Nobel laureate for GM food, against biofuel and cloning
By IANS,
Chennai : For Nobel laureate microbiologist Sidney Altman, biofuels and clones are "no, no" but genetically modified (GM) food is a big "yes".
The renowned professor at Yale University thinks biofuels "cannot be the solution" the mankind is looking for.
"There is no indication that biofuels can ever substitute fossil fuels," Altman said in the keynote address at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-organised interaction on "what business and society can learn from basic research" here Saturday.
Revolutionary nano-needle can peer into a cell
By IANS,
Washington : A revolutionary nano-needle, developed by researchers, not only peers into individual cells, but also acts as electro-chemical probe and optical biosensor.
"Nano-needle-based delivery is a powerful new tool for studying biological processes and biophysical properties at the molecular level inside living cells," said Min-Feng Yu, professor of mechanical science and study coauthor, University of Illinois (U of I).
NASA delays space shuttle launch over poor weather
By RIA Novosti,
Cape Canaveral : The launch of the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour has been delayed by 24 hours due to cloudy weather over the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA officials said on Sunday.
The delay was announced just nine minutes before the launch. The shuttle was scheduled to lift off at 4:39 a.m. EST (09:39 GMT) on Sunday with an 80% chance of favorable weather for launch.
The next launch attempt has been scheduled for 4:14 a.m. EST (09:14 GMT) on Monday, NASA said.
Geologist launches e-journal
By IANS,
Lucknow : A scientist from the Geological Survey India (GSI) has launched a free e-journal to help students and others interested in geological studies.
Lucknow-based Satish Tripathi says it can be accessed after logging on to www.earthscienceindia.info
"By logging on, one can get queries pertaining to Planet Earth answered by renowned geologists of the world who are members of the journal," Tripathi told IANS here.
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.
US firm offers India thorium reactors
By K.S. Jayaraman, IANS
Bangalore : While India is still debating how to make the Indo-US nuclear deal work, an American company, anxious to enter the Indian market, has offered to build commercial nuclear power reactors in the country.
These reactors will rely entirely on India's thorium resources -- except at the start - and thereby remove the objections of critics.
Space Shuttle Atlantis launch set for Feb 7
By DPA
Washington : The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis has been pushed to Feb 7 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, NASA has said.
The shuttle that is to carry the European Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station was originally set to takeoff Dec 6, but has been delayed numerous times because of technical problems with onboard fuel sensors.
The seven-member crew is to conduct several space walks to install the Columbus laboratory.
Astronauts Preparing for Thursday Shuttle Launch
By SPA
Washington : Seven astronauts returned to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Cape Canaveral, Florida launch site Monday to make another attempt at flying space shuttle Atlantis to the international space station.
Liftoff is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, with NASA finishing a last repair Sunday night involving a radiator hose. The mission was delayed in December by a different problem.
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.
NASA developing nuclear fission to use on moon’s surface
By Xinhua,
Washington : NASA engineers are exploring the possibility of nuclear fission to provide the necessary power when its astronauts return to the moon and establish a lunar outpost in the future, the US space agency has said.
"Engineers are taking initial steps toward a technology demonstration of this type of system," said a NASA statement released Wednesday.
Scientists identify brain’s tiny timekeepers
By IANS,
Washington : How does your brain recall that you brush your teeth before you took a shower, and not the other way around? A study has now identified groups of neurons in the primate brain that code time with extreme precision.
Keeping track of time and remembering past events is one of the brain's most important tasks, amid the welter of sights and sounds that it processes.
1,000-year-old sea creatures found
By IANS,
Toronto : Canadian and Spanish scientists have discovered rare species of marine life, with some creatures more than 1,000 years old.
According to the scientists, these creatures found off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador hold clues to the secrets of ancient underwater ecosystems.
These rare marine creatures have been spotted by researchers from Fisheries and Oceans Canada and scientists from three Canadian universities and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography.
Scientists identify new longevity protein
By IANS,
Washington: The level of a single protein found in the tiny roundworm C. elegans determines how long it lives, says a new study.
Worms born without this protein, called arrestin, lived about one-third longer than normal, while worms that had triple the amount of arrestin lived one-third less.
The research also showed that arrestin interacts with several other proteins within cells to regulate longevity. The human version of one of these proteins is PTEN, a well-known tumour suppressor.
New addition to solar system may be bigger than Jupiter
By IANS,
London : A new planet in our solar system's outer reaches could be four times as large as Jupiter, the biggest planet in the system, scientists believe.
More people now want to be astronauts: NASA
By IANS/EFE,
Washington : NASA has received 6,372 applications for its 2013 class of astronauts, double the usual number, the US space agency said.
Scientists puzzled over intense swarm of earthquakes
By Xinhua,
Los Angeles : An unusually intense swarm of earthquakes has struck beneath a small suburb of Reno in Nevada, leaving residents shaken and scientists puzzling over the cause, the Los Angeles Time said on Thursday.
Totaling more than 1,000 over the last two months, more than 20quakes of magnitude 2 or higher have hit on some days, and the intensity and frequency of the quakes have been increasing rather than following the normal pattern of tailing off, according to the paper.
Apple’s latest laptop: Small is in
By DPA
San Francisco : There's never been a laptop as skinny as the new MacBook Air from Apple. At its thinnest, it measures just about four millimetres.
"When you first see MacBook Air, it's hard to believe it's a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display," gushed Apple CEO Steve Jobs while presenting the new laptop at the keynote speech of the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. "But it is."
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.
Scientists can predict if women are going to break their hip
By IANS
New York : Scientists have listed 11 factors that will help doctors predict if a postmenopausal woman is going to suffer hip fractures over a period of five years.
A hip fracture is a common injury for elderly people. A broken hip can lead to more serious problems, even death. For older women, a hip fracture can mean continuing ill health.
India to send two astronauts into space in 2016
By IANS,
Bangalore : India will launch its first manned mission in 2016 with two astronauts for a week-long odyssey in space, a top Indian space agency official said Wednesday.
