to a set tune’
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : While building India's first moon craft, Chandrayaan project director Mylswamy Annadurai was reminded of his engineering college days when he wrote lyrics to the tunes of his classmates.
At that time he used to write poetry - some were published in the college magazine.
Repair to Discovery may delay scheduled flight
Washington, Sep 18 (Xinhua) Shuttle managers of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have decided to repair a leaking hydraulic seal of the space shuttle Discovery, which may delay its scheduled October flight.
Technicians will begin repair work Wednesday on the leaking hydraulic seal in Discovery's right main-gear strut, NASA officials said at a meeting Monday.
NASA shuttle managers will assess the ongoing repair work to decide how it might affect Discovery's Oct 23 target launch date.
Star attacks planet with radiation
By IANS,
Washington : A nearby star is bombarding its companion planet with a barrage of X-rays, hundred thousand times more intense than the earth receives from the Sun, a NASA discovery says.
India to miss total solar eclipse
By IANS,
New Delhi : This year's total solar eclipse on Sunday will be missed by sky gazers in India as the celestial phenomenon will not be visible in Asia.
The eclipse will be visible from parts of the South Pacific Ocean area and South American countries like Argentina and Chile. A total solar eclipse occurs every 18 months.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and the earth, and the moon fully or partially covers the sun as viewed from the earth.
Over 700 Russian scientists part of Large Hadron Collider project
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The development of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, has involved over 700 Russian physicists from 12 research institutes, a project coordinator said Monday.
The $5.8 billion international project, which will be officially unveiled on October 21 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN, has involved more than 2,000 physicists from hundreds of universities and laboratories in 34 countries since 1984.
Global investors to invest Rs.4.11 bn in Moser Baer unit
By IANS,
New Delhi : Technology leader Moser Baer India Ltd Thursday said its wholly-owned photovoltaic (PV) subsidiary has entered into definitive agreement with a consortium of global investors to raise Rs.4.11 billion for its expansion.
The global investors include Nomura, CDC Group, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, IDFC Pe and IDFC.
"Moser Baer plans to use the funds to expand capacity of crystalline silicon and thin film solar vertical," Moser Baer group chief financial officer Yogesh B. Mathur told reporters.
NASA to launch Mars rover in November
By IANS,
Washington : NASA will launch its car-sized Mars rover named Curiosity later this month.
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.
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.
New format to ensure disruption-free images on TV
By IANS,
London : Video coding techniques still have their flip side - digital images are not always disruption-free. Now, an extension of the coding format known as H.264/AVC will help protect the most important data packets to ensure they reach the receiver.
For instance, your favourite detective series has just reached its climax when a thunderstorm raging outside interferes with the digital image on your TV.
X-rays to bring nanoscale materials and bio specimens up close
By IANS
New York : X-rays have taken pictures of broken bones for decades, but scientists have now refined them to capture images of ultra-small particles in nano and bio-materials, including cellular nuclei.
This development will facilitate understanding of how materials behave electrically, magnetically and under thermal and mechanical stress. Besides, its applicability to biology and biomedicine will also contribute to our understanding of disease and its eradication, healing after injury, cancer and cell death.
‘Shocking’ discovery may improve diesel engines
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have found the interaction between shock waves created by high-pressure supersonic fuel jets. The discovery may lead to cleaner and more efficient internal combustion engines as well as advances in high-speed jet cleaning, machining and mining.
Shock waves have been studied in the past but high-pressure liquid jets created by micrometre sized nozzles can also reach supersonic speeds.
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.
Toy rocket inspires variable-speed bullets
By IANS,
Chicago : A US company is developing a gun that can fire bullets with variable speed and can be set to kill, wound or just cause a bruise.
Lund and Company Invention, a Chicago-based toy design studio, which makes toy rockets that are powered by burning hydrogen, is receiving funding from the US army to adapt the same technology for firing bullets as the army is interested in weapons that can be switched between lethal and non-lethal modes, NewScientist reported.
Steve Jobs memorial unveiled in Russia
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow: A memorial to renowned tech innovator and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was unveiled in Russian city of St. Petersburg Wednesday.
Did climatic conditions trigger Angkor’s collapse?
By IANS,
Washington : Decades of drought, alternating with intense monsoon rains, may have sounded the death knell for Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilization at Angkor nearly 600 years ago.
