BlackBerry Storm unveiled to take on iPhone
By IANS,
Toronto : To pitch itself in direct competition with Apple's iPhone3 and woo general consumers, Canadian wireless giant Research in Motion (RIM) Tuesday unveiled its much-expected first clickable touch-screen BlackBerry Storm.
The Waterloo-based wireless major said the new device would be available exclusively to Verizon customers in the US and Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand in the autumn.
The announcement comes within days after RIM shares took a massive hit on the Toronto Stock Exchange after it reported less-than-expected profits.
Cell phone batteries that won’t overheat
By IANS
London : Remember the scare last year caused by some Nokia batteries that were found to be overheating while charging -- leading to their worldwide recall?
Such scares will soon be a thing of the past.
German researchers have developed a safer lithium-ion battery that is virtually non-inflammable, addressing concerns of mobile phones users worldwide.
The new prototype is based on a polymer electrolyte, which unlike liquid electrolyte in conventional cell phone batteries is not inflammable.
Found: World’s oldest living tree, age 9,550
By IANS,
London : A 9,550-year-old spruce, the world's oldest living tree, has been found in Dalarna province of Sweden.
The tenacious specimen has survived by growing between erect trees and smaller bushes in pace with the dramatic climate changes over time.
For many years the spruce tree has been regarded as a relative newcomer in the Swedish mountain region.
"Our results have shown the complete opposite. The spruce is one of the oldest known trees in the mountain range," said Leif Kullman, of Umeå University.
Oldest evidence of leprosy traced to India
By IANS,
Washington : A child's 4,000-year-old skeleton that surfaced in India's Rajasthan state could be the oldest evidence of leprosy, says a new study.
The analysis was conducted by biological anthropologist Gwen Robbins from Appalachian State University working with an undergraduate, an evolutionary biologist from University of North Carolina at Greensboro and archaeologists from the Pune-based Deccan College in India.
Oriya portal offers free breaking news on mobile phone
By IANS
Bhubaneswar : An Oriya news portal is offering free news briefs to all its readers through SMS.
The portal, www.odisha.com, has introduced the service after a tie-up with SMSGupShup, a free group messaging service provided by Mumbai-based Webaroo Technology India Pvt Ltd.
The portal already introduced last month a premium local breaking news service for mobile subscribers. It has now said it would also provide the news for free. The free news would contain advertisements.
NASA to beam Beatles’ song “Across the Universe” to Polaris
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA will broadcast next Monday the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star, to celebrateds the 40th anniversary of the song and the 50th anniversary of NASA, according to media reports Saturday.
Beijing : NASA will broadcast next Monday the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star, to celebrateds the 40th anniversary of the song and the 50th anniversary of NASA, according to media reports Saturday.
Sixty years of world’s first modern computer
By IANS,
London : Do you know that Saturday is the 60th birthday of the world's first modern computer? Manchester Baby, a computer that could store a programme, was built in Britain's University of Manchester June 21, 1948.
It was the first machine - invented by Frederick Williams and Tom Kilburn - that had all the components now regarded as the characteristics of a basic computer. Most importantly, it was the first computer that could store not only data but also a short user programme in electronic memory and process it at electronic speed.
IRCTCmobile: harnessing mobile technology for railways
By IANS
New Delhi : In a rare example of action pre-empting intention, mobile rail ticketing had already been in use for several months before Railway Minister Lalu Prasad announced it as one of the highlights in his budget to modernize train reservations.
Over 700 Russian scientists part of Large Hadron Collider project
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : The development of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, has involved over 700 Russian physicists from 12 research institutes, a project coordinator said Monday.
The $5.8 billion international project, which will be officially unveiled on October 21 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN, has involved more than 2,000 physicists from hundreds of universities and laboratories in 34 countries since 1984.
International space meet begins amid tight security
By IANS
Hyderabad : The 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) began Monday amid tight security at the international convention centre in Hitec City. About 2,000 delegates, including heads of global space agencies, are attending the five-day event.