"We are planning a human space flight in 2016, with two astronauts who will spend seven days in the earth's lower orbit," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters here.
India test fires Akash missile
Bhubaneswar: India Wednesday test fired its Akash surface-to-air missile from a defence base in Odisha, an official said.
The indigenously developed missile, with a 27-km...
Russian rocket fails to send US satellite into orbit
By Xinhua
Moscow : A Russian rocket failed to send into orbit a US communication satellite that was launched from Central Asia's Baikonur space centre early Saturday.
The AMC-14 satellite, atop of a Proton-M carrier rocket, was put into a orbit with the apogee altitude of 28,000 km instead of the planned 36,000 km, the Itar-Tass news agency said, citing Russian space agency Roskosmos.
The rocket blasted off at 02.18 Saturday from the Baikonur space centre.
Google’s multiple-access password software hacked
By IANS,
New York : US internet giant Google's password system that controls multiple access to almost all of its web services was hacked through an innocuous message sent to a google employee in China, a media report said Tuesday.
Though Google had disclosed in January that intruders had stolen information from its computers in the cyber attack in December 2009, the extent of the theft has been a closely guarded company secret till now.
Instant Messaging cuts workplace interruptions: Study
By IANS,
Washington : Instant messaging could be a way to reduce interruptions at the workplace, rather than cause them, as is popularly believed.
A new study has found that instant messaging, or IM, is now being often used as a substitute for more disruptive forms of communication like the telephone, e-mail and personal chats.
This finding flies in the face of earlier research which concluded that IM - along with phones and e-mail - was the cause of increased interruptions at work and resulted in reduced output.
Is it time to upgrade your wireless network?
Washington, Oct 10 (DPA) If you go shopping today for any type of wireless computing device, ask yourself these questions:
Q: Do I have to purchase draft 802.11n products from the same company?
A: You probably know that to get faster wireless Internet and network access, all of the devices within your wireless network should be capable of operating at the same speed. That means that your router, notebook cards, and any PCI desktop wireless cards should be draft 802.11n.
Yahoo! Buzz offers buzz-worthy stories
By Arun Kumar, IANS
Washington : Leading global internet brand Yahoo! Inc. has introduced Yahoo! Buzz, offering the most interesting and relevant content from websites across the worldwide web and bringing more buzz-worthy stories to the homepage of Yahoo!
Currently in beta, Yahoo! Buzz measures consumer votes and search patterns to identify interesting and timely stories and videos from large news sources as well as niche blogs around the web, the firm announced Wednesday.
Sea-level to rise by one-metre this century: scientists
By DPA,
Berlin : Global warming calculations have been too optimistic, and the sea level round the globe is likely to rise a full metre this century, two senior German scientists warned Wednesday.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Research on Global Warming Effects and Jochem Marotzke, a leading meteorologist, said UN-backed data on climate change, predicting a rise of 18 to 59 centimetres, was out of date.
"We now have to expect that the sea level will rise by a metre this century," said Schellnhuber in Berlin.
Top scientist holds humankind responsible for climate change
By Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : India's top farm scientist M.S. Swaminathan holds humankind solely responsible for global warming causing climatic changes.
"Global warming is anthropogenic (man-made) and not caused by nature. Man is solely responsible for whatever is happening in the earth's atmosphere," Swaminathan, considered father of India's first green revolution, told IANS in an interview on the margins of the 97th Indian Science Congress (ISC2010) here Thursday.
Arrested NASA scientist worked on Chandrayaan-1
By IANS,
New Delhi : A senior NASA scientist who has been arrested in the US for alleged espionage was one of the main investigators of an American scientific instrument that flew aboard India's lunar craft Chandrayaan-1.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation Monday filed a criminal complaint against Steward David Nozette, 52, for "attempted espionage".
Microsoft, Intel To Launch CMPC In Nepal
By Bernama
Kathmandu : Microsoft and Intel are set to launch the Intel Classmate PC (CMPC) for schoolchildren in Nepal soon, China's XINHUA news agency reported Wednesday quoting a local daily as saying.
Tilden Wu of Intel said at a press meeting in the capital on Tuesday that the laptop would cost between US$200 and US$300 and would be available in Nepali market in a month or two.
A part of Intel's World Ahead Program, the CMPC is targeted at providing one computer per student in emerging markets.
Goa launches ambitious broadband network
By IANS
Panaji (Goa) : Goa has unveiled plans for a super-ambitious broadband network project to build a state that's "enabled by IT to be efficient and accountable with a global thinking approach".
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the Goa Broadband Network (GBBN) Friday amid both expectations and apprehensions as to how exactly the project will work and at what cost.
Car-sized rat fossile found in Uruguay
By Xinhua
Beijing : Scientists have unearthed the skull of a giant prehistoric rat -- a car-sized behemoth that roamed South America four million years ago, according to a study published in Wednesday's Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The newly-identified species, believed to be the largest rodent ever to have walked the Earth, was about three meters long and 1.5 meters tall, and weighed from 468 kilos to 2.5 tonnes, according to researchers.
Harmony module attached to International Space Station
By DPA
Washington : Two astronauts from the US space shuttle Discovery have completed the mission's first space walk at the International Space Station (ISS).
The two US citizens Scott Parazynski and Douglas Wheelock Friday installed the Harmony linking module, which is due to be used in December for docking the European space laboratory Columbus, in a temporary location outside the ISS.
They first prepared the module before crew inside the station used its robotic arm to move it into position.
$2 bn public-private partnership for rural internet access
By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Saturday announced a $2-billion public-private partnership to provide broadband and internet connectivity in country's rural areas.
Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, speaking at Global Telecom Summit here, said that $1.5 billion for the project would be generated from the private sector and the balance would be funded from government sources.
Agra based firm launches free astrology software for mobiles
By IANS,
Agra : Star gazers and those interested in astrology can now prepare their horoscopes on their mobile phone itself, and that too free of cost.
A free software developed by Ojas Softech's research wing in Agra, was Wednesday launched by Surendra Sharma of the Brahmin Maha Sabha.
