Russia to create manned assembly complex in orbit
By Xinhua
Moscow : Russia is going to create a manned assembly complex in orbit, the chief of the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) Anatoly Perminov said here on Saturday.
"We shall create this complex in order to make dockings in orbit, build craft there and send them to the Moon, Mars and other planets," Perminov was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as telling a new briefing.
"This proposal was on the whole approved at the meeting of the Russian Security Council on Friday, but a specific time has not been determined," he said.
‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ earns $72.7 mn, breaks opening day record
By IANS,
New York : "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" raked in an estimated $72.7 million on approximately 8,500 screens at 4,024 centres and has broken the record for the biggest one-day gross.
Director Chris Weitz's film beats out "The Dark Knight", which earned $67.2 million on around 9,300 screens at 4,366 centres.
Cuban scientists develop cancer drug from scorpion venom
By IANS
Cienfuegos (Cuba) : Cuban scientists have developed a drug from scorpion venom, which they say could go a long way in fighting cancer, Spanish news agency Prensa Latina reported Thursday.
"The researchers have been studying the breeding, handling and use of scorpion venom in their Cienfuegos breeding centre, which has 400 scorpions at present but would increase to 5,000 next year," team leader Fabio Linares of the Pharmaceutical Biological Laboratories in Havana said Wednesday.
The drug can be used to treat brain tumours, pancreas and prostate cancer.
NASA, Europeans plan new missions to Jupiter, Saturn
By Xinhua,
Washington : The US space agency NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) would conduct missions to Jupiter, Saturn and many moons that circle the planets, the agencies announced.
The missions include sending multiple spacecraft to the Jupiter and Saturn systems to explore the planets and their unique satellites, such as Jupiter's ice-covered Europa and Saturn's shrouded moon Titan.
Barriers remain on path to web access for disabled
By Sebastian Bronst, DPA,
Stuttgart : The Internet has no boundaries. At least that's the conventional wisdom. Nonetheless, hurdles remain for many who would like access to the worldwide web, especially those with disabilities. At issue are details seldom considered by web designers, programmers and non-disabled users.
But there are solutions, for example for blind people who want to surf the web. Screenreaders dictate website contents or print pages in Braille format.
Manmohan advocates nuclear technology for world growth
By Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: Advocating greater use of nuclear technology to meet today's developmental challenges, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday announced India's ambitious plans to increase India's installed capacity for nuclear energy more than seven fold by 2022.
"Our target is to increase our installed capacity more than seven fold to 35,000 MWe by the year 2022, and to 60,000 MWe by 2032," he told world leaders from 47 nations gathered here for the global Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama.
Cyber space needs rules: China
By IANS,
Beijing: Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Saturday said that "cyber space needs rules and cooperation, not war" and stressed that China is vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Honeybees able to learn different ‘dialects’: scientists
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Honeybees are able to understand different "languages" communicated through the dances of bees from different continents, a team of scientists from China, Australia and Germany have found.
Songkun Su of Zhejiang University's College of Animal Sciences, who headed the study, said the research team found the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana cerana (Acc), could quickly grasp the distinctive dance of the European Apis mellifera ligustica (Aml) subspecies, as they conveyed information on the locations of food sources.
India can send crew to space in seven years
By IANS
Washington : India will be able to send manned space flights in seven to eight years, G. Madhavan Nair, head of India's space programme, said here.
"We have sensitised the government on manned space flights. In seven to eight years, we will be able to carry crew to orbit and back," Nair, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Space Commission, said Wednesday.
He said India believes that space is the next frontier and international cooperation rather than competition in this field will be the future.
India to witness partial lunar eclipse June 26
By IANS,
New Delhi : Look towards the east after sunset Sunday and you will see upper part of moon's disk darkened as parts of India witness a partial lunar eclipse.
The lunar eclipse is visible in eastern Asia, Australia, Antarctica, parts of the Americas and the Pacific Ocean, a statement from Ministry of Earth Sciences said Wednesday. This eclipse would be the last one in 2010 for India.
"Visibility in India will be at the end of the eclipse. The ending of the eclipse is visible from the extreme northeastern states at the time of moonrise during the eclipse," it said.
‘Long distance flights with stopovers more eco-efficient’
By IANS,
New Delhi : Long distance flights with stopovers are more efficient, an expert in the field says, pointing out that a Delhi-New York flight with a stopover in Europe can save nine tonnes of fuel and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a staggering 28 percent against a non-stop flight between the two destinations.
Scientists demystify behaviour of glass
By IANS,
Sydney : Two scientists are one step closer to explaining the nature of glass and its transition from liquid to solid, says a study.
Peter Harrowell and Asaph Widmer-Cooper, theoretical chemists from the School of Chemistry along with colleagues from Columbia University, have been studying the transition of a fluid into a rigid glass in an attempt to understand stress relaxation in a disordered state.
Where ‘original Indian animation’ is name of game
By V. Vijayalakshmi, IANS,
Pune : One tour of Pune's Big Animation studio makes you realise that the Indian animation industry has come of age. And the man behind this set-up is Ashish Kulkarni, a pioneer in the field.
Kulkarni has created this massive studio with a built-up area of 60,000 sq ft, which will focus on original Indian content in animation.
"It was in 1995 that animation channels were first seen in India and there were no Indian stories. When our kids go to foreign universities they should have some knowledge of Indian epics," Kulkarni told IANS.
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.
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".
U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis blasts off
By Xinhua
Washington : After a two-month delay, U.S. space shuttle Atlantis finally blasted off on Thursday from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on a mission to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS).
Scientists find signs of flowing water on Mars
By IANS/WAM,
Abu Dhabi : The first signs of flowing water on Mars have been discovered by US scientists, the journal Science reported.
Corals may not recover from bleaching
By IANS,
Sydney : Coral communities in Australia's Great Barrier Reef might not be able to recover from bleaching as easily as previously presumed, says a new study.
A two-year study by a University of Queensland team has found that contrary to perception, it is not possible for bleached corals to recover or become more resistant to bleaching by taking up more heat tolerant species of their micro-algae partners.
Memory chip of future promises massive storage capacity
By IANS,
New York : A hardy, heat-resistant, graphite-based memory device holds the potential of making massive amounts of storage available for computers, handheld media players, cell phones and cameras.
