S Korea’s 1st astronaut leaves space station on return trip
By Xinhua,
Moscow : South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon left the International Space Station (ISS) to return to earth on Saturday.
The Soyuz spaceship carrying Yi, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is expected to touch down at 12:31 Moscow time (0931 GMT).
The landing capsule of the Soyuz TMA-11 spaceship is to land inthe Kazakh steppe 80 km north of the Kazakh city of Arkalyk, Valery Lyndin, a spokesman for the Mission Control Centre based near Moscow, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
Office 2010: Did Microsoft get it right?
By Jay Dougherty, DPA,
Washington : Will Office 2010 rescue Microsoft's ubiquitous productivity suite in the same way that Windows 7 resuscitated the reputation of Windows?
That's the billion-dollar question. And this week, with the official unveiling of Office 2010, answers begin to emerge.
Boasting a host of collaborative features, interface improvements, and seamless integration with the new, free Office 2010 Web Apps, Office 2010 is Microsoft's best attempt to redress the complaints that users had about Office 2007 while not throwing out the 2007 experiment entirely.
Google, IBM team up on cloud computing
By DPA
San Francisco : Google and IBM have announced that they are teaming up to promote research into cloud computing - a technology in which programmes and services are run on remote servers rather than on users' PCs.
The two technology giants said they will contribute $20 million to $25 million each to build data centres that can be used by university researchers in the US.
In online gaming, it’s time for raids
By Heiko Haupt, DPA,
Hamburg : One identical image appears on 20 computer monitors scattered across Germany: a dragon, with a group of figures in the foreground preparing to face off against him.
Yet the scene is frozen, since the "heroes" are off taking care of other issues: Gnygnyg and Shavon are just standing around because the people normally behind the keyboard have headed off to walk the dog.
This kind of scene has become commonplace for more and more people, reflecting how the online gaming "raids" have developed into a popular sport.
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).
First Japanese mother to travel into space in 2010
By DPA,
Tokyo : Naoko Yamazaki was selected to become the first mother and the second Japanese woman to travel into space, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Tuesday.
Yamazaki, 37, was chosen to board the US space shuttle Atlantis on a planned two-week mission in February 2010 to transport components to add on to the International Space Station, where Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi is to stay for six months starting around November next year.
World leaders condemn North Korean rocket launch
By DPA,
Washington : The US Sunday led the international condemnation of North Korea's controversial rocket launch with President Barack Obama calling it a "provocative act".
"North Korea's development and proliferation of ballistic missile technology pose a threat to the north-east Asian region and to international peace and security," Obama said in a statement issued from Prague, where he is to attend a US-European Union Summit.
India tests n-capable Agni-I missile
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: India Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Agni-I missile from a military base in Odisha, a defence official said.
How to keep your password safe from data hackers, cyber thieves
By IANS,
Washington : Last year, one out of 13 people lost money due to internet fraud and identity theft, says a recent report. However, you can insure your password and data by following these easy-to-follow tips.
Always keep the cyber thieves guessing. Never use personal information to create a username, login or password. It could be the name of your pets, relatives, nicknames, dates of birth, etc.
Identity theft experts have become savvy at ferreting out these details. Hence, it is crucial to choose usernames and passwords that have nothing to do with your personal history.
Ten technology trends to look out for in 2009
By Prasanto K. Roy, IANS,
The year that went by set the foundation for those technologies that are expected to take off in 2009, with focus on energy efficiency and mobility - a bit greener and a lot more faster. Here are 10 of them to watch out for this year:
Mobile Applications: With the India's mobile telecom network expected to grow from over 300 million subscribers now to over 400 million by the end of 2009, mobile applications (m-apps) will become central to entertainment, information, banking and other services - and, of course, revenues for telecom companies.
GII: A group that tracks Indian cyberspace
By Frederick Noronha, IANS,
Bangalore : Does India have too many "cyber law experts"? What's wrong with the Blackberry service in India? How is BSNL's IPO shaping up? These and several such issues routinely crop up on India-GII.
So what is India-GII? Located in cyberspace, it is a network of techies and others fleshing out cyber issues in the country, tracking its progress from one of the most expensive and monopolistic telecom markets to one of the most competitive.
India-GII describes itself as a "list (that) has existed since 1995".
Mobile phones to notify namaz timings through image
By IANS,
Washington : A new software application meant for mobile phones can alert Muslim users to namaz timings through an image combined with audible alerts.
The screen of the mobile phone shows an image of the sun lining up with a green circle when it is time to pray.
"Users told us that tracking the sun was the most religiously valued method to determine prayer times," said Susan Wyche, doctoral candidate at Georgia Institute of Technology, and member of the team that developed the application.
India must market for global satellite contracts
By R. Ramaseshan, IANS,
The success of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Monday in putting into orbit 10 satellites with a single launch is certainly a commendable achievement marking as it does the second largest number of satellites launched at one go. Now it needs to push aggressively for more contracts in this niche market.
Besides ISRO's own two primary satellites, Cartosat-2A (690 kg) and IMS-1 (83 kg), Monday's payload included seven nanosatellites (1-10 kg class) and one microsatellite (10-100 kg class) from foreign customers, which together weighed about 50 kg.
Colombia budgeting on Indian software
By Devirupa Mitra, IANS
Bogota : Colombia will soon have a sophisticated software programme to prepare, implement and monitor its national budget, thanks to an Indian software company.
From his office inside the finance ministry building opposite the Colombian Presidential Palace in Bogota, Subramanian Ravishankar is leading a global team of 350 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employees working exclusively on this major government project.
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.
Will the Big Bang test end the world on Wednesday?
By Venkata Vemuri, IANS,
London : If critics are to be believed, the end of the universe will begin coming Wednesday when a Welsh miner's son launches the world's biggest scientific experiment to know how the universe was born.
The well-known Welshman physicist, Lyn Evans, dubbed Evans the Atom, will this week switch on a giant particle accelerator designed to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang.
On Wednesday, Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.
NASA declares Phoenix Mars lander dead
By DPA,
Washington : A robotic lander that confirmed the presence of ice on Mars was confirmed dead by NASA scientists Monday.
The Phoenix Mars lander was damaged by harsh conditions during the Martian winter and repeated attempts to contact it have been unsuccessful, the US space agency said.