Columbia University researchers say this based on an analysis of tree rings, archaeological remains and other evidence.
Their findings may also shed light on what drives - and disrupts - the rainy season across much of Asia, which waters crops for nearly half the world's population.
Microsoft issues emergency flaw fix
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft issued an emergency patch Monday to correct a critical Windows bug that had allowed attackers to gain control of infected machines via program shortcuts.
Microsoft usually issues patches to fix software flaws just once a month. But the seriousness of the bug forced the software giant to issue an emergency patch outside the normal schedule.
Widely publicized last month, the flaw was used to attack industrial control systems in manufacturing and utility control systems via the so-called Stuxnet worm.
Chandrayaan in final lunar orbit
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 was placed in its final orbit of 100 km from the lunar surface, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced here Wednesday evening.
China’s Internet users world’s largest
By IANS,
Beijing : China has overtaken the US and now has some 221 million web users - the world's largest Internet using population.
The number was 210 million by the end of last year, trailing the US by some five million, figures issued by the China Internet Network Information Centre showed.
Despite a rapidly increasing Internet population, China's ratio of Internet users to the total population is still lower than the global average, the ministry said.
AsusTek chairman to visit India for first time
New Delhi : AsusTek chairman Jonney Shih will be in India for the first time, according to a mail sent by the company.
The...
What’s new in Internet Explorer 8?
By Jay Dougherty, DPA,
Washington : The challengers keep coming, but Microsoft's Internet Explorer still holds the lion's share of the Web browser market. Most estimates put Internet Explorer's market share at around 72 percent, which means that when a new version of the browser is released, a lot of people will likely be upgrading.
Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), the long-awaited successor to IE 7, is about to turn a lot of heads, as Microsoft nears completion of a browser upgrade that does significantly more than tack on enhancements to existing features. Here's what's in store.
China’s First Manned Space Mission
By SPA
Beijing : China plans to carry out its first spacewalk in second half of the year, an official of the nation's manned space program said here on Thursday, according to Xinhua.
The Shenzhou VII spacecraft will be launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu latein the year and the astronauts will leave their spacecraft for the first time, the official told Xinhua.
The spacecraft will also release a small inspection satellite, which monitors its own performance.
Russia launches Proton carrier rocket
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia has successfully conducted a delayed launch of a Proton carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) said Friday.
The Proton-K rocket, which has been on the launch pad since Monday, lifted off at 11.35 a.m. Moscow time (7.35 a.m. GMT) and put in orbit three Glonass (Global Navigation Satellite System) satellites, the space agency said.
‘India’s manned moon mission by 2020’
By IANS,
Guwahati : India would be able to send a manned mission to the moon by 2020, while the second unmanned spacecraft would be ready by 2012, said a top space scientist who was involved in the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1.
"If everything goes as per the plan, we will be ready to send a man to moon by 2020," said Jitendranath Goswami, director of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad.
PRL is the laboratory that helped build a payload called the high energy X-ray spectrometer that will look for water ice in the polar regions of the moon.
Security robot that sniffs out radiation developed
By IANA
Sydney : Australian scientists have developed a prototype remote-controlled robotic vehicle that is capable of sniffing out radiation.
The concept vehicle - known as RASP or the Remote Advanced Sensor Platform - has been developed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), according to a press release.
RASP is small and light and can be operated from distances of up to 350 metres and can be deployed in almost any area or location, from aircraft to cargo containers.
Russian, European agencies to develop manned spaceship
By RIA Novosti
Zhukovsky (Russia) : The Russian and European space agencies will develop a manned transport spaceship for flights to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars, the head of the Russian agency has said.
"We agreed today with Jean-Jacques Dordain, the head of the European Space Agency, to form a working group to deal with developing a piloted transport system to fly to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars," Anatoly Perminov said Tuesday after talks with Dordain on the sidelines of the MAKS-2007 air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow.
Indian American challenges gene cure based on Nobel winning work
By Parveen Chopra, IANS
New York : A research team led by an Indian American scientist has challenged the validity of a prototype gene treatment based on Nobel prize winning work that has attracted billions of dollars in investment for developing cures for cancer, diabetes and other diseases.