Rice University researchers, who are currently developing the device, said the solid-state device takes advantage of the conducting properties of graphene and would have many advantages over today's state-of-the-art flash memory and other new technologies.
Why India’s $35 computer joke isn’t funny
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
Here we go again! India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has "launched" a $35 computer, evidently a "dream project" of his. The touch-screen, Linux-based device looks iPad-inspired, but we know little about how it works.
It emerged from a student project with a bill of material adding up to $47, a price that the minister wants to bring down to $10 "to take forward inclusive education". It promises browser and PDF reader, wi-fi, 2GB memory, USB, Open Office, and multimedia content viewers and interfaces.
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.
Bill Gates says he seldom feels drained
By IANS,
New Delhi : Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates Friday said he is a 24-hour technology person and rarely feels drained.
"I am a 24-hour technology person. I am not that big text messaging and I am impressed with the young people doing that," said Gates, on visit here for overseeing the philanthropic activities of the foundation he has formed with his wife Melinda.
However, Gates said, he reads random articles in silence whenever he feels drained.
Calling social networking sites "irritating", Gates said he is flooded by "friend requests" everyday on Facebook.
Scientists tackling Internet’s ‘black holes’
By IANS
Washington : You might have heard of distant black holes swallowing up light or crunching ship-sized objects into tiny teaspoon replicas. But what about black holes in cyberspace, here on earth every day?
At any given moment, a portion of the vast computer traffic disappears into these vast sinks, out of reach or trace. Try logging into the web. It could be a very frustrating experience.
Apple’s third generation iPhone launches in India
By IANS,
New Delhi/Gurgaon : Reminiscent of the craze that follows the release of Harry Potter books, crowds lined up outside a Gurgaon mall and a few shops in Delhi to pick up the latest Apple iPhone that went on sale at midnight Thursday in India. And no one was daunted by the Rs.30,000-plus price.
The Apple iPhone 3G (third generation) was launched across India by telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.
Found: the cells that make people fat
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have identified an important fat precursor cell that may explain how changes in the numbers of fat cells might increase obesity.
The finding could also have implications for understanding how fat cells affect conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
"The identification of white adipocyte progenitor cells provides a means for identifying factors that regulate the proliferation and differentiation of fat cells," said co-author Jeffrey Friedman, professor at Rockefeller University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
US astronauts vote from space
By DPA,
Washington : Two NASA astronauts did not let their distance from Earth deter them from voting in the US presidential election Tuesday.
Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff voted from their current home in the International Space Station - 322 km above Earth and orbiting at 28,200 km per hour - and beamed back a message urging others to exercise their franchise.
Hurricane may cut short Endeavour mission: NASA
By DPA
Washington : Hurricane Dean may force NASA to cut short by one day the mission of the space shuttle Endeavour, space agency officials said Saturday.
With astronauts on the shuttle preparing for their fourth and final space walk later Saturday, officials were keeping a wary eye on the path of hurricane Dean and the possibility that the flight control centre in Houston, Texas might have to be evacuated.
The Endeavour is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) Monday and land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Wednesday.
Lucknow geologist selected for second Indian trip to Arctic
By IANS,
Lucknow : Dhruv Sen, a Lucknow University geologist, Saturday said he had again been selected for the second Indian expedition to the Arctic.
"It is really a privilege for me as I am one of the eight scientists of the country who will be going on the Arctic expedition," an elated Sen told IANS.
All the eight members of the team would meet in Delhi and leave for the trip July 30, he said.
Sen said: "Geologically, the Arctic region is very interesting."
He was also a part of the first Indian Expedition to the Arctic in 2007.
‘Scientists a step closer to Jurassic Park’
By IANS,
London : Scientists are a step closer to resurrecting extinct animals after successfully cloning living mice from the cells of frozen animals, according to findings published Wednesday.
A team of Japanese scientists at the Centre for Developmental Biology, at the RIKEN research institute in Kobe, produced the clones after thawing mice that had been frozen at minus 20C for up to 16 years, British newspapers reported.
Russia claims 1.2 million km of Arctic
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russian scientists have claimed 1.2 million km of potentially energy-rich Arctic territory following preliminary research results released here Thursday.
"Preliminary results of an analysis of the Earth's crust show that the structure of the underwater Lomonosov mountain chain is similar to the world's other continental shelves, and the ridge is, therefore, part of Russia's landmass," the Russian Natural Resources Ministry said.
NASA spacecraft photographs avalanches on Mars
By Xinhua
Washington : A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near Mars' north pole, the space agency of the United States announced on Monday.
The image posted on NASA's official website shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
Washington : A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near Mars' north pole, the space agency of the United States announced on Monday.
The image posted on NASA's official website shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
Up above the world so high, tracking satellites in the sky
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Chennai : S.K. Shivakumar is 55 years old. For 32 years out of that, he has been the eyes and ears of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Shivakumar has lost count of the number of satellites he has tracked, but he thinks he is nearing his half century.
As the director, ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (Istrac), he is eagerly awaiting the Wednesday morning launch of India's first lunar orbiter Chandrayaan, so that he can start tracking it in slow motion.
Microsoft uses search prizes to close Google gap
San Francisco, Oct 3 (DPA) In a bid to close the ever-widening gap with Google on Internet searches, Microsoft has started offering consumers redeemable points for using its search service.
The programme was launched as new web traffic figures Thursday showed that Google had extended its lead to 63 percent of the US search market in August. Yahoo came in with a 19.6 percent share, followed by Microsoft with an 8.3 percent share.
Malicious software can invade smart phones, warns Indian American
By IANS,
Washington : Malicious software can now invade new generations of smart mobile phones, potentially with more serious consequences, says an Indian American computer scientist.
"Smart phones are essentially becoming regular computers," said Vinod Ganapathy, assistant professor of computer science at the Rutgers University' School of Arts and Sciences.
Filling fuel for cryogenic engine to start
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : Scientists were Thursday getting ready to launch an Indian-designed and built cryogenic engine to inject an advanced communication satellite into space. The filling of liquid fuel that will power the third stage of the 50-metre tall, 416-tonne Indian rocket to inject the satellite in geo-synchronous orbit is expected to start around 11.30 a.m.
Chandrayaan on course, will begin moon orbit by Saturday
By IANS,
Gandhinagar : Indian space scientists are hopeful that Chandrayaan-1 will Saturday start orbiting the moon.