The lander had wrapped up its mission in 2008 and had not been expected to survive the harsh winter, which is twice as long as that on Earth. But scientists needed to make last attempts to contact it in good weather before officially writing it off.
Universe continuing to expand, confirms study
By IANS,
Toronto : Canadian astronomers have rejected the new "void models" that say the earth is near the centre of a region of the universe which is almost empty.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver said Friday that there is nothing special about earth's location in the universe as proposed by "void theories" that reject the conventional view that the universe is ever-expanding because of an enigmatic dark energy.
Poorest Americans’ carbon emissions double global average
By IANS,
Washington : People consuming the least energy in the US are still producing more than double the global per-capita average of carbon emissions, reveals a new study.
Carbon emissions in the US are similar whether you live in a hovel or a mansion, subsist on home grown vegetables or wolf down imported steaks, and whether you're a jet-setter or a sedentary retiree.
The world’s first robot with conscience
By IANS/EFE,
Madrid : Spain has designed the world's first robot with its own "conscience" and "life", which will "entertain, teach and be a companion" to humans who purchase it.
The AISoy 1, which will go on sale in August, is the first social android developed by Spanish firm AISoy Robotics, which is now bringing its creation out of the laboratory.
"It almost seems like science fiction, but it's a reality," said Diego Garcia, one of the "fathers" of the robot and head of AISoy's product engineering and development division.
Plant hormone that controls shoot branching discovered
By IANS,
Sydney : The discovery of a new plant hormone that controls shoot branching is likely to impact forestry, plant science and agriculture industries.
A molecule with a specific four-ring structure in plant hormone strigolactone has been shown to inhibit shoot branching in plants.
"It could be used to increase yield in horticultural industries and manual pruning may be circumvented through the use of the natural strigolactones," said principal investigator Christine Beveridge of University of Queensland (UQ).
E-mentoring highly effective: study
By IANS,
Sydney : E-mentoring has been found to be more convenient, more direct and better than face-to-face mentoring, according to a study.
“E-mail-based communication is almost instant and helps overcome one of the major obstacles to traditional mentoring - participants finding a suitable time to meet,” said Kim Rickard of Victoria University, who conducted the study.
By using e-mail, participants can go straight to the issues without the need to engage in “polite conversation” beforehand, the study found, ScienceDaily reports.
India to launch ocean-watching satellite this month
By IANS,
Chennai : Some time between Sep 20 and 25, India will launch a specialised satellite to watch over the Indian Ocean, an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said Monday.
Oceansat 2 will be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) into a sun-synchronous orbit 720 km above the earth, the official said on phone from ISRO's launch centre at Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), 70 km from here.
The PSLV will also carry a number of small "nano" satellites, the official said on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
U.S. spacecraft finds Mars colder than expected
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA announced on Thursday that new observations from its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that the crust and upper mantle of Mars are stiffer and colder than previously thought.
The findings suggest any liquid water that might exist below the planet's surface and any possible organisms living in that water would be located deeper than scientists had suspected.
T-Mobile to launch Google phone in October
By DPA,
San Francisco : T-Mobile is to launch the first phone based on Google's Android design Sep 17, in hopes that the new device will compete with Apple's iPhone, Wired magazine reported Friday.
The smartphone will be manufactured by Taiwan-based High Tech Computer, and will have a large touch screen that slides out to reveal a five-row QWERTY keyboard. The device, which will be called the G1, will sell for $150 to T-Mobile customers in the first week of launch before it is offered to other customers at a higher price.
NASA ‘elated’ after ‘previously invisible space objects’ uncovered
By IANS,
London : An array of previously "invisible" space objects have been discovered by one of NASA's newest space telescopes, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), in just six months.
In what has left scientists at the space agency "elated", the $320 million sky-mapping spacecraft has for the first time identified previously thousands of unseen space objects including stars, asteroids, dust clouds, comets and even a new galaxy.
India’s first web portal for the disabled launched
By IANS
New Delhi : Punarbhava.in, India's first interactive web portal for the disabled,was launched here Wednesday, along with a screen reading software that will enable the visually challenged to use computers.
An effort of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) and Media Lab Asia, a part of the communications and information technology ministry, the web portal and the software are aimed at enabling the disabled to get more connected to the rest of the world.
New star forming regions found in Milky Way
By IANS,
Los Angeles : Astronomers have discovered a large number of previously unknown regions in the Milky Way where massive stars are being formed.
The star-forming H II regions are sites where hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons by intense radiation from young stars.
With the helo of infrared and radio telescopes Spitzer Space, the researchers traced these regions which remain hidden due to gas and dust clouds around the Milky Way, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said Wednesday.
Many Malaysian leaders turn bloggers
By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Blogging is the new buzzword in Malaysia with more and more politicians and others in public life taking to it.
The number is growing since the government last week announced that it would take on bloggers using cyberspace to vent their grievances.
The country's long-time Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad remains the most prominent blogger: his blog scored one million hits in May.
Mahathir raised a political storm earlier this month by resigning from the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) that he helped found in 1946.
Tomorrow’s phones may be powered by body heat
By DPA
Hamburg : Making calls from a cell phone without a battery, using just the warmth of your hand? Perhaps that's no more than a pipe dream right now. But new circuits being developed by researchers in Germany are already making it possible to harness body heat for generating electricity.
Numerous items of medical equipment are attached to a patient's body in the intensive care ward. They monitor the heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, pulse and breathing rate.
This tends to produce quite a jumble of cables as all these devices require their own electricity supply.
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.
Space shuttle Discovery heads home after 14-day mission
By DPA,
Washington : The US space shuttle Discovery began its earthward journey Wednesday after completing a 14-day mission to carry out further construction and maintenance work on the International Space Station (ISS).
The shuttle is scheduled for landing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Caneveral, Florida.
Discovery undocked from the ISS for the return journey after a mission in which astronauts carried out three spacewalks chiefly devoted to installing and preparing the Japanese scientific laboratory module Kibo.
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.
Facebook unveils new tools
By DPA,
San Francisco : Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday unveiled a box of new tools that he said will extend the social networking phenomenon to every corner of the internet.
The announcement came at a conference for Facebook developers called F8, in which Zuckerberg revealed that the world's largest social networking site has 400 million registered users. These include 100 million who use Facebook Connect, the company's online identity technology that allows users to use their profile on thousands of other websites.