"With the number of star gazers going up and the younger generation getting hooked to astrology, the new software will prove a useful tool," Sharma said.
For those who follow Jyotish (astrology) personally and professionally, Ojas has launched free Jyotish software for mobile phones.
Astronomers whip up recipe for moon concrete
By Xinhua,
Beijing : A team of astronomers have come up with an idea for a kind of lunar concrete that could be used to build structures on the moon such as giant telescopes, solar power arrays and even homes.
Dutch robot wins international LEGO competition
By DPA,
Amsterdam : A robot built entirely from LEGO bricks by Dutch students has won the LEGO robot championship held in Tokyo, the Dutch newswire ANP reported Thursday.
The robot, built by three students aged 11, 12 and 15 from Eindhoven in the southern Netherlands, was the best of a total of 56 teams originating from 23 countries.
Initially, some 10,000 teams registered for the international competition. All participating robots had to perform certain assignments, including placing a wind turbine or a solar panel or recycling a car.
Did climatic conditions trigger Angkor’s collapse?
By IANS,
Washington : Decades of drought, alternating with intense monsoon rains, may have sounded the death knell for Cambodia's ancient Khmer civilization at Angkor nearly 600 years ago.
Columbia University researchers say this based on an analysis of tree rings, archaeological remains and other evidence.
Their findings may also shed light on what drives - and disrupts - the rainy season across much of Asia, which waters crops for nearly half the world's population.
Underground ocean may exist on Saturn moon: NASA
By DPA
Washington : New evidence has surfaced of an underground ocean on Saturn's moon Titan, based on data sent back to Earth by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, the US space agency said.
"Titan has one of the most varied, active and Earth-like surfaces in the solar system," Ralph Lorenz, Cassini radar scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, said in a statement Thursday.
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.
Intoto releases security software for SME market
By IANS
Hyderabad : US-based Intoto, a leading provider of security software, Tuesday announced the beta release of IntruPro IPS, an enterprise-class intrusion prevention system.
Mars mission a shining symbol of what we are capable: Modi
Bangalore: The success of Indcia's Mars mission is "a shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation" and we have gone...
Scientists identify gene that influences alcohol consumption
By Xinhua
Washington : A variant of a gene involved in communication among brain cells has a direct influence on alcohol consumption in mice, according to a new study by US scientists.
If approved in human beings, the finding may lead to new opportunities for developing drugs to treat alcohol dependence.
Known as Grm7, the gene encodes a receptor subtype that inhibits the release of glutamate and other neurotransmitter molecules that brain cells use to communicate with one another.
Google’s new OS could hit Microsoft where it hurts
By Andy Goldberg, DPA,
San Francisco : It's the ultimate showdown in the technology world, the clash of giants that has been eagerly awaited for years. Web giant Google is taking its clearest aim yet at Microsoft with its plan to produce its own operating system that would optimise the way computers work on the Internet.
Russia wants to join Mars mission
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russian scientists want to join European Space Agency's ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) mission to study the Red Planet, a leading Russian space researcher said.
India plans 70 space missions
By NNN-Xinhua
New Delhi : India plans to undertake 70 space missions in five years, a nearly three-fold jump from the previous half-decade, to address requirements and develop new technologies for future needs, according to the NDTV station.
"We have proposed something like 70 missions totally compared to about 26 missions in the tenth plan period," Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization G Madhavan Nair said.
Imaging a galaxy ablaze with star birth
By IANS
Washington : NASA astronomers have created a striking and detailed ultraviolet image of an entire galaxy "ablaze with star birth" by combining 39 individual frames, taken over 11 hours of exposure.
The image shows the giant star-forming region NGC 604 as a shiny spot to the lower left of the galaxy's nucleus.
With a diameter of 1,500 light-years, it is the largest stellar nursery in the "local group" that includes our Milky Way and Andromeda.
Ariane 5 rocket blasts off with two satellites
By Xinhua,
Paris : An Ariane 5 ECA launcher carrying a British military satellite and a Turkish telecoms satellite lifted off from Europe's Spaceport at Kourou, in French Guiana, Thursday night.
The rocket carrying Skynet 5C and Turksat 3A blast off at 2205 GMT Thursday night and the satellites were accurately injected into the geostationary transfer orbits about 30 minutes later, said a statement posted on the website of the European Space Agency.
The launch, which had been slated for May 23, has been postponed twice due to technical hitches.
Bangalore kids send 25-metre ‘green’ message to Copenhagen
By IANS,
Bangalore : "Go green, save planet Earth", "Save planet Earth before it's too late" are some of the appeals a group of Bangalore children has made on a 25-metre long khadi scroll, planned to be sent to the leaders at the ongoing Copenhagen climate summit.
"The 25-metre khadi scroll containing messages and signatures of children has been especially designed as an appeal to the world leaders gathered at Copenhagen summit to save the Earth from an imminent environmental crisis," a member of Rotary Green Brigade, a Bangalore-based voluntary organisation, told IANS.
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.
Discovery astronauts begin spacewalk for ISS work
By DPA,
Washington : Two astronauts from the Discovery space shuttle began a spacewalk Sunday to carry out further work on the International Space Station (ISS).
Discovery astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan were set to spend more than six hours installing a new nitrogen tank on the ISS and to carry out further work installing a robot arm on the Japanese module Kibo.
It is the third and final spacewalk scheduled during the current 14-day Discovery mission.
World record: Artificial insemination of blackbuck
By IANS
Hyderabad : Scientists here have succeeded in artificial insemination of a blackbuck by using a non-invasive method, leading to the birth of a live fawn. Encouraged by the feat, they now plan to implement it for saving other endangered species also.
Scientists at the Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) of the prestigious Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CCMB) here are excited about the success achieved for the first time in the world.
Launch of space shuttle Atlantis delayed further
By DPA
Washington : The much-delayed launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis remains up in the air, according to NASA officials who are now predicting a takeoff date of early February and in any case no sooner than Jan 24.