Overcast sky may spoil chances of watching solar eclipse
By IANS,
New Delhi : An overcast sky may spoil the excitement of watching Friday's solar eclipse in the national capital since the weatherman has forecast rain and thundershowers.
“The weather overall seems bad and going by the meteorological department's forecast for Delhi, the chances of watching the solar eclipse are low,” N. Rathnashree, Nehru Planetarium director, told IANS.
In New 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 about 62.4 percent of the sun's diameter is eclipsed.
ISRO developing cheaper satellite phone link
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Hyderabad : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is working on a new device to drastically reduce the cost of satellite phone usage and enable access to remote areas of the country, a top space agency official said here Monday.
Solar powered rickshaws? India and UK set up energy hub
By IANS,
London : Rickshaws powered by solar energy could be your next mode of transport, courtesy of a Commonwealth initiative.
The Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) has set up an incubation hub in partnership with the Indian government to develop cutting edge energy-saving technologies, it announced Tuesday.
The hub, which also involves the Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad, the UK Carbon Trust and British Petroleum's Alternative Energy Group, will work on technologies that will be designed for Indian city and rural living, as well as transport.
Spacesuit trouble shortens spacewalk
By DPA,
Washington : Problems with a spacesuit has caused NASA to cut short a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
Problems with a system that removes carbon dioxide from the air in astronaut Chris Cassidy's spacesuit caused mission control to end the spacewalk at 2031 GMT Wednesday after five hours and 59 minutes. Carbon dioxide levels were beginning to rise in his suit, but he was not in any imminent danger, NASA said. The spacewalk was to have lasted about six and a half hours.
Tsunami early warning system by month end
By IANS
New Delhi : Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said Friday that a national tsunami warning system would be operational by September end.
"The government is setting up a National Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges in the Indian Ocean and the system is scheduled to be operational by the end of September 2007," Sibal said.
"An interim warning centre is already working at Indian National Centre for Ocean information Services, Hyderabad, on a 24x7 basis," the minister informed the Lok Sabha.
Somnath congratulates ISRO scientists
By IANS,
New Delhi : Somnath Chatterjee, the speaker of the outgoing Lok Sabha, Monday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the successful launch of the RISAT-2 spy satellite and an educational satellite.
"The country is proud of ISRO scientists for this remarkable achievement, which will provide a boost to India's capabilities in a number of areas, including disaster management and in better management of cyclones, floods, agriculture-related activities," Chatterjee said in his congratulatory message.
Bangladesh scientists produce petroleum from organic wastes
By Xinhua,
Dhaka : Scientists in Bangladesh have developed ways to produce petroleum from degradable organic municipal waste and are now studying its feasibility before going to commercial production.
"We have developed petroleum products from organic municipal wastes and we are looking into its commercial viability," Yunus Miah, principal engineer of the state-run Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), said Wednesday.
Chinese scientists solving mystery of acupuncture through light beams
By IANS,
Beijing : Scientists in China claimed to have found a breakthrough in acupuncture therapy which would help detect cancer and brain tumours in patients at an early stage through a super powerful X-ray beam.
The researchers working on synchrotron have detected evidence that acupuncture points differ from other parts of the body.
Symantec to unveil new security solutions
By IANS
Bangalore : Symantec Corp, the $5.2-billion leading security and information management solutions provider, will showcase its latest Norton anti-virus software products to technology stakeholders at a vision summit in Mumbai Thursday.
The US-based firm's experts will demonstrate benefits of security infrastructure in enterprises and organisations using IT tools in their operations on local, national and global scales.
$2 bn public-private partnership for rural internet access
By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Saturday announced a $2-billion public-private partnership to provide broadband and internet connectivity in country's rural areas.
Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, speaking at Global Telecom Summit here, said that $1.5 billion for the project would be generated from the private sector and the balance would be funded from government sources.
Follow nature’s trail to solve universe’s mystery: Scientist-author
By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : If the universe seems mysterious to you, try becoming a 'cosmic detective'! For, nature has left behind many clues to unravel its mystery, says US-based award-winning scientist Mani Bhaumik who has just penned a children's novel on the subject.
"The study of the universe is a mystery - fortunately nature has left behind some telltale clues around us and like a detective we can pick up the clues and follow the trail to solve the mystery," Bhaumik told IANS in an informal chat in the capital.