"If everything goes right, by Nov 8, Chandrayaan-1 will start circling the moon," said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman Madhavan Nair here Tuesday.
The last orbit-raising manoeuvres to enter the lunar transfer trajectory were completed Tuesday by the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore, he said.
Digital camera resolution reaches a new high
By IANS,
New York : The Swedish company Hasselblad's announcement of the launch of Hasselblad H3DII-50, featuring a new Kodak 50-megapixel sensor, has pushed the available resolution in digital cameras to a new high.
Such high resolution goes beyond the needs of most consumers but professional photographers would appreciate the unprecedented level of detail provided by it.
US explorer traces asteroid near Tadpole Nebula
By IANS,
Los Angeles : NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has sent images of an asteroid marching across Tadpole Nebula.
As WISE scanned the sky on a recent mission, it caught the asteroid passing by in our solar system, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said Thursday.
The asteroid, 1719 Jens, left tracks across the image, seen as a line of yellow-green dots around the Tadpole Nebula, a star-forming region at 12,000 light years from the earth, Xinhua reported.
New measurements reveal slimmer Milky Way
By Xinhua,
Berlin : New measurements adopted by an international team of researchers have revealed a much "slimmer" Milky Way compared with previous estimates.
According to a press release from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) on Tuesday, the research led by Xiangxiang Xue of the National Astronomy Observatories of China has put the mass of the Milky Way at slightly under one trillion times the mass of the sun.
Research centre chief bans organic farming talk
By IANS
Nagpur : Even as the central government is promoting organic farming in a big way, the head of a central research institute in the agriculture sector refused to allow a talk on the subject by an expert at a farmers' fair held at Nagpur in Maharashtra.
Chinese software industry sees opportunity in Microsoft’s anti-piracy move
By Cheng Zhiliang and Quan Xiaoshu, Xinhua,
Beijing : When Microsoft noticed "misunderstandings" among the Chinese public over its "black screen" move to crack down on piracy, the country's domestic software industry saw opportunity and couldn't wait to embrace it.
A Kingsoft public relations manager said there were currently up to 120,000 daily Internet downloads of "WPS Office," the "Microsoft Office"-like software developed by Kingsoft Corporation Limited, compared with 50,000 to 60,000 downloads before the controversial Microsoft move.
India’s multipurpose scientific vessel ready
By IANS
Chennai : India's new multipurpose scientific vessel is ready for deployment and will be at the forefront of the country's sea research.
Named Sagar Nidhi, it is parked off the east coast of Tamil Nadu. Sagar Nidhi will be dedicated to the nation after Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal returns from Australia, officials at a scientists' meet here said.
It is expected to provide logistical support in India's Antarctic II and Arctic missions, which are on the cards in the next five years.
NASA buys life-like humanoid as tour guide
By IANS,
London : A life-like robot, which speaks more than a dozen languages and has a pawky sense of humour, has been bought by NASA to become a robotic tour guide.
Mysterious object seen refuelling from sun
By IANS,
London : An orbiting NASA space telescope has captured the footage of a planet-sized object flying close to the sun, and extending a "refuelling tube" into the sun's surface.
Indian American finds mastermind behind formation of our skin
By IANS,
Washington : An Indian American researcher has discovered the genetic mastermind that controls skin formation. The finding could help address skin disorders like eczema, psoriasis and wrinkles.
Skin is actually the largest organ in the human body, and has important functions in protecting people from infection, toxins, microbes and solar radiation.
YouTube gets billion hits per day
By DPA,
San Francisco : Google's online video site YouTube now gets a billion hits a day, the site's founder Chad Hurley said in a video posted Friday.
"Three years ago today (YouTube co-founder) Steve (Chen) and I stood in front of our offices and jokingly crowned ourselves the 'burger kings' of media," read the post, which was titled Y,000,000,000uTube.
Solar storm particles bombard earth relentlessly
By IANS,
Washington : Solar storm particles are relentlessly bombarding the earth, through two gaping breaches in the earth's magnetic field, which shields it from such particles, according to researchers.
"The discovery overturns a long-standing belief about how and when most of the solar particles penetrate earth's magnetic field, and could be used to predict when solar storms will be severe. Based on these results, we expect more severe storms during the upcoming solar cycle," said Vassilis Angelopoulos.
Manmohan watches as 100th Indian space mission blasts off
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
Pachauri advises Europe to follow Gandhian principle in tackling climate change
By EuAsiaNews
Brussels : Indian environmental scientist Rajendra Pachauri has said that Europe can set an example for the world in tackling climate change if it follows what it preaches.
"Within Europe itself the most apt philosophy or guiding principle would be what Mahatma Gandhi said, "be the change in what you want to see in the world,'' Pachauri told a session of the Climate Change Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels Wednesday evening.
NASA delays next Mars mission to 2011
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA's next Mars mission, Mars Science Laboratory, will launch two years later than previously planned, in the fall of 2011.
"A launch date of October 2009 no longer is feasible because of testing and hardware challenges that must be addressed to ensure mission success," NASA explained in a statement on Thursday.
The window for a 2009 launch ends in late October. The relative positions of Earth and Mars are favorable for flights to Mars only a few weeks every two years. So the next launch opportunity after 2009 is in 2011.
Microscope for objects 20,000 times thinner than hair on anvil
By IANS,
Washington : A physicist is all set to design an ultra powerful microscope that can look at molecules and objects 20,000 times thinner than a human hair.
The new microscope, to be built within the next year, will allow much greater precision in identifying objects, such as certain cellular proteins, by letting scientists see them individually and watch their movement in real time.
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.
NASA to launch Mars rover in November
By IANS,
Washington : NASA will launch its car-sized Mars rover named Curiosity later this month.
Watch Moon, Venus and Jupiter at their closest
By IANS,
New Delhi : As the sun went down Monday evening, the three brightest objects in the sky - Jupiter, Venus and Moon - came closest, a phenomenon that will not be visible again till 2012.
The two brightest planets in the solar system and the moon were seen just two degrees apart Monday evening and will be visible all through the night.
Several people thronged the Old Fort in the capital as Nehru Planetarium has put up telescopes so that the public can see the celestial activity.
Facebook, gadgets galore… Indian children take to ‘multi-tasking’
By Madhulika Sonkar, IANS,
Chandrayaan launch has realised the dream of Vikram Sarabhai: Modi
By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday drove down to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) centre here and congratulated the scientists for the successful launch of India's maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-1.