Now essence from Ajmer shrine roses
By IANS,
Lucknow: Tonnes of flowers offered at the Ajmer shrine will now be used to make essence from them, thanks to a project undertaken by an institute here.
"Our project would bring into use several tonnes of flowers that are presently being dumped," A.K. Singh, technology and business development head at the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), told IANS.
India’s nuclear centre to make systems safe, sustainable
By Manish Chand and Arun Kumar, IANS,
Washington: The "Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership" announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday will conduct studies in four key areas of nuclear energy systems, nuclear security, radiation Safety, and applications of radioisotopes and radiation technology.
The Centre being set up by the Department of Atomic Energy will have four schools to conduct research and development of design systems that are intrinsically safe, secure, proliferation resistant and sustainable.
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.
India will plant flag on the moon: ISRO chief
By IANS,
New Delhi : Two days before the launch of India's first lunar orbiter, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G. Madhavan Nair said Monday that India will plant its flag on the moon to help establish its presence on the earth's only natural satellite.
India will drop its flag on the moon to establish its presence, Nair told NDTV in an interview. This will make India the fourth country after the US, Russia, and Japan to have its flag on the moon.
Scientists pinpoint gene linked to depression
By IANS,
London : Scientists have identified a gene that may be the "primary cause" of depression, thereby enabling the development of new treatments and early diagnosis of the condition.
Underground barriers to stop toxic waste from contaminating water
By IANS,
Sydney : Thousands of garbage dumps are quietly leaking a toxic brew of old and sometimes deadly chemicals into the water consumed or used by millions of people.
Researchers are developing a solution to one of the most urgent problems faced worldwide -- the poisonous fluids which leach out of old rubbish dumps and enter the groundwater.
Chandrayaan to orbit moon for two years
By Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : India's maiden lunar mission, the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft that launches Oct 22, will orbit about 100 km from the lunar surface for two years, performing remote sensing of the dark side or hidden portion of the moon to unravel its mysteries, scientists working on the project said.
About 500 space scientists are working round-the-clock to launch India's maiden lunar mission next week.
NASA’s Messenger sends pictures from Mercury flyby
By DPA,
Washington : NASA Tuesday published photographs sent by its Messenger spacecraft of a flyby of Mercury earlier this week, providing researchers a new view of the planet closest the Sun.
Messenger came within just 200 km of Mercury early Monday in the second of three planned flybys for the craft. It is due to settle into orbit around Mercury in 2011, providing what scientists hope will be the most complete picture yet of the solar system's smallest planet.
No funds for Malaysia’s space programme
By IANS,
Kuala Lumpur : Six months after sending its first man into space, Malaysia says it has no funds for the second phase of its ambitious space programme.
It is "zero cash" for the moment till the entire programme is re-evaluated in terms of knowledge and cost-benefit, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Maximus Ongkili told the media Monday.
In the first phase of the programme, Sheikh Muszaphar Sheikh Shukor and two other astronauts blasted into space in a Russian-built Soyuz 11 rocket from Baikonour in Kazakhstan Oct 10, 2007.
Possible ice volcano found on Saturn moon
By DPA,
Washington : NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted what could be an ice volcano on Saturn's moon Titan, scientists said Tuesday.
Nanotubes spun into threads open new possibilities in communications
By IANS,
Washington : Taking already proven technology to grow carbon nanotubes of record lengths, researchers have now found new applications in communications for these fibres by spinning them into strong threads.
David Mast, an associate professor of physics at the University of Cincinnati's (UC) McMicken College of Arts and Sciences, took a 25-micron carbon nanotube thread and created a dipole antenna using double-sided transparent tape and silver paste. He was immediately successful in transmitting radio signals.
I’m an ethical hacker: says whizkid Sahil
By IANS
New Delhi : He looks like your average school going kid, but 14-year-old Sahil Khan, at the release of the second edition of his book "Hackers and Crackers" Wednesday, said he is an ethical hacker and uses his skills to fight cyber crime.
"While chatting, I used to face problems because of the viruses. So, I used to experiment and fiddle. Thus, the results of my experimentation have made me what I am today," said Sahil, who released his book at the sidelines of the launch of monthly magazine "Gadget Guru".
Videocon launches nine more mobile handsets
By IANS,
New Delhi: Electronics major Videocon Wednesday launched nine more handsets, including a triple SIM CDMA phone, thus enhancing its current offering from 12 handsets to 21.
Other key highlights of the new range are a QWERTY keypad dual SIM with optical track pad, attractive touch screen devices and dual SIM multimedia, camera and music phones, a company statement said.
Fossils show mysterious human species lived 30,000 years ago
By IANS,
London : A mysterious new species of the human beings which lived alongside our ancestors 30,000 years ago has been discovered by the scientists.
Astronauts enter space station’s new European lab
By Xinhua
Washington : Astronauts aboard the orbiting International Space Station opened the newly-installed European Columbus laboratory and conducted some outfitting tasks on Tuesday.
European-built Columbus lab was delivered to the station by U.S. space shuttle Atlantis, which lift off on Feb. 7 after a series of delays.
Washington : Astronauts aboard the orbiting International Space Station opened the newly-installed European Columbus laboratory and conducted some outfitting tasks on Tuesday.
European-built Columbus lab was delivered to the station by U.S. space shuttle Atlantis, which lift off on Feb. 7 after a series of delays.
Scientists to discuss sex, love with robots
By DPA,
Amsterdam : Scientists plan to gather June 12 and 13 in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht to discuss the possibility of human beings increasingly engaging in personal and even romantic relationships with robots in the coming decades.
Academics from Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore, the US and Britain are due to deliver some 20 presentations.
India puts second navigation satellite into orbit
By Venkatachari Jagannathan,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : India Friday moved a step closer to setting up its own satellite navigation system when in a copy-book...
How to keep your PC cool during summer
By DPA,
Washington : Computers hate heat. So this summer, be sure to think about keeping your computer cool. Computer components themselves run hot, and yet they're not designed to operate above a certain temperature.
When the temperature outside gets uncomfortable for humans, you can be sure that your computer isn't liking the situation any better. So for a trouble-free summer of computing, take steps now to ensure that your PC stays cool.
Scientists crack code of drug-resistant TB
Durban(IANS) : South African scientists have sequenced the entire genome of a strain of extremely drug-resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis (XDR-TB).