Shuttle programme manager John Shannon Thursday said that ongoing attempts to resolve a problem with the shuttle's fuel sensors has prevented the US space agency from setting a firm launch date.
90 percent digitisation achieved in Kolkata: Siticable
By IANS,
Kolkata: The percentage of digitisation of cable televisions in Kolkata has currently reached 90 percent, leading multi-service operator (MSO) Siticable said Tuesday.
Scientists develop wonder glass that regenerates bones
By IANS,
London : A new kind of glass will enable patients to re-grow bones by dissolving and releasing calcium into the body, possibly making bone transplants redundant.
The porous glass, developed by scientists at Imperial College here, dissolves in the body and stimulates bone growth, without leaving any toxic residue.
Specific concentrations of soluble silica and calcium ions in the glass activate genes that encode proteins controlling the bone cell cycle and differentiation of the cell to form bone matrix and rapid mineralisation of bone nodules.
New software will track unauthorised presence at airports
London, Dec 10 (IANS) A new software will soon help airport staff maintain strict vigil and promptly track unauthorised persons and objects.
The airport apron is a beehive of activity. Ground staff drive baggage trolleys to the aircraft, load air freight containers in the hold and refuel the aircraft. But which persons, vehicles and objects are moving around on the apron?
Are all the people authorised? Are people getting into hazardous situations? For the security staff who have to supervise the terrain on the monitor, it is almost impossible to keep track of everything.
Massive supernova visible from Earth
By IANS,
London : A supernova millions of light years away from the Earth has become visible with a pair of binoculars.
First South Korean astronaut returns to earth
By Xinhua,
Moscow : The Russian Soyuz spacecraft with South Korea's first female astronaut Yi So-yeon aboard landed safely in the Kazakh steppe on Saturday, according to the Mission Control Center.
The spacecraft carrying Yi, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko undocked with the International Space Station (ISS) and started trip home earlier Saturday.
The Soyuz capsule landed in the Kazakh steppe at 12:51 Moscow time (0851GMT), 20 minutes later than the planned time and 420 km from the planned landing site, the Misson Control said.
‘Chances of asteroid hitting earth is very real’
By IANS,
London : A football field sized asteroid hitting say New York will obliterate the city in a matter of seconds and all that moves within it.
The tidal waves of energy unleashed by the collision would be equivalent to several Hydrogen bombs going off at once, a scenario brought to life by 1998 hit movie Armageddon, starring Bruce Willis.
The chances of an asteroid hitting the Earth one day are very real and blowing up an asteroid in real life, says a Tel Aviv University (TAU) researcher, will be more complicated than in the movies.
Houses with green roofs and walls cool cities
By IANS
London : Scientists in Britain say roofs and walls green with vegetation can reduce the temperature of cities as they reduce the need for air-conditioning on hot days.
Green surfaces absorb less heat from the sun. Green roofs and walls can lower temperatures by 3.6 to 11.3 degrees Celsius depending on the city, a new study has found.
Scientists compared the effects of green surfaces in nine cities around the world, including sub-arctic Montreal in Canada, temperate London in Britain, humid Mumbai in India, and tropical Brasília in Brazil.
Google enables Indians to build maps of their villages, cities
By IANS,
New Delhi : For a vast country which lacks adequately detailed maps for many of its areas, India is now finding an unexpected solution in the form of the Google Map Maker.
Google recently extended its 'map maker' service to India and has, within three weeks of its launch, drawn quite some attention to it in cyberspace.
Supporters of the project started sending messages out via the net, urging friends and colleagues to create their own detailed maps -- by adding details of features in the villages or urban areas where they live.
Facebook cancels Indian student’s internship
Washington : Facebook cancelled an Indian-origin student's internship after he exposed a serious privacy flaw in the social media giant's messenger service, a media...
Chandrayaan inspires overseas Indian scientists to return home
By Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Bangalore : The successful launch of India's first lunar mission Chandrayaan-1 has inspired many Indian space scientists working abroad to return home for a promising career in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a top official said.
"Our moon mission has aroused tremendous interest in the scientific community the world over. The launch has made many overseas Indian space scientists think of returning and working in our organisation to further their career prospects," the official told IANS.
New telecom network guidelines next month: minister
By IANS,
New Delhi : The government is expected to issue guidelines for third generation (3G) and wireless broadband (WiMax) networks by June, Minister for Communications and Information Technology A. Raja said here Friday.
"By June the guidelines will be issued for 3G and WiMax," Raja said at an industry conference, adding that these networks would be rolled out by January 2009.
India unveils ambitious solar power mission
By IANS,
New Delhi : India's ambitious mission to ramp up its solar power hundredfold in the next 13 years and reduce dependence on fossil fuels was unveiled here Monday.
The mission anticipates achieving parity with cost of electricity on the grid by 2022 and parity with coal-based thermal power by 2030. The plan is to produce 20,000 MW through solar power by 2022, up from just 200 MW now.
RCom launches new search engine on mobile
By IANS,
New Delhi : Leading telecom service provider Reliance Communications (RCom) Thursday launched an information service called 'Quick Search'.
Powered by OnYoMo.com on Reliance Mobile World (R-World), the service includes information on banks, automated teller machines (ATMs), shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, cinema theatres, educational institutions, hospitals, blood banks, chemists and airline offices.
Gene may explain why Labradors collapse after hunting
By IANS,
Washington : Researchers have identified a gene which is linked with Labradors collapsing soon after an intense hunting or retrieving exercise, in a condition known as exercise-induced collapse or EIC.
In most cases, their legs get wobbly and hind limbs give out, and in rare cases they may die. Labradors are the commonest dog breed in the world. An estimated three to five percent have EIC.
Can a Machine Heal a Heart? Why New Age Youth Are Turning to AI...
Samah Qundeel, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: We once believed that technology would bring people closer. But somewhere along the way, it did the opposite. Today, it...
New iguana species found in Fiji
By IANS,
Sydney : A new species of iguana, found by Australian and US researchers in central Fiji, takes the number of such existing Pacific species to three.