Global warming greatest in the past decade: study
By IANS,
Washington : Surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1,300 years, according to a study.
If climate scientists include the somewhat controversial data derived from tree-ring records, the warming is anomalous (deviating from the normal or common order) for at least 1,700 years.
"Some have argued that tree-ring data is unacceptable for this type of study," said Michael Mann, associate professor of meteorology and geosciences and director of Penn State's Earth System Science Centre.
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.
European team discovers smallest extrasolar planet
By IANS,
London : A European satellite has discovered the smallest planet outside of our solar system, which is twice as large as earth and orbiting a star slightly smaller than the sun.
The planet is believed to be composed of rock and water, and takes 20 hours to orbit its host star, the shortest orbital period of all exoplanets found so far.
Astronomers infer its temperature over 1,000 degree Celsius, hot enough to make it covered in lava or superheated water vapour.
Shuttle undocks from ISS, heads home
By RIA Novosti
Washington : The U.S. shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) ending its 12-day mission, which saw a record breaking five space walks, a NASA spokesperson said.
Endeavour, which delivered the first part of the Kibo Japanese laboratory and the Dextre Canadian-made robot, is due to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday.
The second and main part of the Japanese laboratory is due to be delivered by space shuttle Discovery in late May.
Chinese to train Bolivians how to operate satellites
By IANS,
La Paz : Seventy-four Bolivians will get training from Chinese scientists on how to operate communication satellites, Bolivia's vice-minister for telecommunications Roy Mendez said.
The trainees will learn the techniques of construction, pre-launch testing and gathering data from the satellites from the space.
He said a newly formed Bolivian Space Agency will also give training to professionals, especially young Bolivians, on how to operate and administrate Tupac Katari satellites, Prensa Latina reported.
NASA postpones Discovery shuttle launch until May 25
By RIA Novosti
Washington : NASA has postponed the Discovery shuttle launch until May 25 to finalize the preparation of the external fuel tank and due to unfavorable launch conditions before that date, the space agency said on its website.
During Discovery's S-124 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), originally scheduled to launch on April 24, the shuttle and its seven-member crew will deliver the pressurized module and the robotic arm of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory.
India schedules auction of third generation telecom spectrum
By IANS,
New Delhi : India Wednesday announced the schedule for auctioning radio frequency spectrum to private players for third generation (3G) telephony, with the process due to begin Thursday by issuing a general notice to interested players.
The schedule calls for the process to end April 10. The government also said auction for spectrum for broadband services will also be held two days after the process concludes for 3G spectrum.
Iran n-talks under Khamenei’s guidance: Rouhani
Tehran: Tehran will continue nuclear talks with the six world powers under the guidelines of supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani...
World’s first pre-quake alert system set up in Japan
By DPA
Tokyo : The Japan Meteorological Agency Monday began operating the world's first system to give pre-earthquake warnings to the public.
The system is designed to detect earthquakes by sensing small seismic waves that precede big quakes and give warnings a few seconds before a major quake hits to regions expected to suffer damage.
Warnings would be aired through a public television station, NHK, and private stations as well as radio stations, the agency said.
The service is only available in Japan.
China launches solar power project
By Xinhua,
Wuhan (China) : China has begun construction of a 500-megawatt solar power plant in the country's central Hubei province, officials said.
The plant is being built in the provincial capital of Wuhan at a cost of $450 million.
The project is a joint venture between Greenway Solar-Tech Co. Ltd. Of China and the Evergreen Solar Inc. of the US, said Ding Kongxian, chief executive officer of the US firm, Saturday. The construction of the plant will be completed in the next three years.
Clue to why humans and chimps differ
By IANS
Toronto : Why do humans differ so much from chimpanzees despite having genes that are almost 99 percent identical?
The answer, according to researchers at the University of Toronto, lies in the different ways in which humans and chimpanzees splice genetic materials to create proteins.
Splicing is the process by which the coding regions of genes are joined to generate genetic messages that specify the production of proteins, the key element of cells.
New technique developed to ‘milk’ ostrich semen
By IANS,
Sydney : Australian researchers have developed what is being touted as the first “animal- and human-friendly” technique of masturbating an ostrich.
The new technique being used by researchers tasked with collecting semen and artificially inseminating the large and rather fearsome birds - as well as their cousins, the emus - relies on the use of a dummy female.
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.
When WhatsApp, BBM foxed poll officials
By Mohit Dubey
Lucknow: How does one prevent hate speeches and inflammatory videos from being shared through applications like WhatsApp and on BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)?...
11,000-year-old human sub-species found in China
By IANS,
London : Scientists have found a previously unknown human subspecies, distinct from the present day Homosapiens, that may have lived in China 11,500 years ago.
Intel founder gives $200mn to build world’s largest telescope
By Xinhua
Los Angeles : Intel Corp founder Gordon Moore and his wife Betty have donated $200 million to build the world's largest optical telescope, according to media reports.
The telescope will have a mirror nearly 100 feet across and three times the size of the current record holder. The donation went to Caltech (California Institute of Technology) and the University of California, said the Los Angeles Times.
Caltech officials said matching gifts from two other institutions are expected to bring the total to $300 million.
Robot sets record for longest walk
By IANS
Washington : A robot has set an unofficial world record by walking non-stop a little over nine kilometres, until it stopped and fell because of a suspected battery run down.
An earlier version of the robot, called the Cornell Ranger and created by Cornell University engineers, had walked over a kilometre. Other robots have walked up to 2.5 km on a treadmill, ScienceDaily reported.
US lauds India’s moon mission
By IANS,
New Delhi : Lauding India on its first unmanned scientific mission to the moon, the US Wednesday said it showcased its technological prowess and exemplified ideals of bilateral partnership between the two countries.
“The US congratulates India on the successful launch. This is a proud moment in Indian history and demonstrates India's technological prowess by joining the international community in the peaceful exploration of space,” US ambassador David Mulford said in a statement here.
10-fold increase needed in network to track carbon emissions
BY IANS,
Washington : Monitoring greenhouse gas levels will require a global data collection network 10 times larger than the current set-up, according to a study.
Scientists propose increasing the number of measurement sites from 100 to 1,000, which would decrease the uncertainty in computer models and help scientists better quantify changes.