UAE varsity-Indian firm deal to turn Rajasthan desert green
By Aroonim Bhuyan, IANS,
Dubai : A patch of arid desert land in Rajasthan is all set to turn green thanks to a technology transfer deal between a leading Indian specialty chemicals company and a university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Atul, a subsidiary of India's Lalbhai Group, has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UAE University to establish a strategic partnership for transfer of technology to set up a state-of-the-art date palm tissue culture production unit in Rajasthan.
Google Street View also copied people’s emails, passwords
By IANS,
London : In a major privacy breach, internet search giant Google copied computer passwords and entire emails from households across Britain.
Moon landing myth? Decades later, conspiracy theories remain
By Peer Meinert, DPA,
Washington : Even conspiracy theories must sometimes be taken seriously.
Every week Roger Launius, chief historian at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, devotes his time to debunking one of history's favourite such theories: That astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin never landed on the moon.
The entire July 20, 1969, landing and the spacewalk several hours later was just a show, all lies, filmed in a Hollywood studio or in a desert, the sceptics say.
Few other conspiracy theories have proven so popular or long-lived.
Use of nanoparticles fraught with risks, warn scientists
By IANS
New York : The inevitable has happened - as the use of nano particles grows, scientists have sounded a warning on their impact on the environment and on human health.
Take, for instance, the case of nanoparticle silver. Known for its antibacterial and odour-fighting properties, this nanoparticle is now being extensively used in products ranging from socks to bandages to washing machines.
Now, concerned scientists are urging a closer look at the unforeseen consequences of ordinary laundering washing off substantial amounts of the nanosilver particles into natural waterways.
HD DVD may give up stage to Blu-ray format
By Xinhua
Beijing : HD DVD may disapear from our lives while Toshiba Corp is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp, media reported Monday.
The move will likely put an end to a battle that has gone on for several years between consortiums led by Toshiba and Sony vying to set the standard for the next-generation DVD and compatible video equipment.
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.
Astronauts install ammonia tank on space station
By DPA,
Washington : Two astronauts from the space shuttle Discovery completed a more than six-hour-long spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) Friday, installing a new ammonia tank used in the cooling system, NASA said.
US astronaut John "Danny" Olivas and Swede Christer Fuglesang ended their mission successfully at 0451 GMT. They got started nearly an hour later than planned because of problems with a communications device in Olivas' spacesuit.
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.
NASA’s WISE Eye spots near-earth asteroid
By IANS,
Washington : NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has spotted its first never-before-seen near-Earth object (NEO), the first of hundreds it is expected to find during its mission to map the whole sky in infrared light.
NEOs are asteroids and comets with orbits that pass relatively close to Earth's path around the sun. In extremely rare cases of an impact, the objects may devastate the Earth's surface.
An asteroid, about 10 km wide, is thought to have plunged into our planet 65 million years ago, triggering a global disaster and obliterating dinosaurs.
Household robots? Sooner than you think
By Saurabh Yadav, IANS,
New Delhi : As tech companies around the world - and in India - develop smarter robots, it is only a matter of time before the big three of housework - vacuuming/cleaning, dishwashing and cooking - are done successfully by robots, thus liberating urban households from dependence on the almighty housemaid.
Japanese auto giant Toyota has announced that it intends to start selling next-generation household robots by 2010 and the South Korean government has said that it aims at having a robot in each home by 2013.
Eurofighter Typhoon targets 300 additional orders in next 20 years
By IANS,
New Delhi: The four-nation Eurofighter consortium foresees substantial growth opportunities on the world market, with India playing a crucial role, it said Friday.
"We evaluate the global demand for combat aircraft in the next 20 years at around 800 units. For Eurofighter Typhoon, we target 300 additional export contracts, with Asia representing a substantial part of these orders," Enzo Casolini, CEO of Eurofighter GmbH, said.
E-mail etiquette: A matter of survival
By Jay Dougherty, DPA,
Washington : Business people send out some six trillion e-mail messages each year, according to US-based Ferris Research. That's probably not much of a surprise to most office workers today, who have seen e-mail usurp meetings and face-to-face conversations as a primary form of communication.
Russian scientists offer hope for HIV vaccine
By RIA Novosti
Novosibirsk (Russia) : Russian scientists have developed a potential HIV vaccine.