Scientists named the new iguana species Brachylophus bulabula. Bulabula is a doubling of bula, the Fijian word for 'hello,' thus signifying an even more enthusiastic greeting.
NASA completes `brain transplant’ on Curiosity rover
By IANS,
Los Angeles : NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has announced that it has completed "brain transplant" on Mars rover Curiosity.
Mercury dotted with volcanoes, shrinking as aging
By Xinhua
Beijing : Some of the 1,213 photos taken by NASA's Messenger show that ancient volcanoes dot Mercury which is shrinking as it gets older, forming wrinkle-like ridges, media reported Thursday.
The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider.
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.
Century’s longest eclipse sweeps into clouds in Himachal
By IANS,
Shimla : Partly cloudy sky Wednesday morning in most parts of Himachal Pradesh marred the early moments of one of nature's greatest spectaculars - the century's longest total solar eclipse, weather officials here said.
"Clouds in most parts of the hill state remained an intermittent problem, with most areas reporting partly overcast conditions," meteorological office Director Manmohan Singh said.
On the historic Ridge in Shimla, a large number of people, especially schoolchildren, have gathered to witness the eclipse through clouds.
Microsoft unveils Windows 7, a fix for disappointing Vista
By DPA,
Los Angeles : Microsoft released key details Tuesday of the next generation of software that it hopes will run the world's computers.
The software giant, whose dominance is under threat, said Windows 7 will replace the disappointing Windows Vista in January 2010.
Microsoft said the new operating system was designed to function like a tighter version of Vista, which launched in 2006 but was widely derided as a "system hog" that slowed down computers with features that most users never accessed.
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.
Now, an alarm clock that creates dawn
By IANS,
London: For people who experience "winter blues" when waking up early morning, a cure has been found. A British firm has invented an alarm clock that creates an artificial dawn.
Snappping of connectors caused launch failure: Scientist
By Venkatachari Jagannathan, IANS,
U.S. researchers create black that’s really black
By Xinhua
Beijing : U.S. researchers say they have made the blackest substance on Earth. So black it absorbs more than 99.9 percent of light.
The material is made from tiny tubes of carbon standing on end and is almost 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.
Beijing : U.S. researchers say they have made the blackest substance on Earth. So black it absorbs more than 99.9 percent of light.
The material is made from tiny tubes of carbon standing on end and is almost 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.
BMW to unveil its hydrogen-fuelled car in Singapore
By DPA
Singapore : Automobile behemoth BMW is ready to introduce its hydrogen-fuelled 7 Series limousine in Singapore but it won't be for sale, the company said Wednesday.
The car, called Hydrogen 7, will be part of a BMW Clean Energy Exhibition to be held in the city-state next month.
Representing 20 years of research and development, the Munich-based carmaker has developed the first emission-free liquid hydrogen-powered luxury saloon suitable for everyday use, according to BMW.
Human stem cells aid stroke recovery in rats
By IANS
New York : In what is billed as a first, researchers using human embryonic stem cells to generate neural cells in the lab have found that they helped repair stroke related damage to a rat's brain.
The study, by researchers at Stanford University, said it showed the potential for using stem cell therapies in treating strokes in humans.
Findings of the study have been published in the latest issue of PLoS ONE journal.
‘Sarah Palin’ most searched-for political term on Internet
By DPA,
San Francisco : Sarah Palin has taken the political world by storm since she was named the running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain last month. Now comes evidence that she's also sparking record interest in the online world.
According to online tracking firm Hitwise, "Sarah Palin" was the most searched-for political term, accounting for two percent of all political searches in the four weeks ending Sep 6, the Saturday after the Republican National Convention. At that time, the previously-unknown Palin had been in the national headlines for only eight days.
Five minor planets named after Chinese scientists
By IANS,
Beijing : Five minor planets have been named after top Chinese scientists with the approval of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Railways U-turn on offering exclusive women train coaches to men
Kolkata : In a victory of sorts for female commuters who did not shy to clash with their male counterparts, the Eastern Railway...
Moon mission ‘historic milestone’ for India’s space programme: PM
By IANS,
Tokyo : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday termed the successful launch of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, India's first unmanned scientific mission to the moon, as a "historic milestone" for the country's space programme and congratulated all its associated scientists from here.
"When completed, the mission will put India in the very small group of six countries, which have thus far sent space missions to the moon," Manmohan Singh, here on a three-day official visit, said in a message.
iPhone set to surpass BlackBerry in mobile market
By IANS,
Toronto: Apple's iPhone is set to overtake Research In Motion's BlackBerry in the global smart phone market by next year, according to Forbes online.
Currently, BlackBerry enjoys about three percent of the world's mobile phone market, while Apple's has about two percent share of the market. But BlackBerry's lead over iPhone is shrinking and Apple will overtake RIM by early next year, Forbes said Friday.
Google disregarding privacy, say officials from 10 nations
By IANS,
London : Google has violated the principle that "individuals should be able to control the use of their personal information", say officials from 10 major nations. They have demanded to know how the internet giant will meet concerns about its use of public data in future.
Britain's Information Commissioner Christopher Graham along with officials from Canada, France and Germany have signed a letter addressed to Google's chief exeutive, condemning the manner in which the firm has delivered its Streetview mapping service and its Buzz product, The Telegraph reported Thursday.
Indian IT major spreads cheer in Northern Ireland
By Prasun Sonwalkar, IANS
London : Indian BPO major HCL, which has reposed faith in trouble-torn Northern Ireland since 2001 when Western companies were chary of investing there, has spread more cheer by employing its 2000th employee in the region.
Many view HCL investing in Northern Ireland as one of the foremost landmarks of India-Britain relations during Tony Blair's tenure as prime minister. Since 2001, other Indian companies such as Firstsource, Pix Transmission and Tech Mahindra have followed HCL into the region.
Internet’s 40th anniversary celebrated in US
By IANS,
San Francisco : The 40th anniversary of the birth of the Internet was celebrated in the US with events being organised at the University of California and the Computer History Museum in Los Angeles to mark the occasion.