They hope the information will contribute to developing better diagnostics and treatments for the disease.
The bacteria analysed were taken from a patient in Durban's King Edward VIII Hospital in KwaZulu Natal, science site SciDev.Net reported.
Deep space network to track India’s lunar mission
By IANS
Bangalore : The Indian space agency is bracing up for its first lunar exploration mission Chandrayaan-1 due April next year by setting up a deep space network (DSN) near this IT hub.
The network, coming up at Byalalu, about 45 km from here, and comprising mainly two powerful dish antennas of 32-metre and 18-metre diameter, will keep track of the unmanned moon mission and provide command support during its two-year orbit around earth's only natural satellite.
High capacity lithium-ion battery developed
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have developed a new lithium-ion battery that can recharge within 10 minutes and hold thrice as much energy as its existing counterparts.
Computer programme to predict premature births under development
By IANS,
Sydney : Universities of Melbourne and Newcastle are jointly developing a computer programme to predict premature births.
About 17,000 premature births occur in Australia each year. It accounts for 70 percent of deaths among newborns and 50 percent cerebral palsy cases.
Roger Smith, professor, University of Newcastle, said identifying patterns in hormone levels could be the key to determining high risk pregnancies.
850 new species discovered in semi-arid Australia
By IANS,
Sydney : About 850 new species inhabiting underground water, caves and micro-caverns have been discovered in semi-arid Australia. These invertebrates include various insects, small crustaceans, spiders, worms and many others.
The team - led by Andy Austin, professor at the University of Adelaide (U-A), Steve Cooper, South Australian Museum, and Bill Humphreys, Western Australian Museum - conducted a comprehensive four-year survey of underground water, caves and micro-caverns.
Youngsters use Facebook, MySpaceTeens to create flattering self-images
By IANS,
Washington : Youngsters are using popular networking websites like Facebook and MySpace to create flattering self-images, one that they would like to be but are not.
"People can use these sites to explore who they are by posting particular images, pictures or text," said University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) psychology graduate Adriana Manago, researcher with the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles (CDMCLA), and co-author of the study.
Andhra to use drone cameras to check red sander smuggling
Hyderabad : The Andhra Pradesh government is planning to use drone cameras in Rayalaseema region to increase surveillance on red sander smuggling, Chief Minister...
In Argentina, a fungus that produces diesel
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have isolated a fungus that produces a new kind of diesel fuel, describing the find as promising.
The discovery may offer an alternative to fossil fuels, said Gary Strobel, Montana State University (MSU) professor of plant sciences. The find is even bigger, he said, than his 1993 discovery of fungus that contained the anticancer drug taxol.
German experts detect particles faster than light
By DPA
Hamburg : Two German physicists from the University of Koblenz claim to have done the impossible by finding photons that have broken the speed of light.
If their claims are confirmed, they will have proved wrong Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity, which requires an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.
However, Gunter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen say they have possibly breached a key tenet of that theory.
Engineers complete world’s largest scientific instrument
By IANS
Geneva : Engineers have lowered a 9.3-metre wheel down a 100 metre shaft to complete what has been described a the world's largest scientific instrument - a nuclear particle accelerator that will run around a 27 km long tunnel deep under the Swiss-France border.
The accelerator has been built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, popularly known by its French acronym CERN, as part of a 20-nation collaborative exercise and is expected to begin functioning this summer.
Facebook may announce e-mail service Monday
By IANS,
London : Social networking site Facebook may announce its e-mail service as early as Monday, if online buzz is to be believed.
US to develop new navigation system for moon
By Xinhua,
Washington : The US space agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is seeking to develop a new navigation system for use on the moon, an official said.
The space agency has awarded $1.2 million to an Ohio State University research team who would develop the new system over the next three years.
The device would be a lot like the Global Positioning System (GPS) on Earth, the university announced Monday.
However, a GPS can't be used on the moon since it doesn't have satellites to send its signals to.
China to launch 1st natural disaster monitoring satellite
By Xinhua,
Beijing : China will launch the first of eight satellites to monitor environment and natural disasters from the country's north Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center this week, according to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC).
The satellite "Environment 1", an optical satellite, will be sent into orbit by a Long March 2C carrier.
Giant observatory comes up 8,000 feet beneath Antarctic
By IANS,
London : The world's strangest observatory, as big as a cubic kilometre, has come up 8,000 feet beneath the Antarctic ice at the South Pole.
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.
Living amid greens doesn’t make you exercise more
By IANS,
London : That nice neighbourhood park is apparently not all that inviting. A new study, in fact, contends that people with more greens around them walk and cycle less often and for shorter periods.
The Dutch study involved 5,000 people and sought answers to questions on physical activity and self-perceived health.
“In this study we investigated whether a green living environment encourages people to undertake physical activity,” said Jolanda Maas, who led the study.
India to launch dedicated meteorological satellite
By IANS
New Delhi : India is set to launch an advanced meteorological satellite by the end of this year to boost its weather forecasting capabilities.
The satellite INSAT-3D will give "quantum jump in satellite meteorology", P.S. Goel, secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said Tuesday.
This satellite is almost similar to GOES Satellites of the US and will have six channel imagers.
Goel spoke about the satellite at the ongoing Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Workshop on Weather Forecasting Techniques in the national capital.
Hundreds of new species discovered in the Himalayas
By IANS,
Washington : Over 350 new species, including the world's smallest deer, a "flying frog" and a 100 million-year-old gecko, have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas, according to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report.
A decade of research carried out by scientists in remote mountain areas endangered by rising global temperatures brought exciting discoveries such as a bright green frog that uses its red and long webbed feet to glide in the air.
Wind pattern change may intensify global warming
By IANS,
Washington : Carbon dioxide released from the Antartic Ocean due to shifting wind patterns may drastically increase global warming, say scientists.
Many scientists think that the end of the last ice age was triggered by a change in earth's orbit that caused the northern part of the planet to warm.
This partial climate shift was accompanied by rising levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, ice core records show, which could have intensified the warming around the globe.
Russian explorers reach bed of world’s deepest lake
By RIA Novosti,
Irkutsk (Russia) : A team of Russian scientists descended to the bottom of Siberia's Lake Baikal in two mini-submarines Tuesday, setting a new world record for a freshwater dive.