The study's authors, Melinda Marquis and Pieter Tans, said the need for improved monitoring was imperative in view of atmospheric carbon concentrations now at 385 parts per million, ScienceDaily reported.
Kazakh astronaut to fly to ISS, Russian hopeful grounded
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A Kazakh national will fly to the International Space Station in October 2009, a spokesman for the Kazakh National Space Agency said on Thursday.
Talgat Musabayev said the Kazakh cosmonaut would fly to the "Russian segment" of the ISS, adding however, that "the financial components of the flight" had yet to be discussed at a meeting of a Russian-Kazakh commission.
He also expressed his gratitude to the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
500-year-old statues found in Peru
By EFE,
Lima : Peruvian archaeologists have found 12 wooden statues more than 500 years old in the archaeological complex of Chan Chan.
Cristobal Campana, director of one of the teams working at Chan Chan, told EFE Tuesday that the statues were discovered at the entrance to the �an An palace, the most modern building on the site.
Chan Chan, located near the southern city of Trujillo, was the capital of the Chimu kingdom, and had in its period of maximum splendour as many as 60,000 inhabitants in an area of 1,400 hectares.
Device that won’t let motorists fall asleep
By IANS,
London : Scientists have developed a device to prevent motorists from falling asleep -- potentially saving 300,000 people from sudden deaths worldwide.
Move over Orkut, here comes India’s BigAdda
By Azera Rahman, IANS
New Delhi : Check the scribbles in your phone scrapbook, send friend requests on the wireless, have discussions in as many as eight different languages...all on India's social networking site, BigAdda, which could give Orkut and Facebook a run for its money.
With an estimated 1.24 million users so far, this five-month old networking site is fast catching up among Indian youth, especially in tier 2 cities like Guwahati, Nashik, Surat, Tuticorin, Bhilai and Amritsar.
New Chinese law to encourage innovation
By Xinhua
Beijing : China's top legislature Saturday adopted an amendment to the Law on Science and Technology Progress that shows more tolerance of failures in scientific projects but brooks no fraud or manipulation of data.
The law, for the first time, allows scientists to report failures in innovative researches without harming their eligibility for future funding.
The amendment, which is to take effect July 1, 2008, was approved at the seven-day meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) that ended Saturday.
An eco-friendly toilet that does not smell either
By DPA
Tokyo : Tired of smelly public toilets? Check out a prototype Japanese bio-toilet that emits no foul smell and helps the environment at the same time.
A bio-toilet developed by a Japanese non-profit organisation is designed to activate microorganisms living in cider chips and decompose excrement.
In the decomposition process, only nitrogen gas and water are left. The water can be reused for toilet flushing.
Now search for Internet images in 300 languages
New York, Sep 17 (IANS) Researchers in the US claim to have developed a search engine that enables people to search for images on the Internet in at least 300 languages.
The new service called 'PanImages' has been created by researchers at the Turing Institute at Washington University and details were presented at the recently held Machine Translation Summit held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Waterloo rated as Canada’s top research university
By IANS,
Toronto : The University of Waterloo, based in the city of Blackberry near here, has been rated as the top research institution in Canada.
In the annual ``Canada Top 50 Research Universities,'' Waterloo edged out many top universities in a survey which tracks sponsored research at these institutions. The university is quite popular with Indian students. It has some prominent Indians on its faculties also.
In a release before the publication of the survey at the weekend, the university said its total research ranked in the ``elite $100 million club'' in 2007.
Galileo International adds podcast to its travel network
By IANS,
Mumbai : Global travel technology solutions leader Galileo International has added a podcast or internet radio to its distribution network.
The introduction of podcast has made Galileo International the first company to implement this medium of electronic communication "in travel technology repertoire".
A company spokesperson said the first message through this medium was shared by International Air Transport Association's (IATA) country director Amitabh Khosla on e-ticketing.
US and Russian satellites collide in space
By DPA,
Washington/Moscow : A US satellite was destroyed in an unprecedented collision with a spent Russian satellite, raising fears of danger to other satellites, a report said Thursday.
The collision between Iridium-33, a commercial US communications satellite and Russia's Cosmos 2251 satellite, which had been turned off for years, occurred Tuesday at 04:55 GMT above Siberia at a height of 790 km, the space.com site said, quoting a statement by US space agency NASA.
Revamped Hubble ready to tackle universe’s big questions
By Anne K. Walters, DPA,
Washington : Five straight days of intense and dangerous repair work have sharpened the vision of the Hubble Space Telescope and prepared it to once again collect groundbreaking insights into the origins of the universe.
First Nepali aircraft to test-fly
By Xinhua,
Kathmandu : An ultra-light aircraft built by Nepali engineers is scheduled to take off on Saturday afternoon almost one year since its builders sought permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, according to The Kathmandu Post.
"The research team is ready for the test flight as we have already fulfilled all necessary lab-safety requirements," said Bikash Parajuli, leader of the team that built the aircraft.
"We are optimistic that the flight will be successful," he was quoted by the Saturday's daily as saying.
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.
Community radio – a democratic tool idling away
By IANS,
New Delhi : In almost every city - big or small, the soft informative croon of radio has been replaced by the non-stop banter of television. A trend that experts here condemned, calling for a revised execution of the community radio policy.
MESSENGER unveils hidden side of Mercury
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft sent back to Earth new images of Mercury, unveiling a side of the planet never seen before, media reported Thursday.
The car-sized spacecraft zipped past Mercury in a Monday flyby and is relaying more than 1,200 new images and other data back to eager scientists on Earth.
The car-sized spacecraft zipped past Mercury in a Monday flyby and is relaying more than 1,200 new images and other data back to eager scientists on Earth.
All India Science Conf. begins in Bhopal with call to tap resources skillfully to...
By Pervez bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: The three-day All India Science Conference got underway here on Friday with a call to tap resources skillfully to ensure their continuity and discourage its unwarranted use for the betterment of humanity at large.
Russia builds world’s largest telescope in Antarctica
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The construction of the world's largest telescope, worth $271 million, will be completed in 2011, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
"The telescope's size exceeds the overall height of the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower in Chicago and the Shanghai World Financial Centre," Roscosmos said.
The IceCube telescope designed by researchers and engineers from the University of Wisconsin and sponsored by the National Science Foundation will be inserted into the ice near the South Pole.