Industry leaders, researchers and analysts, among others, attended the function at the California University Thursday, Xinhua reported.
Computer science professor of the university, Leonard Kleinrock, who on Oct 29, 1969 headed a team to send the first message over the ARPANET, which later came to be known as Internet, also attended the event.
Mother’s care important for plants too
By IANS
New York : Mother's care is important even for plants, a new study says.
A study by researchers at the University of Virginia shows that maternal plants give cues to their offspring that help them adapt to their environmental conditions.
Findings of the study have been published in the latest issue of the journal Science.
The researchers found that plants grown in the same setting as their maternal plant performed almost three-and-half times better than those raised in a different environment.
World’s tiniest electric motor unveiled
By IANS,
Washington : Chemists have created the world's tiniest electric motor, which is no bigger than a molecule.
Avesthagen founder receives top French award
By IANS,
Bangalore : Villoo Morawala Patell, founder-chairperson of India's leading life sciences firm Avesthagen Ltd, was late Wednesday honoured with a top civilian award by the French government for her entrepreneurship and significant contribution in the scientific field.
The Officier de L'Ordre National du Merite" (Officer of the National Order of Merit) award was presented to Patell by French ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont at a felicitation ceremony here.
Watching the solar eclipse through ribs and skulls
By IANS,
New Delhi : Unable to buy a solar goggle but keen on watching the century's longest solar eclipse, 25-year-old Anurag Gupta caught hold of an old x-ray scan of his chest and went to the Nehru Planetarium to have a glimpse of the celestial spectacle.
Gupta was not the only one armed with an x-ray. Many others people were seen looking at the sun through scans of their legs, head, hands and other body parts.
Dust to dust – outer space makes dust ‘come alive’
By DPA
Hamburg : The biblical admonition of all life going from "dust to dust" has taken a new twist with scientific findings that non-organic cosmic dust particles can in fact "come to life" under certain circumstances.
The new research, published in the New Journal of Physics, found non-organic dust, when held in the form of plasma in zero gravity, formed the helical structures found in DNA.
The particles are held together by electromagnetic forces that the scientists say could contain a code comparable to the genetic information held in organic matter.
Male, female flies share unisex brain
By IANS,
Washington : Males and females, even among little flies, act as though they belong to different planets, but both come equipped with a unisex brain, says a study.
By triggering the neurons responsible for singing - normally a male activity - researchers made female flies play their first tune.
"You might expect that the brains of the two sexes would be built differently, but that does not seem to be the case," said Gero Miesenböck, formerly of Yale University and now with University of Oxford.
Dinosaur footprints found in New Zealand
By IANS,
Hamilton (New Zealand) : Seventy million-year-old dinosaur footprints have been found in New Zealand, a geologist said.
The footprints were found in the South Island region of Nelson - the first evidence of the dinosaur's existence in the country.
Geologist Greg Browne of the New Zealand government-owned research organisation, G.N.S. Science, found the footprints while he was investigating rock and sediment formations in Whanganui inlet at Golden Bay, said a press release of Tourism New Zealand here.
Mars rovers survive after NASA reverses budget cuts
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA on Tuesday rescinded a directive that would have forced 4 million U.S. dollar budget cut in its popular Mars rover program and a temporary shutdown of one of its twin Mars rovers, according to media reports Wednesday.
Unique, magnetic death star fossil discovered
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have discovered microscopic, magnetic fossils resembling spears and spindles, among sediment layers deposited during an ancient global-warming event along the Atlantic coastal plain.
The researchers were led by geobiologists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and McGill University.
Fifty-five million years ago, earth warmed by more than nine degrees Fahrenheit after huge amounts of carbon entered the atmosphere over a period of just a few thousand years.
ISRO planning 10 space missions in 2013
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to accomplish 10 space missions in the next one year, parliament was informed Wednesday.
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.
Cutting soot emissions best hope for saving Arctic ice
By IANS,
Washington : Soot from the burning of fossil fuels contributes far more to global warming than has been thought. But, unlike carbon dioxide (CO2), soot lingers only a few weeks in the air, so cutting emissions could have a significant and rapid impact on the climate.
If soot emissions were eliminated, more than 1.5 million premature deaths from soot inhalation could be prevented worldwide each year, reports the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Group of ministers on 3G meets later Friday
By IANS,
New Delhi : The high-powered ministerial group, set up to decide on issues related with the auction of frequency spectrum for third generation telecom services, is scheduled to meet here for the first time later Friday.
The mandate of the empowered group, which has been set up under Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is to decide the base price for the spectrum auction and the number of operators to be allowed in each telecom circle for offering third generation, or 3G, services.
Pirated Windows 7 generates $100,000 in India
By Rajat Rai, IANS,
Lucknow : About 50,000 pirated DVDs of Microsoft Windows 7 are estimated to have been sold here since the official launch on Oct 22, generating unaccounted business of around Rs.50 lakh (nearly $100,000).
The reason for the allure of the pirated versions: These cost Rs.40-Rs.250 in Naza Market in Hazratganj here, drawing buyers from not only the rest of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand but also Nepal and Bangladesh.
Astronomers discover largest dark matter in space
By IANS
Toronto : An international team of astronomers have detected the largest-ever dark matter structure ever seen, stretching an awesome 270 million light-years across the night sky.
The team, comprising French and Canadian scientists, "X-rayed" the dark matter, or an invisible web that makes up more than 80 percent of the mass of the universe.
They used a technique called weak gravitational lensing, similar to an X-ray of the body, to reveal the underlying skeleton of the dark matter.
‘Chandrayaan brings science, faith together in India’
By IANS,
New York : Chandrayaan is on its way to the moon, regarded by many Indians as a god, but "devout Hindus - many of them, no doubt, rocket scientists - see no disharmony between ancient Vedic beliefs and contemporary scientific practice", according to a New York Times opinion article.