News channel Vesti-24 said the submersibles, Mir-1 and Mir-2, reached a depth of 1,680 metres in the world's deepest lake, which holds 20 percent of the planet's fresh water.
US regulations restrict space industry growth
Hyderabad, Sep 28 (IANS) International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) of the US are a major hurdle in the growth of new space industry actors in the global market, said speakers from emerging space nations at the 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2007) here.
They also made a strong case for change in the rules to facilitate cooperation and healthy competition in the global space industry.
The speakers were unanimous that both cooperation and competition were necessary to ensure growth of the space industry, especially among emerging nations and new players.
Google distorts reality, Austrian study says
By DPA
Vienna : Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, is on several fronts a danger that has to be stopped, a study released by Austria's Graz University claims.
A research team led by Prof. Hermann Maurer, chairman of Graz University's Institute for Information Systems and Computer Media, argues that Google is turning into a new version of George Orwell's "Big Brother" - creating unacceptable monopolies in many areas of the worldwide web.
Amateur astronomer chances upon ‘cosmic ghost’
By IANS,
New York : Yale astrophysicist Kevin Schawinski and colleagues at Oxford never envisioned the strange object amateur astronomer Hanny van Arkel found in archived images of the night sky.
The Dutch school teacher, volunteer in the Galaxy Zoo project, co-founded by Schawinski that allows public participation in astronomy research online, discovered a mysterious object some are calling a 'cosmic ghost'.
Astronomers discover two extrasolar planets
By Xinhua
Washington : Researchers from 11 countries have discovered two extrasolar planets, each with a mass less than that of Jupiter, orbiting a star about half the size of our Sun.
The new discovery was reported on Thursday and will be published on the Feb. 15 issue of journal Science.
Although there has been a flurry of extrasolar planet discoveries in recent years, most of the planets have been massive bodies much larger than the giants of our own solar system.
Astronauts finish Hubble repairs
By DPA,
Washington : Two US astronauts Monday put the final vital maintenance touches on the Hubble Space Telescope, replacing old insulation and a guidance sensor on the ageing satellite before its scheduled release back into orbit Tuesday.
The seven-hour-plus space walk completed a marathon five straight days of work in a risky mission by the Atlantis shuttle that entailed a stand-by shuttle on the launch pad in Florida for a rescue mission if needed.
Gates Foundation pledges $10 billion to develop vaccines
By IANS,
Washington : Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have announced that their foundation will commit $10 billion over the next 10 years to help research in developing and delivering vaccines for the world's poorest countries.
The couple said that increased investment in vaccines by governments and the private sector could help developing countries dramatically reduce child mortality by the end of the decade.
"We must make this the decade of vaccines," said Gates.
Ultrasound to help eliminate Ibuprofen from polluted water
By IANS,
London : An international team of scientists has developed an ultrasound treatment to remove Ibuprofen from waters polluted with this drug.
The new method could be used in water purification plants, which would avoid the emission of pharmaceutical pollutants into rivers, lakes, seas and other surface waters.
The team at the laboratories of the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland has developed a novel method for eliminating pharmaceutical products from water.
Railway plans hi-tech security gadgets in Orissa
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : East Coast Railway authorities have decided to install high tech security gadgets at leading stations of Orissa in view of the recent terror attacks in different places of Mumbai, a railway official said Monday.
A high level meeting was conducted by East Coast Railway authorities Monday to review the security situation at railway stations, especially in Bhubaneswar, Puri and Cuttack.
The meeting took stock of the security scenario at these stations and additional measures required to be taken were discussed, an East Coast Railway press release said.
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.
Infrared eye in sky to probe remotest reaches of space
By IANS,
Washington : Seeing into the remotest reaches of space, way beyond the capacity of the most powerful existing (Hubble) telescope, may now be possible with MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument detectors) cameras.
"The MIRI is one of four science instruments aboard the James Webb telescope that is designed to record images and spectra at the longest wavelengths that the Webb can observe," said Matt Greenhouse, NASA project scientist.
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.
ISRO must market aggressively for global contracts
By R. Ramaseshan, IANS,
The success of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Monday in putting into orbit 10 satellites with a single launch is certainly a commendable achievement marking as it does the second largest number of satellites launched at one go. Now it needs to push aggressively for more contracts in this niche market.
Besides ISRO's own two primary satellites, Cartosat-2A (690 kg) and IMS-1 (83 kg), Monday's payload included seven nanosatellites (1-10 kg class) and one microsatellite (10-100 kg class) from foreign customers, which together weighed about 50 kg.
Brand logo can make you think differently
By IANS
New York : Whether you are a Mac person or a PC person, even a brief exposure to the Apple logo may make you behave more creatively, according to a new study.
Most people are exposed to thousands of brand images daily and it is assumed this does not affect those exposed in any way. But the new study has demonstrated that even fleeting glimpses of logos can affect people quite dramatically, ScienceDaily reported.
The study, by Duke and Waterloo University researchers, has been published in the forthcoming issue of the Journal of Consumer Research.
3G, Wimax guidelines in a week: minister
By IANS,
New Delhi : The broad guidelines for implementation and auctioning of radio spectrum for 3G and Wimax have been devised and the final draft will be approved and released within a week, telecom minister A. Raja said here Friday.
"Broad guidelines for rolling out 3G services have been devised and we need some inputs from the finance ministry after which the guidelines will be forwarded to the Telecom Commission," Raja told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
"Expect the final norms to be announced within a week," he added.
Chinese firms to make SIMs for iPhone 5
By IANS,
Beijing: Mobile phone companies in China plan to make smaller SIM cards for use in Apple iPhone 5, a media report said Saturday.
Low coastal regions will be flooded by 2100: Scientists
By IANS,
Copenhagen : Even in the best case global warming scenario, low lying countries and coastal regions will be regularly flooded by 2100, when the sea is expected to rise by at least 50 cm.
This implies that if emissions of greenhouse gases is not cut down quickly and substantially, low lying coastal areas will be flooded, hitting 10 percent of the global population really hard. The emissions are leading to climate change.
Total solar eclipse viewed in Bangladesh
By Xinhua,
Dhaka : The long-awaited total solar eclipse was observed Wednesday morning in northwestern Bangladesh that lasted for little more than three minutes.
Despite the cloudy weather, tens of thousands of astronomy enthusiasts gathered in the South Asian country's northwestern Panchagarh district, about 440 km from here, observed the greatest celestial spectacle of the century.