Recreating planetary sounds from Mars, Venus
By IANS,
London : Scientists have for the first time recreated the sound of lightning and whirlwinds from Mars and Venus and also how we would hear human voices on their surface.
Road status, weather update on your mobile
By IANS
Jammu : Before venturing out on a journey in this season of heavy snowfall and rain in Jammu and Kashmir, a peek into the SMS inbox of your mobile would be useful.
An SMS Thursday informed mobile subscribers here about the status of the Jammu- Srinagar national highway - the major road link between the Kashmir valley and the rest of India.
The message also informed about the depth of snow at various points on this 294-km land route that winds its way through the Pir Panjal range of the Himalayas.
NASA found no evidence of drunken astronauts on flights
By DPA
Washington : NASA administrators have said they could find no evidence that astronauts had flown drunk, despite accusations that had arisen in an independent report last month.
An internal review by the space agency found no evidence of cases in the past 20 years when astronauts were allowed to launch despite protests from flight surgeons or other officials, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said at a press conference Wednesday.
YouTube being used in innovative ways: Study
By IANS,
Sydney : A research team that analysed 4,300 of the most popular videos on YouTube found that it is being used in new and innovative ways -- especially as a platform for amateur cultural production.
The study compared user-created and traditional media content on YouTube to understand how broadband was being used in participatory culture.
Jean Burgess of the Queensland University of Technology and Joshua Green from MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium looked at the content over the last six months of 2007.
Stop accusations over Internet freedom, China tells US
By IANS,
Beijing : China Friday asked the US to "respect facts and stop unreasonable accusations in the name of so-called Internet freedom".
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu made the remarks while responding to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comment in Washington.
"Countries or individuals that engage in cyber attacks should face consequences and international condemnation," DPA quoted Clinton as saying in a speech on internet freedom.
IPCC chief goes mum on Himalayan glacier blunder
By IANS,
New Delhi : An embattled R.K. Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Thursday refused to answer any question on the goof-up by the global scientists' group which made it carry in its 2007 report an unsubstantiated claim that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035.
Pachauri convened a press conference here to unveil a roadmap for India's energy security, prepared by the other organisation he heads, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).
ISRO designed avionics to guide rockets in 2008
By IANS
Chennai : Rocket navigation systems developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are all set to guide the geo-synchronous launch vehicle (GSLV) slated for launch next year.
ISRO tested its new avionics on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that was launched in April. The vehicle had a second equipment bay - apart from the primary one - housing the navigation and telemetry systems.
Russia sends cargo spaceship to ISS
By Xinhua,
Moscow : A Russian spaceship, carrying tonnes of food, water and fuel was on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The Progress M-65 spaceship took off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 11.50 p.m. (1950 GMT) Wednesday, the report said.
The unmanned spaceship will deliver two tonnes of food, water, fuel and equipment, to the ISS.
The spaceship is to dock at the ISS Sep 13, the report said.
The ISS's orbit was adjusted Aug 13 to prepare for the docking of the cargo module.
Space taxis: Bold new era or death of manned exploration?
By Anne K. Walters, DPA,
Cape Canaveral (Florida) : The massive cement expanses that dot the flat Florida landscape have been launching pads for history: the first US astronauts blasted into orbit, the Apollo missions to the moon and nearly 30 years of space shuttle flights. But human space travel from Kennedy Space Centre will soon come to a halt.
After nearly three decades, the space shuttle programme is set to come to a close in September.
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.
3G: The Untold Story and What it means to a Mobile User
By Hitesh Raj Bhagat, IANS,
Today (Dec 11, 2008) is a big day. Third generation or 3G mobile networks are finally here, for MTNL users in parts of Delhi and NCR. Mumbai will follow as soon as the pilots in Delhi are successful.
India has been making do with ancient mobile technology for long now. The current Second generation or 2G networks were designed to carry only voice, which does not require high data transfer speeds. With the advent of new technologies -- video streaming, mobile TV and mobile gaming, higher transfer speeds were necessary.
Scientists tune world’s brightest X-ray beam in Germany
By DPA,
Hamburg : The most intense X-ray beam of its type in the world has been generated inside a 2,300-metre circular tunnel under the German city of Hamburg, the Desy research institute said Monday.
The machine, which cost 225 million euros ($297 million), was switched on in April, but unlike a light bulb it takes weeks to tune up.
The X-ray light came Saturday. More months will now be spent adjusting measuring devices. Next year, scientists can begin actually using the machine to peer at atomic structures in proteins, cancer cells and the like.
British scientist fathered 600 children?
By IANS,
London : A British scientist may have fathered up to 600 children at a controversial London fertility clinic which he set up in the 1940s with his wife.
New experimental HIV vaccine shows promise
New York : A vaccine regimen that first primes the immune system and then boosts it to increase the response could ultimately prove...
Now use eye movement to play computer games
By IANS,
London : In an invention that could go a long way in helping the disabled, students have developed a computer game that can be operated by eye movement.
The students, from Imperial College London (ICL), have developed an open source game called 'Pong', where a player uses his eye to move a bat to hit
a ball as it bounces around the screen.
To play the game, the user wears special glasses containing an infrared light and a webcam that records the movement of one eye. The webcam is
linked to a laptop where a computer programme syncs the player's eye movements to the game.
From launch to landing – Indian moon mission’s journey
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first probe into moon landed on the lunar surface Friday night after riding on Chandrayaan-1, the country's first unmanned spacecraft to the moon, after travelling around 384,000 km in 24 days days after blasting off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh Oct 22.
Soon after the launch at 6.22 a.m. the spacecraft carrying 11 scientific payloads was put in an orbit of 22,860 km apogee (farthest point to the earth) and 225 km perigee (nearest point to the earth).
Cranes Software acquires US-based firm
By IANS
Pune : Bangalore-based Cranes Software International Ltd (CSIL) has acquired US-based Engineering Technology Associates (ETA), a company specialising in computer-aided engineering products for the automotive industry.
Announcing the acquisition through a press release, Asif Khader, managing director, CSIL, said: "The acquisition gives Cranes access to lucrative Asian markets and thereby expands our operations of the Chinese design centre by forming alliances with leading Asian car manufacturers for end-to-end design and development specifications."