A week before India's moon mission was launched Oct 22, millions of Hindu women embarked on a customary daylong fast of Karva Chauth, meant to ensure a husband's welfare, broken at night on the first sighting of the moon's reflection in a bowl of oil, Tunku Varadarajan wrote in the NYT Wednesday.
Singapore Airlines superjumbo A380 rolls off runway
Singapore, January 11, SPA -- Singapore Airlines' A380 superjumbo jet sustained superficial damage when it rolled off a runway in the first glitch for the world's biggest passenger plane since going into service in October, AP quoted the airline as saying today.
The plane was getting ready to depart from Singapore's Changi Airport to Sydney late Thursday. It was carrying 446 passengers who disembarked, and no injuries were reported, the airline said.
‘Sunshield’ to protect space telescope from extremes of heat, cold
By IANS,
Washington : Engineers have designed a 'Sunshield' to protect NASA's James Webb space telescope from extremes of heat and cold, radiation and small debris.
Besides, the 'Sunshield' would also block solar heat to allow its cameras and instruments to operate optimally at 1.6 million km from the earth in 2013.
A satellite has to withstand the icy cold and the intense heat and radiation of a solar flare in space, which ranges between a super-hot 127 degrees Celsius and a frigid minus 243.
India’s space odyssey – church to Chandrayaan
By Sanu George, IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : A church as control room, the bishop's house as office, a humble bicycle as ferry and eyes to track the smoke trail of a rocket - these were the humble beginnings when India launched a US-made rocket from Thumba, near here, in 1963. Nearly 45 years later, the country is set to launch its first lunar probe Oct 22.
Human intervention alters natural systems: NASA study
By IANS,
Washington : Human intervention has caused widespread climatic alterations like permafrost thawing, premature blooming of plants across Europe and declining lakes in Africa, according to a NASA study.
Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA and co-author of the study, said it is the first to co-relate global temperature data sets and observed changes in a broad range of physical and biological systems with humans, climate, and impact.
Climate change killed mammoths, suggest their DNA
By IANS
Sydney : Global warming might have wiped out ancient species like mammoths and bison, warning us about the potential impact of climate change.
Study of ancient DNA indicates that extinction of such species from the northern hemisphere 11,000 years ago was largely due to climate change. Human impact through hunting and overkill were only incidental, said lead researcher Alan Cooper.
He retrieved remains of genetic material from a variety of sources, including bones and teeth, preserved seeds and sediments, to examine evolution and environmental change, reports Sciencedaily.
Keeping distributed families together through technology
By IANS,
Hyderabad : Buddibot, a web applications company, has developed a web-based communication tool to keep distributed families connected.
This tool, comprising a mobile webcam, will help elderly people remain in touch with their children studying and working abroad through video and audio streams.
Buddibot Thursday launched the subscription-based communication tool, targeting non-resident Indians (NRIs).
India successfully tests two nuke capable missiles
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar: India early Saturday successfully tested two nuclear capable missiles Dhanush and Prthvi II in Orissa, official said.
"Both the missiles were successfully lunched same time at 5.30 hours," SP Dash, director of the Integrated Test Range of Chandipur in Balasore district, told IANS.
While Prithvi II surface to surface ballistic missile with a range of 350 km was launched from Chandipur, some 230 kms from state capital Bhubaneswar, Dhanush, a naval version of Prthivi with same range was launched from a naval ship off Orissa coast.
Can Chandrayaan find water on Moon?
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's Chandrayaan-1 has begun its journey to the Moon -eagerly to find water on its surface - but there is a disappointing news from the Japanese lunar explorer Selene that has been circling the Moon for about a year.
Scientists, who are operating Selene, say that new images taken by a stereo camera onboard the spacecraft indicate that there may not be water or ice in Shackleton crater, the most likely place on Moon that was thought to have water.
The findings were published online Thursday by the American journal Science.
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.
US, Russia to help track India’s moon mission
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS,
New Delhi : India will be helped by Russia, Spain and the United States in deep space tracking of Chandrayaan-I, its maiden moon mission that will be launched later this year.
"Deep Space tracking of Chandrayaan-I is a tough task and needs global support. We are getting support from Russia, Spain and the US for tracking the movement of the mission," K. Kasturirangan, former head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. Kasturirangan is currently an adviser to ISRO.
NASA ready to launch satellite to explore sun
By DPA,
Washington : NASA planned to launch a solar probe Wednesday to help unlock more secrets about the sun, whose massive storms affect earth's weather and can pose danger to earth dwellers.
The Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) is the "crown jewel" of a fleet of NASA satellites planned to collect more details about what's going on underneath and above the surface of the sun, said Michael Luther, a NASA official who is overseeing the programme, in a webcast briefing.
Kolkata scientist punches holes in UFO theory
By IANS
Kolkata : Media reports of a bright spherical object, streaking across the eastern sky have left many Kolkata residents intrigued, but scientists said it could be just an "optical illusion" - a result of cloud reflecting the city's lights.
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.
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.
Vodafone M-Pesa joins hands with Walmart India
New Delhi: Vodafone India has entered into a strategic tie-up with Walmart India that will enable its business members of six Best Price Modern...
Google Earth enables views into the universe
By DPA
Hamburg : A new function in Google Earth has opened up the cosmos to Internet viewers.
The new "sky" portion of the software allows users to view the starry skies, navigating through the galaxies with the click of a mouse, says Google spokesman Stefan Keuchel from the company's Hamburg offices.
Constellations, planets, and nebulae are all offered alongside information about their position, size and orbits.
Diamonds not only for ever, they led to life
By IANS,
Washington : Diamonds could have played an important role in the origin of life on Earth, according to a new study by German scientists.
Scientists have long theorised that life on Earth started in a primordial soup of precursor chemicals. But it is unclear how these simple amino acids - the building blocks of life - were assembled into complex polymers needed for the beginning of life.
Mars’ violent, volcanic past comes to light
By IANS
London : Mars has undergone massive volcanic upheavals that alternatively spewed lava and water onto its surface, giving the red planet its current contours.