Panchagarh district, the nearest town to the central line of the Umbra was earlier declared as the Capital of the Total Solar Eclipse 2009 in Bangladesh.
BSNL, MTNL merger decision in 4-5 months
New Delhi: The decision on merging state-run BSNL and MTNL will be taken in the next four-five months, Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg said on...
Kerala students to compete in designing a Mars rover
Kochi: Students of an engineering college in Kerala have been selected to compete in a challenge to design a rover for the US Mars...
Google, Microsoft ‘most discussed tech brands’ in India
By NNN-PTI,
New Delhi : Internet search giant Google and software major Microsoft are among the most discussed technology brands in India, dominating most of the online conversations, says a survey.
Topped by Google, the list of top 10 technology brands compiled by research firm Edelman, features Microsoft at the second spot while Yahoo! has cornered the third position.
Google and Microsoft secured about 20 per cent and 12 per cent of all monitored conversations respectively, according to Digital Brand Index (DBI) for India compiled by Edelman in collaboration with Brandtology.
Stellar blast gamma ray was aimed at earth: NASA
By Xinhua,
Washington : Data from satellites and observatories around the globe show a jet from a powerful stellar explosion witnessed March 19 was aimed almost directly at the Earth, the US space agency NASA has reported.
NASA's Swift satellite detected the explosion - formally named GRB 080319B - and pinpointed its position in the constellation Bootes. The event, called a gamma-ray burst, became bright enough for human eyes to see.
Observations of the event are giving astronomers the most detailed portrait of a burst ever recorded.
Ancient mass migration of men from Africa populated world
By IANS,
Washington : Modern humans quit Africa over 60,000 years ago in a migration that many believe populated the earth.
Now, researchers have revealed that men and women weren't equal partners in that exodus. By tracing variations in the X chromosome and in the non-sex chromosomes, they found evidence that men probably outnumbered women in that migration.
CGNet Swara: Voice of the unheard
By Kashif-ul-Huda, TwoCircles.net
Between Arundhati Roy’s walk with the comrades and corporations-backed government war machine mowing down the jungles in Chattisgarh, there are millions of tribals whose voices remain unheard. Not that they cannot speak but there is a barrier to access because of language and remote areas. Knight International Journalism fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary intends to change that by using technology as a platform to make news & information easily accessible to all.
India to be third largest emitter of greenhouse gases by year-end
By IANS,
Washington : Global yearly carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and manufacturing cement have shot up to 8.5 billion tonnes by 2007, from 6.1 billion tonnes in 1992.
But the source of emissions has shifted dramatically to developing countries like China and India, according to the US Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL).
Bodhi tree branch cut three years ago: report
By IANS
Patna : A scientific report has vindicated allegations by Buddhists that one of their most sacred religious symbols -- the Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya -- had a branch cut off three years ago.
The Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI), in its detailed report submitted to the Bihar government, said a branch of the sacred Bodhi tree was cut three years ago.
"The report has proved that a branch of the Bodhi tree was cut three years ago instead of last year as claimed," home secretary Afzal Amanullah said Friday.
Indian American helps design cheaper, better solar cells
By IANS,
Washington : An Indian-American researcher is working with a team of Utah University engineers to design cheaper, lighter and better solar cells.
Dinesh Rakhwal, doctoral student in mechanical engineering, said: "We're coming up with a more efficient way of making germanium wafers for solar cells - to reduce the cost and weight of these solar cells and make them defect-free."
Compost can reduce carbon emissions
By IANS
London : Organic fertilisers applied to farmland could trap carbon stored in the soil and cut down on greenhouse emissions.
Carbon sequestration in soil has been recognised as a means to mitigate emissions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the European Commission.
Twenty percent of farmlands in Eurpoean Union could target about 8.6 percent of its total emissions for reduction, said a research paper published in the journal Waste Management and Research.
Fangs evolving from teeth helped snakes spread worldwide
By IANS,
Sydney : Fangs which had evolved from early teeth enabled snakes to expand across all continents except Antarctica nearly 60 million years ago, according to a new study.
"Understanding the evolution of fangs sheds light on how snakes colonised new environments or adapted to feed on new prey," said Bryan Fry of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology in Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne. Fry worked on the study with a team from the Netherlands, US, Israel and Australia.
Google plans to sell e-book from next month
By IANS,
Washington : US internet search software giant Google plans to sell digital edition of books in late June or July, throwing the firm into a battle that already involves Amazon.com, Apple Inc. and Barnes & Noble Inc.
Google has been discussing its plan for distributing books online for several years and for months has been evangelising about its new service, called Google Editions, a company official said Tuesday.
Artificial reefs to support corals in Persian Gulf
By IANS
Abu Dhabi : Dolphin Energy Limited, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) based natural gas company, is conducting the first artificial coral reef growth study in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Qatar, WAM news agency reported Friday.
The project is being implemented by the Continental Shelf Associates International (CSA) of the US.
The CSA will use 'EcoReef' technology in the project that includes construction of complex reef habitats using ceramic modules that mimic natural branching corals. The ceramic is non-toxic, pH neutral, food-grade stoneware.
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.
Shuttle Endeavour docks with ISS on ‘home-improvement’ mission
By RIA Novosti,
Washington : The space shuttle Endeavour has docked with the International Space Station at the start of a home-improvement mission due to last almost two weeks, NASA's Mission Control said.
The shuttle linked up with the orbiter at 22:01 GMT on Sunday, NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters said.
Coastlines remain intact, despite climate change: study
By IANS,
Sydney : Preliminary research from the windswept coast of southern France suggest that world's coastlines remain largely intact despite climate change.
The urgent question is whether even small changes in sea levels due to climate change will wreck this natural balance and trigger devastating coastal erosion.
Key parameters are being recorded on equipment constructed by a joint team from Universities of New South Wales (UNSW) and Plymouth (Britain), in what is believed to be the single largest array of scientific instruments ever deployed in experimental coastal research.
Software embedded in soldier’s helmet pinpoints enemy snipers
By IANS,
Washington : Imagine a squad of soldiers who can pinpoint out-of-sight enemy snipers and identify the calibre and type of weapons being fired, with the help of software embedded in their helmets.
Engineers at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed a system that can give soldiers just such an edge by turning their combat helmets into "smart nodes" in a wireless sensor network.