Sunita Williams, galaxy of scientists to attend space meet
By IANS
Hyderabad : Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams will be the star speaker at an international astronautical congress that begins here Monday to focus on the growing use of space technology to improve the quality of life.
Over 2,000 space scientists, heads of leading space agencies and astronauts will attend the five-day 58th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2007) which has as it theme 'Touching humanity: Space for improving quality of life'. It will be held at Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) near Hitec City.
World’s tiniest camera perches on your finger
By IANS,
London : The one-square-inch camera that sits snugly on your finger can click two megapixel images and even shoot video.
Kerala must go for modern farm technology: Chandy
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala should embrace modern technology in agriculture, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said Saturday.
All India Science Conf. concludes in Bhopal with emphasis on promoting traditional scientific knowledge...
By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: Curtain was drawn on the three-day Bharatiya Vigyan Sammelan (All India Science Conference) 2007 with 10-point recommendations that emphasized on promoting traditional scientific knowledge along with modern science and increased community participation for balanced and sustainable development here on Sunday.
ISRO designed avionics to guide rockets in 2008
By IANS
Chennai : Rocket navigation systems developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are all set to guide the geo-synchronous launch vehicle (GSLV) slated for launch next year.
ISRO tested its new avionics on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that was launched in April. The vehicle had a second equipment bay - apart from the primary one - housing the navigation and telemetry systems.
Giant Step Ahead As Experts Find Big Cluster Of Dinosaur Footprints
By Bernama
Turpan (China) : Chinese and German experts on Thursday said they had unearthed a large group of fossilized dinosaur tracks, the largest cluster ever found in China, in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
China's Xinhua news agency reported that the find, in a small county east of here, consists of more than 150 tridactyl footprint fossils distributed randomly on the slope of a 100-metre sandstone incline.
India reaches destination moon
By IANS,
Bangalore : India Friday became the fourth country on Earth to land a probe on the moon. "We have given moon to India," a beaming and excited chief of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) G. Madhavan Nair said minutes after the moon impact probe (MIP) landed on the lunar surface Friday night.
"The moon has been very favourable to us all through. We have travelled all the way to the moon," Nair told a crowded press conference at ISRO here as his fellow space scientists applauded.
Scientists on track to slow down aging in humans
By IANS
Washington : Researchers have identified 25 genes regulating lifespan in two organisms separated by 1.5 billion years - of which 15 are very similar to that of humans.
And thanks to that similarity, it may now be possible for scientists to target the genes to help slow down aging and treat related conditions.
The findings of the study have been published online in the journal Genome Research.
The two organisms are the single-celled budding yeast and the roundworm C. elegans - both commonly used models for aging research.
Understanding Vista’s Windows experience index
By DPA
Washington : In the past, it was difficult to measure exactly how fast one computer ran Windows versus another computer. Now, thanks to Windows Vista's new experience index, the guesswork has been taken out of evaluating performance.
Understand the experience index and you'll be ahead of the game when it comes to judging the performance of a new PC or determining how best to upgrade your existing box.
Fish may have taught us how to make a sound
By IANS,
Washington : Human speech skills and possibly all sound production in vertebrates could be traced back to similar abilities in fish, according to a study by US researchers.
Researchers from Cornell University mapped developing brain cells in newly hatched midshipman fish larvae and compared them to those of other species and found that the neural network behind sound production in vertebrates could be traced back to an era long before the first animals ventured onto dry land.
‘India can become World No. 1 in science’
By Prashant K. Nanda, IANS
New Delhi : India may never become the number one military power in the world but eminent scientist C.N.R. Rao believes that it has the potential to become number one in science and technology.
"We will never become number one in economy or in military power but we can definitely become a superpower and world number one in science and, over all, in knowledge," Rao, chairman of the Science Advisory Council to the prime minister, told IANS in an interview.
Russia launches military satellite
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia Monday launched a Soyuz-U carrier rocket with a Cosmos class military satellite on board, an official said.