German scientists have come to this conclusion after viewing the latest images of those contours - captured by the high-resolution stereo camera (HRSC) of Mars Express, the European Space Agency's (ESA) spacecraft circling the planet, reports Scincedaily.
NASA delays Endeavour launch by 24 hours
By RIA Novosti,
Washington : The launch of space shuttle Endeavour has been delayed again by 24 hours to "allow technical teams additional time to evaluate lightning strikes at Launch Pad 39A that occurred during Friday's thunderstorm," NASA said Saturday.
The launch of Endeavour that was to have gone ahead Saturday will now take place Sunday.
Two previous launches were postponed after hydrogen gas was found to be leaking from a vent line connected to the external tanks. NASA technicians carried out repairs realigning a fuel plate and installing new seals to rectify the problem.
Ignore superstitions, watch solar eclipse with proper gear
By IANS,
New Delhi : As the world looks forward to the millennium's longest annular solar eclipse Friday, there are superstitions galore in India. But science experts have urged people to shed "false beliefs" and watch the celestial spectacle the right way.
"People have various false beliefs regarding solar eclipse. Some think that during eclipse 'bad rays' come to earth and they lock themselves up in their homes to avoid it. This is really rubbish and people should shed such superstitions," Nehru Planetarium director N. Rathnashree told IANS.
IBS Software wins ‘IT systems provider’ award
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : IBS Software, IT systems provider to travel, transportation and logistics industries, Tuesday said it had won the 'IT Systems Provider of the Year' award at the Air Cargo India 2010 event in Mumbai.
"This award is a recognition of our success in introducing a new paradigm in IT solutions for business problems that plague the industry," Senior Vice President and Global Head of Cargo Line of Business for IBS Akshay Shrivastava said in a statement here.
Young scientists asked to focus on basic research
By Fakir Balaji, IANS
Visakhapatnam : Young scientists should focus on basic research as India needs more innovation in areas that affect everyone, the government's principal scientific advisor R. Chidambaram said on the second day of the 95th Indian Science Congress (ISC) here Friday.
Microsoft profits decline
By DPA,
New York : Software giant Microsoft Corp has reported sales of $13.1 billion for the latest quarter, well below Wall Street expectations of more than $14 billion.
The PC market has dwindled for three straight quarters.
The company, based in Redmond, Washington, saw profits for the fourth quarter of its budget year drop 29 percent amid falling demand for its Office software package and Windows operating system.
"The economy continues to be challenging, and we need to lift our game to another level," chief financial officer Chris Liddell said.
Interpreter for the vest pocket: What translation computers can do
By DPA
Munich : They could be helpful when preparing for the next vocabulary test. Or perhaps they'll go to work in a little shop abroad. The aides in question are small translation computers for the road.
These handy little devices have moved far beyond just translating the right word, though. They can now even explain proper grammar and pronunciation.
Electronic translation computers fit into any pants pocket and may well represent a practical alternative to the traditional pocket dictionary.
Two NASA instruments to be on India’s moon mission
By IANS
Chennai : When India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-I takes off in April from the shores of Sriharikota, in Andhra Pradesh, it will carry a payload that includes two critical NASA instruments to map the moon.
The NASA payloads will be a miniature synthetic aperture radar to map ice deposits in the moon's surface and a moon mineralogy mapper to assess its mineral resources.
World’s tiniest, lightest microscope designed
By IANS,
Washington : A miniature lensless microscope, the world's smallest and lightest - weighing only 46 grams - was created by an engineer for telemedicine applications.
The microscope builds on imaging technology known as LUCAS (Lensless Ultra-wide-field Cell monitoring Array platform based on Shadow imaging), which was developed by Aydogan Ozcan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
China launches first e-tagged container vessel
By Xinhua
Shanghai : A Chinese vessel with e-tagged containers sailed Monday from Shanghai to Savannah port in the United States, marking the opening of the world's first international e-tagged container route.
The doorbell-sized e-tags installed on the 20-foot container equivalent units (TEU), will record information about every procedure in the TEU's whole transportation process, such as the delivery and off-loading time, the real-time TEU condition and the time and place of the legal or illegal opening.
Canada to get world’s first supercomputer outside the US
By Gurmukh Singh, IANS,
Toronto : Toronto university and the IBM have joined hands to build Canada's most powerful and energy- efficient supercomputer yet.
Capable of performing 360 trillion calculations per second, the proposed super device will give a competitive edge to Canada in global research projects, including investigation of the forces that govern the universe.
National Solar Mission targets Nov 14 launch
By IANS,
Kolkata : India's ambitious National Solar Mission, which aims to generate 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2020, has a target launch date of Nov 14, a top official said here Friday.
"The overall structure and draft of the National Solar Mission have been approved by the prime minister (Manmohan Singh). The target date for the launch is Nov 14," said Prime Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran.
Russian carrier rocket Proton puts military satellite into orbit
By Ria Novosty
Moscow : A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket, launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, has put a military satellite into orbit, Russia's space agency (Roskosmos) said on Sunday.
"A Proton-M carrier rocket, which was launched from the Baikonur space center at 03: 16 a.m. Moscow time (00:16 a.m. GMT) today [on Sunday], successfully put a Kosmos satellite into orbit at 12:17 p.m. Moscow time (09:17 a.m. GMT)," Roskosmos said.
Study confirms Darwinian idea of speciation
By IANS
New York : In the first experiment of its kind conducted in nature, a biologist has come up with strong evidence for one of Charles Darwin's cornerstone ideas - adaptation to the environment accelerates the creation of new species.
After studying walking-stick insects in southern California, University of British Columbia evolutionary biologist Patrik Nosil concluded that "the more ways a population can adapt to its unique surroundings, more likely it will ultimately diverge into a separate species".
Molecular diagnostics now hottest biotechnology tool
By IANS,
Washington : Key advances in genomics, supported by cutting-edge technologies, are rapidly driving the development of molecular diagnostics, according to a report.
"Molecular diagnostic products are based on cutting-edge research in two of the most promising biotechnologies, genomics and proteomics," noted John Sterling, editor-in-chief of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News (GEN).