"As we know there is no HIV vaccine. The Americans had high hopes of developing one, but the three vaccines developed most recently all failed trials. The specialists from Vector said there is a hope for an effective vaccine," said a leading geneticist, Vladimir Shumny.
Vector stands for the Russian Virology and Biotechnology Research Centre. It is located at Novosibirsk in West Siberia.
Warner Music, Amazon team up to sell DRM tunes
By Xinhua
Beijing : Warner Music is thumbing its nose at Apple and will sell music downloads without copyright protection technology through Amazon's online store.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been vocal about persuading record labels to sell music downloads without copyright protection technology -- also known as DRM, or digital rights management. In announcing a deal with EMI to sell its music on iTunes free of DRM, Jobs predicted that half the music on iTunes would be DRM-free by the end of the year.
India tests two nuke capable missiles
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: India Saturday successfully tested two indigenously developed nuclear capable missiles, Dhanush and Prithvi II, an official said.
"Both the missiles were successfully launched at the same time at about 5.30 a.m.," S.P. Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Orissa's Balasore district, told IANS.
The Prithvi II surface-to-surface ballistic missile, with a range of 350 km, was launched from Chandipur, 230 km from Bhubaneswar.
ISS astronauts’ return delayed after Russian craft failure
Washington : The return of three International Space Station (ISS) astronauts, originally scheduled for later this week, has been delayed due to the failure...
Now, a robotic underwater vehicle powered by ocean movement
By IANS,
Washington : A robotic underwater vehicle that is powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy has been developed, holding out promise of almost indefinite monitoring of the ocean depths for climate and marine life studies.
Researchers have successfully demonstrated the Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle that uses a novel thermal recharging engine, powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ocean depths.
Kerala-based SunTec ties up with eServGlobal
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Communication and payment service major eServGlobal has signed a partnership agreement with the city-based billing solutions provider SunTec, the latter announced here Tuesday.
SunTec said in a statement that the global WiMax market is rapidly evolving and more than 200 networks were now being deployed and over 100 other trials were in progress.
eServGlobal will use SunTec's TBMS-T product suite, which is designed to help service providers of the communications, media and entertainment industry launch new services quickly and achieve customer growth.
Russia’s Glonass satellite system to be fully operational in 2010
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia's Glonass satellite system is expected to become fully operational in 2010, if it receives sufficient financing, the head of the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on Saturday.
Glonass (Global Navigation Satellite System) is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), which is designed for both military and civilian use, and allows users to identify their positions in real time.
Scientists on track to slow down aging in humans
By IANS
Washington : Researchers have identified 25 genes regulating lifespan in two organisms separated by 1.5 billion years - of which 15 are very similar to that of humans.
And thanks to that similarity, it may now be possible for scientists to target the genes to help slow down aging and treat related conditions.
The findings of the study have been published online in the journal Genome Research.
The two organisms are the single-celled budding yeast and the roundworm C. elegans - both commonly used models for aging research.
ISRO chief jubilant over successful launch of India’s mission moon
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : "My heartiest congratulations to you all for the remarkable job. A remarkable journey to the moon has begun," a jubilant G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said on the successful launch of India's first mission to the moon from here Wednesday morning.
"We have fought against many odds, including the weather in the last few days, to achieve this success.
Pune to host national robotics contest
By IANS
Pune : Thirty-eight teams from engineering colleges around India are to participate in a contest here March 8-9 where the robots made by them will compete to steal pots of 'butter'.
Aptly called 'Mission Govinda', inspired by Hindu Lord Krishna's childhood stories of stealing butter, the national robotic contest will have teams from all the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and region engineering colleges competing at the event being held at Maharashra Institute of Technology (MIT).
Scientists explain why love game is fraught with perils
By IANS,
London : A model developed by scientists delves into why courtship or the mating game is often protracted and fraught with perils.
The study, by researchers by University College London (UCL), University of Warwick (UW) and LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science), shows that extended courtship enables a male to signal his suitability to a female and enables the female to reject him if unsuitable.
US solar industry ‘injured’ by Chinese solar cells
By IANS,
Beijing : The solar industry in America was "materially injured" by imports of solar cells from China, a US trade panel has claimed.
US’ Avid Tech eyes regional Indian TV
By IANS,
Chennai : US-based Avid Technology Inc, a global major in digital nonlinear media creation, management and distribution solutions, is betting big on the booming Indian regional TV industry for its future growth.