New technique to compress light opens doors to optical computing
By IANS,
Mountain View (California) : Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley have devised a way to squeeze light into tighter spaces than ever thought possible, potentially opening doors to new technology in the fields of optical communications, miniature lasers and optical computers.
How to avoid computer-induced arm pain
By Aliki Nassoufis, DPA,
Cologne (Germany) : Repetitive strain is a creeping threat for any 21st century computer user. Steady mouse clicking may seem innocent, but many computer users find that pain starts in their arm and eventually spreads to their wrist and shoulder.
In the days of the good old typewriter, people suffered from so-called writer's cramp. Although the phrase has since been shelved, the problem still applies to anyone who spends hours at a desk.
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.
Mice help the mentally ill
By IANS,
Washington : A new model of mouse behaviour developed by Japanese scientists is likely to help in better diagnosis and evaluation of depressive disorders in people.
Researchers from University of Tokyo and Osaka Bioscience Institute evaluated a holistic approach to assess mouse behaviour, and threw up interesting results.
For example, a 24-hour monitoring of the rodents by pressure sensors, after a gene regulating the circadian rhythm was removed, was found to be similar to that previously observed by the team in humans suffering from major depressive disorder.
Accompanying satellite begins orbiting Shenzhou-7 spaceship on Sunday
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Chinese scientists on Sunday successfully directed the accompanying satellite BX-1 to begin circling the Shenzhou-7 spaceship, on an elliptical track of 4 kilometers multiplying 8 kilometers.
It is the first time that China has succeeded in maneuvering this kind of space orbiting, official sources say.
The accompanying satellite began orbiting the orbital capsule of the Shenzhou-7 at 18:14 pm, under the close monitoring and precise control of the Beijing Aerospace Control Center.
Greenhouse gases increased sharply in 2007
By IANS,
Washington : Global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of climate change, increased by 0.6 percent or 19 billion tonnes last year.
Additionally methane rose by 27 million tonnes after nearly a decade with little or no increase. National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists released these and other preliminary findings as part of an annual update on agency's greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites worldwide.
China launches manned spacecraft on spacewalk mission
By Xinhua,
Jiquan (China) : China launched Friday a manned spacecraft carrying three astronauts on its first-ever spacewalk mission.
The spacecraft Shenzhou VII blasted off from the Jiuquan space centre in the northwestern province of Gansu at about 9:10 p.m. onboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket.
Onboard pilots Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng are expected to orbit the earth for three days, when one of them will float out of the cabin about 343 km above the earth Friday.
Indian-American led team manipulate fruit flavours
By IANS,
Washington : A team led by Indian-origin biochemist C.S. Raman will soon fine tune enzymes that impart specific flavours to fruits and vegetables. This could also lead to eco-friendly pest control.
Texas University Medical School's Raman and his colleagues genetically manipulated flavour enzymes found in a popular plant model, Arabidopsis thaliana.
Bio-nanotechnology will help India’s food security: Pawar
By IANS
New Delhi : Advances in the area of bio-nanotechnology would go a long way in helping India's food security, Minister for Food and Agriculture Sharad Pawar said here Wednesday.
"Bio-nanotechnology takes agriculture from the era of genetically modified (GM) crops to the brave new world of atomically modified organisms," Pawar said, speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day Fifth Knowledge Millennium Summit on "B2B Bio and Nanotechnology" organised by industry body Assocham.
2 plus 2 may not always equal 4
When it comes to percentages, consumer calculating errors can be costly
By TwoCircles.net newsdesk
People deal with percentages every day: the performance of a stock portfolio, a sale at the department store, or the performance of a new hybrid car, are all often expressed as percent changes. As an everyday occurrence, calculating percentages should be second nature to the average person. "Not so," says Akshay Rao, professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.
Midas touch: scientists discover gold nanoparticles
By IANS,
Sydney : Scientists have for the first time discovered gold nanoparticles, setting to rest speculation about whether they existed at all.
Scientists of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said they discovered these particles in western Australia.