US Dawn probe sets off on asteroid mission
By Xinhua
Washington : The US Dawn probe was launched into space by a Delta2 rocket Thursday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
From launch pad 17B, Dawn soared into the cloudy sky after being launched at 7.34 a.m. (1134 GMT), a little after dawn, beginning its long-waited asteroid belt trip.
Several minutes after the lift-off, NASA mission control centre reported that six of the solid-fuelled boosters have burned out and fallen away from the Delta2 rocket.
Cut soot, slow climate change: Scientists
By IANS,
New Delhi : Global warming is caused by excess of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, but cutting down other pollutants such as soot can help slow climate change in a big way, say the world's leading scientists, including an Indian American.
Microsoft announces reworked Windows
By DPA,
Washington : Microsoft has announced an overhaul of its Internet-based Windows Live communications platform.
Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail in particular have been equipped with a new user interface and added functionality, Microsoft reports.
Among the new functions is the ability to create Windows Live Groups. These let friends, colleagues or family members gather in groups for easier communication.
Info on Indian diaspora now just a click way
By IANS
New Delhi : The information on groups of professionals of Indian origin based in the US is now just a click away as Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal Wednesday launched a dynamic and interactive website on them.
Launching the portal, www.piousnetwork.com, Sibal said there was a crying need to systematise, diversify and scale up the information available on the diaspora based in the US and this initiative will address the need.
Watch out for Uranus at its brightest Saturday night
By IANS,
New Delhi : Keep your telescopes handy for a wonderful celestial activity - Uranus will shine at its brightest when it aligns directly with the Sun and the Earth Saturday.
At this time of the year, Uranus comes closest to the Earth. Saturday the planet will be visible through telescopes right from dusk to dawn.
"It is an interesting phenomenon as Uranus and the Earth would be in a straight line. Both the planets come closest at this time of the year and Uranus, in turn, shines at its brightest," said Nehru Planetarium director N. Ratnashree.
NASA says Atlantis launch doubtful amid rough weather
By RIA Novosti
Washington : The launch of the Atlantis shuttle from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, could be delayed by the turbulent weather continuing to sweep the U.S. south, NASA said.
Meteorologists have given a mere 30% chance of acceptable weather conditions for the launch, set for 2:45 p.m. (7:45 p.m. GMT). Nearby Arkansas, Kentucky and Alabama have been hit by major tornadoes in the last few days that have killed at least 52 people.
Space shuttle undocks from station, heads home
By RIA Novosti
Washington : The US 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 Wednesday.
The second and main part of the Japanese laboratory is due to be delivered by space shuttle Discovery in late May.
Microsoft buys European shopping site for $486 mn
By DPA,
San Francisco : Hoping to boost its Internet power, Microsoft has bought Greenfield Online Inc, the owner of European price comparison site Ciao GmbH, for about $486 million, the company said in a statement.
The price of $17.50 a share represented a 1.4 percent premium over the previous closing price, but was 32 percent more than Greenfield was worth when it withdrew from a deal with Quadrangle Group LLC for $15.50 a share two weeks ago.
China launches two satellites
By IANS,
Beijing : China Wednesday launched two satellites to carry out experiments in space, Xinhua reported.
Futuristic telescope to shed light on ‘Dark Ages’ of space
By DPA
Washington : For astronomers the Dark Ages represent the far-flung corners of the universe about which precious little is known, and which could yet hold the key to how planets were first formed. NASA hopes a "next generation" telescope slated for launch in 2013 will shed light on the question.
Donkey work began much later than thought
By IANS
Washington : Domestication of the donkey as a beast of burden might have taken much longer than thought previously, according to a new study.
Researchers, basing their study on 10 donkey skeletons from three 5,000-year-old graves in the Pharaoh's complex at Abydos, Egypt, found that they were then in an early phase of domestication.
They looked like wild animals but displayed joint wear that showed that they were used as domestic animals.
Earlier estimates suggested that the domestication of animals began much earlier.
PM launches Rs.21,500 crore Bathinda refinery
By IANS,
Bathinda (Punjab): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday inaugurated the Rs.21,500 crore Guru Gobind Singh Refinery in Punjab's Bathinda district.
Fake ‘dislike’ button spreads across Facebook
By IANS,
Washington : Social networking website Facebook, which offers its subscribers only a "like" button for anyone's updates, is now faced with a fake "dislike" button, which is spreading like a virus across the site.
The fake dislike button is followed with a link that takes people to a fake application. Instead of installing a dislike button, the application uses the person's network to continue spreading the fake programme.
Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos wrote in a blog that the fake dislike buttons "are going viral" on Facebook.
U.S. shuttle Endeavour docks with space station
By Xinhua
Washington : After a nearly-two-day pursuit, the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour arrived at the International Space Station and linked up with it at 11:49 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (0349 GMT on Thursday), NASA TV reported.
After Endeavour docks, the shuttle crew and the Expedition 16 crew at the station will conduct pressure and leak checks before the hatches between the two spacecraft open a little after 1:00 a.m. Thursday (0500 GMT). They will greet each other and combine forces for 12 days of joint operations.
Chandrayaan-1 in lunar orbit after successful manoeuvre
By NNN-PTI,
Bangalore, India : India's first unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 entered the lunar orbit on Saturday after ISRO scientists successfully carried out a highly complex and tricky manoeuvre crossing another historic milestone in the country's space programme.
ISRO scientists at the Mission Control Centre near here fired the spacecraft's liquid engine at 1651 hours for a duration of 817 seconds in a hit or miss Lunar Orbit Insertion(LOI) operation in the maiden moon mission, 18 days after it was launched from Sriharikota spaceport.
Next-gen robots to tirelessly serve households
By IANS,
London : A new generation of service robots will soon be able to relieve us of heavy, dirty, monotonous or irksome tasks at home, according to scientists.
They would work long hours, efficiently, tirelessly and without ever complaining and virtually for free after an initial investment.
Named Care-O-bot 3, the one-armed wonder can even pick up an apple juice bottle and placed it next to the glasses on the tray and serve them to guests.
Google hangs up on Nexus One store
By DPA,
San Francisco : Google is shutting down the online store it launched with much fanfare in January to sell the Nexus One smartphone, the technology giant said Friday.