Operating in three business segments - video and film editing, broadcast and services and solutions - with a market leadership position in the first sector, Avid is now looking at the growing Indian satellite television broadcasting market.
Russia needs $5 bn to complete its space station segment
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia will need an additional $5 billion to complete construction of its segment of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2015, the head of Russia's rocket and space corporation Energia said.
The ISS is a joint project of space agencies from the US, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan. The orbital station is likely to remain operational until 2020.
Gates Expects Microsoft to Launch New Windows in Next Year
By SPA
Washington : Microsoft Corporation co-founder Bill Gates said Friday he expects the new version of Windows operating software, currently called Windows 7, to be released “sometime in the next year or so.”
Microsoft has said it expects to release a new version of Windows about three years after the introduction of Vista in early 2007. A company spokeswoman said Gates’ comments are in line with a development cycle that usually releases a test version of the software before its official introduction.
Updated Google Earth exposes Israeli military sites
By DPA
Jerusalem : Google Earth's upgraded archive of satellite pictures exposes key Israeli military and security sites, the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily reported Friday, warning it made them easy potential targets for terrorists.
Google upgraded its satellite images of Israel, almost doubling their resolution, in the past days, Yediot said, adding the new images consist of one pixel per two square metres, compared to previous ones which consisted of one pixel representing only 10-20 square metres on earth.
Spacewalkers attach European lab to ISS
By Xinhua
Washington : Atlantis shuttle astronauts wrapped up nearly eight hours of spacewalk Monday after successfully attaching Europe's Columbus Laboratory to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).
Astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love spent almost eight hours working to help attach the 10-ton Columbus laboratory to the ISS and add a new room to the high-flying outpost.
Washington : Atlantis shuttle astronauts wrapped up nearly eight hours of spacewalk Monday after successfully attaching Europe's Columbus Laboratory to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).
Astronauts Rex Walheim and Stanley Love spent almost eight hours working to help attach the 10-ton Columbus laboratory to the ISS and add a new room to the high-flying outpost.
Camping on the moon? NASA tests tent in Antarctica
By Xinhua
Washington : NASA is sending a prototype inflatable habitat to Antarctica to see how it stands up during a year of use, said an official with the space agency.
"Testing the inflatable habitat in one of the harshest, most remote sites on earth gives us the opportunity to see what it would be like to use for lunar exploration," said Paul Lockhart, director of Constellation Systems of NASA.
The prototype was inflated one last time Wednesday at ILC Dover corp. in Delaware, before being packed and shipped to Antarctica's McMurdo Station.
Five space walks, mock repairs planned for Discovery
By DPA
Washington : US space shuttle Discovery plans a full schedule of five space walks on its next mission to the International Space Station (ISS), set to begin Oct 23, NASA officials said.
Discovery's crew is to bring up and install the Harmony module to serve as a port for additional international laboratories constructed in Japan, Germany and elsewhere.
But NASA officials said Friday they expect to add a fifth space walk to test some new repair equipment that could be used to fix heat-shield damage that can happen to shuttles during launch, according to spaceflightnow.com.
Don’t have a laptop? Try the virtual computer!
By Jeevan Mathew Kurian, IANS,
Kozhikode : You have heard of desktops and laptops, but now two engineering students in Kerala have come up with a virtual computer that can be accessed from anywhere in the world. All it needs is an internet connection.
K. Ansar and P.P. Ismail, final year computer science students at an engineering college in Vatakara, about 45 km from here, have set up www.bloxtr.com, the prototype of a virtual computer in which you can store all your important documents, favourite music, colourful pictures and even videos.
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.
NEC launches world’s fastest supercomputer
By DPA
Tokyo : NEC Corporation of Japan said Thursday it has launched the world's fastest vector-type supercomputer.
The new SX-9 model is equipped with a central processing unit core that can process information at a maximum speed of 102.4 gigaflops. One gigaflop is equivalent to one billion floating point operations per second.
When connected with up to 512 units, one unit of the SX-9, which can be equipped with up to 16 CPUs, can perform information processing at 839 teraflops. One teraflop represents one trillion floating point operations per second.
MIT researchers work on more powerful batteries
By IANS,
Washington: A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is developing a technology that could lead to more powerful, lightweight batteries than existing ones.