“In the southern areas of the state, groundwater is very salty and acidic. This water dissolves primary gold and re-deposits it as pure gold crystals on fracture surfaces and in open pore spaces,” said Rob Hough, who led the search for the nanoparticles.
India’s Chandrayaan-1 successfully enters lunar orbit
By IRNA,
New Delhi : History was created on Saturday when India's first mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, lifted off from Sriharikota on 22nd October and successfully entered the lunar orbit.
In one of the most crucial manoeuvres since the launch of India's maiden moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, ISRO scientists injected the spacecraft into the lunar orbit today.
"The lunar orbit insertion (LOI) started around 5 p.m. and lasted around 800 second," Indian official media reported quoting Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) spokesperson S Satish as said in Banglore.
PM lays foundation stone of ISRO campus in Delhi
By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday laid the foundation stone of the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) first campus in the national capital and urged space scientists to continue their focus on need-based science for nation building.
"I am very happy to lay the foundation stone of ISRO's Space Complex in New Delhi. The complex will go a long way in fulfilling the needs for utilisation of space based services in this part of our country," Manmohan Singh said in his speech here.
India emerging as global hub for data hosting services
By Fakir Balaji, IANS,
Mumbai/Bangalore : Convergence of technologies, domain expertise and falling bandwidth tariffs are making India a hot data hosting and remote infrastructure management (RIM) site for global enterprises, says a top industry player.
For the next wave of outsourcing in back office operations, top Indian players such as Reliance Infocomm, Tata Telecommunications, Sify and Netmagic Solutions are bracing up to provide a range of IT managed services, including data hosting, mission critical applications, networking and RIM to domestic and overseas enterprises.
Russia delays Norwegian telecoms satellite launch till Feb. 11
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : The launch of a Russian carrier rocket with a Norwegian telecoms satellite has been delayed until February 11, Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said in Sunday.
The launch of a Proton-M rocket with a Thor-5 satellite from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan was originally planned for February 10 but subsequently delayed until 2:34 p.m. Moscow time (11:34 a.m. GMT) February 11 due to technical problems, Roscosmos said.
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.
Researchers crack open secret of superbug’s resistance
By IANS,
Toronto : Scientists have stumbled upon a central processing unit (CPU) of a superbug's weaponry which will provide new options to fight back and disable the virulent bacteria.
A team from the McMaster University's Institute for Infectious Disease Research has revealed that a small chemical, made by the superbug Staphylococcus aureus and its drug-resistant forms, determines this disease's strength and ability to infect.
This February was the Earth’s ninth warmest since 1880
By IANS,
Washington : The combined land and ocean surface average temperature for February was the ninth warmest since records began in 1880, according to an analysis by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The analysis in NOAA's National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) global reports are based on preliminary data, which are subject to revision. Additional quality control is applied to the data when later reports are received several weeks after the end of the month and as increased scientific methods improve NCDC's processing algorithms.
Italian connection on the cards for Kerala’s Technopark
By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : A delegation from Novara, one of the most industrially advanced cities in Italy, held discussions here Thursday for possible cooperation in IT between Novara and Technopark.
The Italian delegation included the mayor of Novara, Massimo Giordano, and four lawyers.
In his speech, Giordano suggested companies here and Novara should collaborate and work for mutual benefit.
He invited officials here to visit Novara for further talks.
Space shuttle Atlantis launch set for Jan 10
By DPA
Washington : After postponing the launch of space shuttle Atlantis multiple times, NASA has said it would next try to takeoff Jan 10.
The shuttle is to bring the European-designed Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station (ISS) and was originally to launch Dec 6, but was delayed because of problems with fuel cut-off sensor system inside the shuttle and its external fuel tank.
Scientists develop method to help regain hearing
By IANS,
Washington : Swiss and South African scientists have outlined a method to potentially overcome hearing defects, even remedying substantial hearing loss.
The method could help restore functional regions of the damaged ear to be able to recognise frequencies originally associated with them.
Existing hearing-aid and cochlear implant technology have only been partially successful in recreating the experience of the fully functioning ear.