Vietnam To Introduce 3G Technology In 2009
By Bernama,
Hanoi : Telecommunications industry insiders are predicting that 3G (third generation) technology will be introduced in Vietnam this year, the Vietnam news agency (VNA) reported.
With 3G technology, mobile providers in Vietnam will be able to provide more value-added services for their mobile users such as videophone, on-line video streaming and high-speed internet and music download.
Russia puts fifth German spy satellite into orbit
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A Russian carrier rocket has successfully put into orbit a fifth German SAR-Lupe reconnaissance satellite, a Russian Space Forces spokesman said Tuesday.
"A Cosmos 3M carrier rocket, launched at 0240 GMT from the Plesetsk space centre in northern Russia, has successfully orbited a German SAR-Lupe satellite," Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.
The German SAR-Lupe satellite is designed to provide high-resolution radar images to NATO military commanders in Europe. It offers spatial resolution of less than one meter, and allows imaging at night and through clouds.
Endeavour docks with ISS
By DPA
Washington : Space shuttle Endeavour has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) but engineers said some damage was caused to the shuttle's heat shield during launch.
The Endeavour crew Friday positioned the shuttle alongside the ISS, where they will install a truss that is part of station's solar power system and will deliver supplies and equipment to the ISS crew.
"It was a flawless rendezvous," said NASA Flight Director Matt Abbott at a press conference in Houston, Texas. "Everything was from the book."
Specialised search engines bring you more info
By DPA
Washington : If your search for information on the Web starts and ends with Google, Yahoo, or MSN, you're missing out. Sure, you can use the big three search engines to find more types of information than ever before.
But there are still some specialised search engines that do better with less. If searching the Internet is part of your daily routine, consider putting the following tools in your toolbox - and your bookmark list.
NASA delays Glory launch
By IANS,
Los Angeles : NASA announced Wednesday that it has postponed the launch of its earth-orbiting Glory Mission spacecraft due to technical problems, Xinhua reported.
New long-life battery laptops from Dell
By DPA,
Frankfurt : Dell has released two new laptops from the nascent ULV class. The 13z and 15z are members of the Inspiron series and cost $550 and $580 respectively. ULV stands for Ultra Low Voltage and refers to processors designed to work at lower voltages and use less power.
In the case of the new Dell laptops, that translates into respective battery lives of 11 hours (13z with a 13.3 inch monitor) and 10 hours (15z with 15.6 inch monitor).
Finally, a microscope that can see an atom
By IANS,
Toronto : The planet's most advanced and powerful electron microscope, capable of looking at atoms, the tiniest object in the universe, has been installed at the new Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy at McMaster University.
"We are the first university in the world with a microscope of such a high calibre," said Gianluigi Botton, director of the Centre, professor of materials science and engineering and project leader.
Zenit rocket to orbit Israeli satellite in late April
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : The launch of a modified Zenit rocket to put an Israeli communications satellite into orbit has been scheduled for April 24, Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said on Monday.
Russia started preparations for the launch of a Zenit-3SLB rocket with a DM-SLB booster and Israeli AMOS-3 satellite on board from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan in October last year.
"This weekend, the booster was delivered to site 31 [at Baikonur] for fuelling and fitting with the AMOS-3 satellite," Roscosmos said in a statement.
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.
Google Earth integrates Street View’s 3D maps
By DPA,
Berlin : By combining two services, Google has now made it possible to pick points on the globe, look at them from outer space, and then zoom all the way in for a street-level view.
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.
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.
Russia tracks rogue U.S. satellite, contains nuclear material
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia's Defense Ministry is closely monitoring a U.S. spy satellite that has gone out of control and may have nuclear material on board, a high-ranking defense source said on Friday.
"The Defense Ministry is using its space surveillance systems to track the satellite's movement in orbit," he said.
Russian military experts suggest the satellite could have an on board nuclear power source, a senior parliament member said.
Seismicity study was done before selecting Jaitapur: NPCIL
By IANS,
Mumbai: The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) Tuesday asserted that it had conducted comprehensive seismicity study before selecting Jaitapur for a nuclear power plant.
Be careful when accessing your computer from afar
By Nabeel A. Khan, IANS,
New Delhi : Be careful when you access your computer over the Internet. Here are some safety tips:
* Install file-sharing software carefully, so that you know what's being shared.
* Person to person (P2P) file-sharing applications will, by default, share downloads in your "save" or "download" folder - unless you set it not to.
* You should also restrict users' ability to write files to the file server.
* Limit guests or anonymous accounts sharing so none can upload files.
Lots of watts don’t rev up vacuum cleaner
Berlin, May 18 (DPA) When buying a vacuum cleaner, consumers should not be led astray by high wattage.
The amount of electricity used has little to do with performance, according to a recent test of 17 vacuum cleaners by Stiftung Warentest, the Berlin-based independent German consumer-protection group reported in its April issue.
Suction power depended on the appropriate interplay of the basic device, nozzle construction, suction pipes and airflow, the group added.
Understanding IP addresses in computers
By DPA,
Washington : Internet Protocol or IP addresses are common in today's world of networked computers. That's because every computer connected to a single network has an IP.
An IP address is a number that uniquely identifies a computer on a network. Every computer that's connected to a network, whether that network is the Internet or a private home or office network, has a unique IP address.
Discovered: a new species of robin
By IANS,
Washington : Smithsonian Institute scientists have discovered a new species of bird in Gabon, Africa, that was unknown to the scientific community.
The newly found olive-backed forest robin was named by scientists for its distinctive olive back and rump. Adult birds measure 4.5 inches in length and average 18 grams in weight.
Males exhibit a fiery orange throat and breast, yellow belly, olive back and black feathers on the head. Females are similar, but less vibrant. Both sexes have a distinctive white dot on their face in front of each eye.
Space industry part of efforts to achieve vision 2020 – Malaysian PM
By NNN-Bernama
Ipoh (Malaysia) : The country's involvement in space industry is part of broader efforts to attain the Vision 2020 objective of turning Malaysia into a developed country, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
He said to bring about progress, the government had to implement various initiatives, one of which was Malaysia's foray into space science.
Microsoft loses as Toronto firm wins claim over Word patent
By IANS,
Toronto : Ruling against Microsoft, the US Patent and Trademark Office Tuesday confirmed a patent held by
Toronto-based i4i Inc. The tiny Canadian company had taken the software giant to court in 2007 over violations of its patent in Word applications and won the case and got $290 million in damages last December.