Yang Shao-Horn, MIT associate professor of mechanical engineering, says that many groups have been pursuing work on lithium-air batteries, a technology that could advance work on energy density.
But, there has been a lack of understanding of what kinds of electrode materials could promote the electrochemical reactions that take place in these batteries.
Exhibition on train to inspire science among youth
By IANS
Chennai : A unique exhibition on board a train will travel to 57 destinations across India to encourage youths into the world of science.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will officially flag off the Science Express here Oct 30.
The journey covering 57 destinations in 200 days, "will enthral everyone into the world of science," said T. Ramasai, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST).
The exhibition is a joint initiative of DST and a chemical firm BASF.
Children can benefit from well-monitored interaction with PCs
By DPA,
Hamburg : Time spent working with computers can have a positive effect on children. Many games demand strategic thinking and skill. Online communities can also help children learn to report on their experiences, reports the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), a German health insurer.
Terror gene that can make you laugh too
By IANS,
London : When watching the "Exorcist" did you scream in terror at scenes of spinning heads or did you laugh it off? Depends on which version of the anxiety gene you are born with, scientists say.
A new study says there are different versions of the gene linked to feelings of anxiety which explains how different people react differently to horror films.
A particular variant of what is called the 'COMT' gene affects a chemical in the brain that is linked to anxiety, they have found.
Scientists start regional network to study earthquakes in Himalayas
By Sujit Chakraborty, IANS,
Agartala : The Holy Grail for geologists is the ability to predict an earthquake. While they continue their search, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) is putting in place a network by which they can forecast overall seismic activity in the Himalayas, one of the most quake-prone regions of the world.
NASA to launch Discovery shuttle to ISS on Tuesday
By RIA Novosti,
Washington : The launch of the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station is scheduled for 1:36 a.m. EDT [05:36 GMT] on Tuesday, a NASA spokesman told RIA Novosti on Monday.
The spokesman said Discovery's technical systems are in order and the launch could only be delayed due to a sudden change in the weather.
According to shuttle weather officer Kathy Winter, there is an 80% chance the shuttle will be launched on Tuesday.
LEDs set to revolutionise lighting
By IANS,
Washington : Energy efficient, ecologically sound light emitting diodes, or LEDs, are emerging as the hottest choice in illuminating homes and businesses.
"We are on the verge of a revolution," says E. Fred Schubert, professor of electrical engineering and physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute New York and co-author of a paper on the subject. "There are tremendous opportunities that open up with LED."
Scientists identify new longevity protein
By IANS,
Washington: The level of a single protein found in the tiny roundworm C. elegans determines how long it lives, says a new study.
Worms born without this protein, called arrestin, lived about one-third longer than normal, while worms that had triple the amount of arrestin lived one-third less.
The research also showed that arrestin interacts with several other proteins within cells to regulate longevity. The human version of one of these proteins is PTEN, a well-known tumour suppressor.
Google Earth reconstructs ancient Rome in 3D
By IANS,
London : Google Earth has launched a 3D reconstruction of ancient Rome as it may have been in 320 AD.
The virtual traveller can now see every building as it stood in Rome at that time. In reality, just 300 buildings of classical Rome have survived, in most cases in ruins.
The 3D model is visible on the website as a layer. The layer floats a few metres above the satellite image of present-day Rome so that users can have a sense of locating where the ancient structures once stood.
Mars’ violent, volcanic past comes to light
By IANS
London : Mars has undergone massive volcanic upheavals that alternatively spewed lava and water onto its surface, giving the red planet its current contours.
German scientists have come to this conclusion after viewing the latest images of those contours - captured by the high-resolution stereo camera (HRSC) of Mars Express, the European Space Agency's (ESA) spacecraft circling the planet, reports Scincedaily.
Google enables Indians to build maps of their villages, cities
By IANS,
New Delhi : For a vast country which lacks adequately detailed maps for many of its areas, India is now finding an unexpected solution in the form of the Google Map Maker.
Google recently extended its 'map maker' service to India and has, within three weeks of its launch, drawn quite some attention to it in cyberspace.
Supporters of the project started sending messages out via the net, urging friends and colleagues to create their own detailed maps -- by adding details of features in the villages or urban areas where they live.