Briton joins gym after his ‘shocking’ image on Google
By IANS,
London : A Briton was so horrified after seeing his massive belly on the Google Street View that he decided to join a weight loss regime, a media report said Monday.
Partial solar eclipse in UAE
By NNN-WAM,
Abu Dhabi : The United Arab Emirates and other countries of the region, including Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, eastern parts of Saudi Arabia and northern parts of Palestine and Jordan, witnessed a partial solar eclipse today.
Emirates Astronomy Society deployed an observatory in the breakwaters area to monitor the different stages of eclipse. The eclipse lasted for about 95 minutes, reaching its peak at 3:29 p.m.
Mohammad Shawkat, Head of the Society said the eclipse occurred when the new moon moved directly between the sun and the earth.
Kalam endorsed nuclear deal: Manmohan Singh
New Delhi : A.P.J. Abdul Kalam backed the nuclear deal India inked with the United States in 2005 and it is a "total...
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.
Waterloo rated as Canada’s top research university
By IANS,
Toronto : The University of Waterloo, based in the city of Blackberry near here, has been rated as the top research institution in Canada.
In the annual ``Canada Top 50 Research Universities,'' Waterloo edged out many top universities in a survey which tracks sponsored research at these institutions. The university is quite popular with Indian students. It has some prominent Indians on its faculties also.
In a release before the publication of the survey at the weekend, the university said its total research ranked in the ``elite $100 million club'' in 2007.
China set to launch manned space mission in 2008
By RIA Novosti
Beijing : China is planning to launch its third manned spacecraft and 15 carrier rockets, and orbit 17 satellites in 2008, a senior space official said on Monday.
The spacecraft Shenzhou-7 with three astronauts on board is likely to lift off after the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, said Huang Qiang, secretary general of China's Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND).
Dell launches ultra-thin laptop computer
By Xinhua,
San Francisco : Dell has officially launched a high-end laptop computer which the company said is the thinnest in the world.
The laptop is the first product under Dell's Adamo brand. Adamo is derived from the Latin word meaning "to fall in love".
With a thickness of 0.65 inches (1.65 cm) and available in onyx and pearl colours, the new Adamo laptop is thinner than Apple's MacBook Air.
India develops indigenous tsunami warning system
By NNN-KUNA
New Delhi : India has developed its own tsunami warning system, nearly three years after a tsunami caused havoc along its southern coastline claiming hundreds of lives.
The National Early Warning System for Tsunami and Storm Surges in the Indian Ocean, a project of the Indian Ministry of Earth Sciences, has been placed at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) at Southern Indian city of Hyderabad, Press Trust of India reported Saturday.
Spacewalkers add hands to international space station robot
By SPA
Houston : Spacewalking astronauts added hands to a robot outside the international space station early Friday as experts on the ground devised a plan they hope will fix a problem getting power to the giant machine, AP reported.
The Canadian robot, named Dextre, needs to have power to heat its joints, limbs and electronics. The $200 million machine designed to help maintain the orbiting outpost could be damaged if left cold for days.
Canadian engineers initially suspected the trouble could be with a timer, and they created the software patch to fix it.
British astronomers discover three new planets
By Xinhua
London : Britain's astronomers from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP), a leading planet-hunting team, have announced the discovery of three new planets, according to a press release issued by Keele University.
These extra-solar planets named WASP-3, WASP-4 and WASP-5 were seen to transit their host star.
WASP-3 is the third planet that the team has found in the northern hemisphere, using the SuperWASP camera sited in the Canary Islands.
New way to inject oxygen excites medical science
By IANS,
London: A new way of administering oxygen into blood, that could allow people to stay alive without breathing, has been discovered.
Percept Talent to promote CWG winners, non-cricket events
By IANS,
New Delhi: Percept Talent Management (PTM) has decided to promote non-cricket disciplines and medal winning athletes of the Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2010.
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.
New satellite being developed for rural net connectivity: ISRO
By NNN-PTI,
Bangalore, India : India is developing an "unconventional" satellite which would focus on providing internet connectivity to the rural masses and render timely advice on various aspects of agriculture.