The US court of appeals had upheld a lower court order banning Microsoft from selling its patent-infringing Word processing software from Jan 11. The patent pertains to the use of technology that can open documents using the XML computer programming language.
British lab growing human body parts
By IANS,
London: British experts are growing human body parts like nose and ears in laboratory, Daily Mail reported Sunday.
Partial solar eclipse in UAE
By NNN-WAM,
Abu Dhabi : The United Arab Emirates and other countries of the region, including Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, eastern parts of Saudi Arabia and northern parts of Palestine and Jordan, witnessed a partial solar eclipse today.
Emirates Astronomy Society deployed an observatory in the breakwaters area to monitor the different stages of eclipse. The eclipse lasted for about 95 minutes, reaching its peak at 3:29 p.m.
Mohammad Shawkat, Head of the Society said the eclipse occurred when the new moon moved directly between the sun and the earth.
“Early” blast-off tipped for spacewalk mission
By Xinhua,
Beijing : The planned launch date of Shenzhou VII, China's third manned spacecraft, may be brought forward from next month to sometime this month, Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper said.
A source reportedly told the paper the launch date will be between Sept 17, the closing day of the Beijing Paralympics, and Oct 1, China's National Day.
"Now it is fairly certain it will be before National Day, because the best launch window for Shenzhou VII will be before Oct 1," the newspaper quoted the source as saying.
Healing from space for victims of depression
By IANS,
Washington : A futuristic NASA programme to help astronauts cope with space flight blues will also benefit people with similar conditions back home.
"This project has great potential as a self-guided treatment for many people," said NASA project leader James Cartreine, a member of National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) Neurobehavioral and Psychosocial Factors Team.
"Depression is the number one cause of disability days in the US, but it's not only about days lost. Depression also results in presenteeism - showing up for work but not really working," he added.
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.
Capital cost for Microsoft: court says pay up
By Kanu Sarda, IANS,
New Delhi : It's a capital cost all right! Delhi High Court has asked Microsoft Corporation to shell out Rs.800,000 ($16,000) for choosing to fight four copyright violation cases in the Indian capital even though they originated in other cities.
The order came after the court found that the alleged violations occurred in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Mumbai.
Signal received from missing Indonesian satellite
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Contact has been made with an Indonesian telecommunications satellite which went missing following a failed launch last week, a Russian rocket firm said Monday.
Gravitational waves emanate as ‘sounds of universe’
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists are still looking for gravitational waves -- small ripples in the fabric of space-time which are considered to be the sounds of the universe.
Endeavour blasts off for mission to space station
By DPA,
Washington : Space shuttle Endeavour lit up the Florida coast before dawn Monday as it blasted off for a mission to the International Space Station.
The start, at 10.14 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time was the final night-time launch for the ageing shuttle fleet, which is to be mothballed later this year.
Endeavour is carrying a six-window viewing area that will give astronauts a panoramic look at earth, the station and visiting spacecraft.
A planned Sunday launch for the shuttle had to be postponed due to low cloud cover at the launch site.
ISS austronauts contacted from ancient Incan city
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Buenos Aires : The ancient Incan civilisation city of Machu Picchu in Peru made history Thursday when a radio contact was established from there with the Intetrnational Space Station (ISS).
The Russian and Peruvian delegations talked with the ISS crew for 10 minutes Thursday.
The conversation was made in three languages -- Russian, Spanish and the Peru Indian language of Quechua. ISS Commander Alexander Skvortsov said it was the first time Quechua had ever been heard on the ISS.
Quechua is spoken by some 10 million native South American Indians.
British scientists discover allergy-triggering molecule
By Xinhua
London : British scientists have discovered a molecule that appears to play a key role in triggering allergies.
Researchers from Barts and the London School of Medicine managed to stop allergic attacks in mice by targeting the molecule - P110delta, BBC reported Friday.
The researchers said the method did not interfere with the rest of the body's immune defences, and it may offer the chance to prevent allergies, not just relieve symptoms.
New language protects home computers
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have developed a security language to protect home networks from cyber attacks.
Companies, banks and other organisations take internet security very seriously, erecting firewalls and IT departments to protect them from attacks. But domestic and small office networks are just as vulnerable to hacking, malicious computer code, worms and viruses.
Geon Woo Kim of the Electronics and Telecom Research Institute (ETRI) Korea and colleagues who developed the specific codes said home networks have only a single gateway from the internet.
Fastest integrated circuit for Big Bang machine
By IANS,
London : Scientists have developed the fastest-ever integrated circuit to transmit data in the demanding environment of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) or the Big Bang machine, the world's largest physics experiment.
The new "link-on-chip" - or LOC serialiser circuit - was designed by physicists at Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, as a component for use in a key experiment of the LHC particle accelerator in Europe.
Ancient mineral provides clue to early climate
By IANS,
New York : A new analysis of ancient minerals called zircons suggests that earth's earliest continents were probably destroyed by an extremely harsh climate.
Zircons, the oldest known materials on earth, offer a window in time back as far as 4.4 billion years ago, when the planet was a mere 150 million years old.
As these crystals are exceptionally resistant to chemical changes, they have become the gold standard for determining the age of ancient rocks, ScienceDaily reported.
Google prevails in legal battle in Australia
By IANS/EFE,
Sydney: Australia's High Court ruled in favour of Google Inc Wednesday in a case over the search-engine giant's responsibility for deceptive advertising in sponsored links.
Interactive video games better for kids than computer games: study
By IANS,
Sydney : Worried that your child may be spending too much time playing the Nintendo Wii? Fear not, as the latest research reveals that interactive sports video games are better for children than conventional computer games, but it does not solve the widespread prevalence of childhood obesity.
The study found that playing virtual sports such as boxing and tennis on the Nintendo Wii burned more than 50 percent energy than playing sedentary computer games such as the Xbox.
Bangalore’s battle between astronomy and astrology over eclipse
By IANS,
Bangalore : Even as the world looks forward to the rare celestial phenomenon of a total solar eclipse Wednesday, astrologers here say the event could be a bad omen. But brushing aside the fears as superstition, astronomers are urging people to look at it as a scientific phenomenon.
Astrologer Daivajna K.N. Somayaji says the war of Mahabharata, World War II and Indira Gandhi's assassination all followed solar eclipses.
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.