Maveric Systems develops automated software test tool
By IANS
Chennai : Targeting a higher share in the $8 billion Indian offshore testing opportunity, Chennai-based independent software testing company Maveric Systems Limited has come out with an automated software testing tool.
Developed at an investment of around $1 million, the proprietary software tool called Testac promises to reduce software testing time by 30 percent, CEO Ranga Reddy told reporters.
According to him, Maveric Systems is the only Indian software testing company to have such a proprietary tool.
Chip-maker AMD reports sixth quarterly loss in a row
By IANS,
San Francisco : One of the world's biggest chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) posted its sixth consecutive quarterly loss, but the company executives vowed a return to profitability in the second half of the year, the New York Times reported Friday.
AMD Thursday reported a net loss in the first quarter of $358 million, or 59 cents a share, narrowed from a net loss of $611 million in the year-ago quarter. The net loss included an impact of $50 million, or 8 cents a share, related to the acquisition of the graphics technology maker ATI.
U.S. researchers discover mystery about solar wind
By Xinhua,
Los Angeles : U.S. researchers have for the first time discovered that the solar wind, a stream of energized particles that flows out from the sun, varies greatly in how it affects the earth's magnetosphere.
As a result of the discovery, spacecraft, power grids and other modern facets of life could be made safer, according to researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
The mystery about how the solar wind interacts with earth's atmosphere had puzzled scientists for half century.
Sky gazers in for celestial treat Tuesday
By IANS,
New Delhi : Sky gazers can look forward to an exhibition of celestial fireworks as the night sky will be lit up by Geminid meteor showers that are expected to peak Tuesday.
Indian IT industry bucks global recession to sustain growth
By IANS,
New Delhi: The Indian IT industry managed to limit the impact of global recession last fiscal and maintain the growth momentum, albeit lower than that in the boom times, says tech publisher Dataquest.
"Export firms did better in recession-hit developed markets than those whose business is limited to the Indian market," Dataquest editor Prasanto K. Roy said.
Though the business of top 20 firms led by Indian IT bellwethers TCS, Infosys and Wipro, and multinationals such as HP and IBM, grew by an average 19 percent, seven of these posted single-digit revenue growth.
NASA adds three more days to shuttle mission
By DPA
Washington : The ongoing stay of the US space shuttle Endeavour at the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) has been extended by three days, the US space agency NASA announced.
The revised schedule has allowed a fourth, extra space walk by shuttle astronauts Friday.
The decision was made after the successful operation of a new electricity hook-up allowing the shuttle to draw power from the ISS. The Station-to-Shuttle Power Transfer System allows the Endeavour crew to conserve the shuttle's battery power.
Indian researcher creates compound that knocks out TB pathogen
By IANS,
Washington/New Delhi : An Indian researcher has created a compound that knocks out four of the tuberculosis bacterium's crucial metabolic pathways simultaneously, ultimately crippling the pathogen.
The development opens the way to designing a single drug that is safe and effective, and may replace the costly cocktail of drugs that people with tuberculosis (TB) must currently take to cure their disease.
PM greets citizens on National Technology Day
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday greeted the people on National Technology Day and said the use of technology should be...
Model predicts global warming will speed up after 2009
By Xinhua
Washington : Global warming will speed up in the next decade and at least half of the years after 2009 will be warmer than 1998, the warmest year on record, reported a UK team of scientists in their climate predictions.
The next-decade prediction results by scientists at Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research in the UK is published Thursday in the U.S. academic journal Science.
Bharti Airtel now third-largest mobile operator globally
New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it has become the third-largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscribers.
As per the latest...
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."
UAE to develop mega science centre
By IANS
Dubai : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Abu Dhabi's Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) and Cosmology Centre of California University to develop a mega complex for training and research in science and humanities.
The MoU to develop the Plaza of Intelligence and Innovation City, which will come up by 2015, was signed this week, WAM news agency said.
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.
NASA spacecraft flies by Mercury for second time
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA spacecraft MESSENGER has successfully made the second of the three planned flybys of Mercury on Monday, taking pictures of most of its remaining unseen surface.
The spacecraft passed 125 miles (about 200 km) above the planet's cratered surface, capturing more than 1,200 pictures and collecting a variety of science data.
Mission scientists hope to begin receiving the new data from MESSENGER in the very early morning on Tuesday.