Google had hoped the direct sales initiative for what was widely called the "Google-phone" would launch a new business model for the US cellphone industry, by persuading buyers to purchase phones independently from the major carriers.
Currently the vast majority of cellphone purchases are subsidised by the carriers in return for customers locking in to a two year contract.
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...
Scientists breed ‘mighty mice’ with super stamina
By IANS
New York : They can run non-stop for up to six hours at 20 metres per minute and are said to be metabolically similar to Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong. Meet the 'mighty mice' bred by researchers at Case Western Reserve University.
This special breed eats 60 percent more than normal mice, remains fitter, trimmer and lives longer than wild mice, according to an article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Some female mighty mice have also had offspring at 2.5 years of age, an amazing feat because most mice do not reproduce after they are a year old.
German firms to collaborate with Andhra Pradesh in biotechnology
By IANS
Hyderabad : A high-level German delegation Saturday signed three agreements with the University of Hyderabad and Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) for collaboration in the field of biotechnology.
Three Letters of Intents (LoIs) were signed in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy at his office here.
The LoIs were signed by the University of Hyderabad and BioM Biotech Cluster Development, Technologiepark Heidelberg GmbH and BioTOP Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany.
Mosquito survives in outer space
By Alexander Peslyak, RIA Novosti,
Moscow : A Russian scientist has said that a mosquito had managed to survive in the outer space for 18 months.
Anatoly Grigoryev, vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said: "We brought him (mosquito) back to Earth. He is alive, and his feet are moving."
The mosquito did not get any food and was subjected to extreme temperatures ranging from minus 150 degrees Celsius in the shade to plus 60 degrees in the sunlight.
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.
Less than 1 percent spent on R&D in science
By IANS
New Delhi : A mere 0.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is spent on research and development in science and technology, the Lok Sabha was informed Tuesday.
Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said the government had taken several measures to increase spending on science and technology.
"These measures include higher allocation for scientific research for setting up new institutions for science, education and research," he said.
Attack paralyses China’s largest web search engine
By IANS,
Beijing : China's largest Internet search engine, Baidu.com, said that its website was paralysed Tuesday morning after coming under a cyber-attack. The search engine later resumed operation.
"The reason why Chinese users could not log on to the website was that our domain name server (DNS) in the United States was illegally attacked," Xinhua reported.
The company said it was still investigating the problem.
"It is rare for Baidu.com to be down for so long as the company boasts high security protection," said Li Tiejun, an IT security engineer of Beijing Kingsoft.
Nano water filter kills 98 pc bacteria within seconds
By IANS,
Washington : A new low cost filtering system kills up to 98 percent of deadly bacteria like E. coli in water within seconds.
Green energy to slash power use of computers
By IANS,
Washington : Many experts are looking to slash soaring energy use by ever more powerful computers, data centres and mobile devices.
China approves second-phase lunar probe program
By Xinhua
Beijing : China's State Council, the cabinet, has approved the country's second-phase lunar probe program, the Beijing Times reported on Wednesday. It cited Luan Enjie, the director-in-chief of the China Moon-orbiting Program.
"We are organizing people to make detailed plans for the program," Luan told a conference on Tuesday.
He also said that investment in the second phase would exceed that for the first lunar probe but didn't give specific figures, the Times said.
ISRO land deal rocks Kerala assembly
By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The opposition Congress Tuesday walked out of the Kerala assembly over the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) purchasing 82 acres of forest land to set up a space education institute.
The trouble began when senior Congress legislator Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan sought leave for an adjournment motion and sought a discussion into the deal - ISRO purchased the land in Ponmudi, 75 km from here, from high profile businessman Savy Mano Mathew.
The Congress alleges that the land belongs to the forest department of the government.
New planet spotted after discovery of Neptune
By IANS,
Washington : In 2006, astronomer Alice Quillen predicted a planet of a specific size and orbit must lie within the dust of a nearby star.
That planet has now been photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, making it only the second planet ever imaged after an accurate prediction. The only other planet seen after an accurate prediction was Neptune, more than 160 years ago.
"It's remarkable," said Eugene Chiang, associate professor of astronomy at the University of California Berkeley (UC-B), and part of the team that imaged the new planet.
Smell of the sea leads fish to food, affects climate
By IANS
Washington : The ocean has an "odour" that affects global climate and also attracts reef fish to feed as they "eavesdrop" on events that might lead them to food.
The odour, traced to DMSP (Di-methyl-sulfoniopropionate), is given off when either tiny animals in the plankton are feeding on the algae, or during an algal bloom, said Jennifer DeBose of the University of California at Davis who conducted a study on ocean odour.
Researchers crack key HIV riddle after decades
By IANS,
London : Researchers have cracked a key riddle that has foxed scientists for decades, potentially opening the way to better treatment of HIV, says a new study.
Imperial College London and Harvard University researchers have grown a crystal that reveals the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in retroviruses like HIV.
When HIV infects someone, it uses integrase to paste a copy of its genetic information into their DNA.
Indian crust sank 200 km after hitting Asian landmass
By IANS,
London : The collision of the Indian and Asian landmasses some 90 million years ago forced the Indian tectonic plate down under the Asian plate to a depth of 200 km - around double of previous estimates - in the earth's mantle, according to a new geological study.
Google and Microsoft innovations excite
By Andy Goldberg
DPA
San Diego : Some of the fanciest new technology in the world was unveiled this week at the high-powered All Things Digital conference in San Diego.
Wipro develops software for police to combat crime, terror
By IANS,
Bangalore : Wipro Infotech has developed an integrated software for the police to combat crime and terror, the IT bellwether announced here Friday.
“The software application, which is in a pilot stage, will help the police and other law enforcement agencies to combat the fast emerging hi-tech world of crime and terror,” the company said in a statement.
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.
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.
Solar eruptions could disrupt power grids, telecom by 2012
By IANS,
Washington : Extreme solar eruptions could disrupt communications, power grids and other technology on earth by 2012.
These eruptions are expected to increase in frequency and intensity towards the next solar maximum cycle which peaks in 2012, up from the current minimum of its 11-year activity cycle.
China’s lunar probe moves closer to final orbit
By Xinhua
Beijing : China's first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, completed its second braking early Tuesday, which further decelerated the satellite to get it closer to its final orbit.
"The second braking was done just as accurately as the first one and the satellite has entered the orbit just as designed," said Zhu Mincai, head of the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre (BACC).