It's a fast-track spacecraft for rural connectivity, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair told PTI here.
"You know, if you take the country, even today more than 30,000 villages don't have proper connectivity. (With) Conventional type of satellites, we cannot meet that requirement", he said.
Spacecraft Dawn completes first test on Ion engine
Washington, Oct 10 (Xinhua) The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Dawn spacecraft successfully completed the first test of its ion propulsion system over the weekend, according to mission status updates.
The system is vital to the success of Dawn's eight-year, 1.6-billion-km journey to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres.
Man thinks moon is UFO, calls emergency
By IANS,
London : A Briton rang up emergency number 999 to report an UFO hovering above his house, but later said the "mysterious object" was only the moon.
Indian IT firms will consolidate, focus on Europe, Asia-Pacific
By Gyanendra Kumar Keshri, IANS,
Delhi schoolchildren ‘journey into outer space’
By Richa Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi : What makes the earth go around the sun, aeroplanes fly and volcanoes erupt? A group of 35 Delhi school students has been busy unravelling the mysteries of the universe and understanding basic science through a programme prepared by US space agency NASA.
The children - from at least eight schools in the capital - were part of a five-day summer camp 'Journey into Outer Space' being run by Mad Science, a global organisation working to spread science literacy among children in the age group of 7-12 years.
China To Launch 3rd Geostationary Weather Satellite Next Week
By Bernama,
Beijing : China will launch its third geostationary meteorological satellite, the Fengyun-2-06, some time next week, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) told Xinhua on Friday.
It will take off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.
According to the CMA, Fengyun-2-06 will copy meteorological data from preceding satellites after orbit operation trials.
It is designed to replace Fengyun-2-C which has outlived its service.
Scientists rely on maths model to outwit terrorists
By IANS,
Washington : A maths model developed by researchers can outwit terrorists by predicting the likelihood of attacks, their timing and strength.
The model was developed by researchers at the University of Miami (UM). Their finding supports the belief that insurgent wars represent "fourth generation warfare" with different dynamics from conventional wars.
UM researchers and collaborators analysed the size and timing of 54,679 violent events reported in Afghanistan, Colombia, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Northern Ireland, Peru, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
Britain introduces biometric data collection in India
By IANS
New Delhi : Indian applicants will now have to wait longer to obtain a visa for the United Kingdom, as Britain will start collecting fingerprints and digital photographs of all visa seekers at its application collection centres in the country from Wednesday.
While Britain already has biometric data centres in around 130 countries, it encountered a legal problem in India due to restrictions on the transmission of the data electronically.
Moon mission is not expensive, says ISRO
By NNN-PTI,
Bangalore, India : Dismissing suggestions that Chandrayaan-1 was an expensive mission, ISRO today said the moon odyssey will enable India to upgrade technological expertise for exploration of outer space and ultimately help in setting up a base on the earth's natural satellite.
"Moon mission cost is less than Rs 400 crore, which is just ten per cent of annual budget of ISRO spread over many years," ISRO spokesperson S Satish said, countering critics who questioned the need for such a venture when other countries have already explored the moon.
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.
Cosmic census estimates 50 billion planets in our galaxy
By IANS,
London : A cosmic census conducted for the first time has revealed that there are at least 50 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy.
Online forum for youth to talk about environment
By IANS
New Delhi : What do young people think about the state of the environment? They can now tell the world through www.connect2earth.org.
Supported by telecom giant Nokia, two of the world's largest environmental groups - World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - launched Wednesday the interactive website meant for people between 13 and 35.
Of six GSLV launches, only two successes
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : The GSLV rocket mission that failed Thursday was the sixth launched by India. Of the six, only two were successes, one a partial one, and the rest could not accomplish their
missions.
The two successful launches by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) were in 2003 and 2004 - and put into space GSAT-2 and Edusat, an educational
satellite.
The rocket's maiden flight in 2001 could not attain success as it was not able to sling GSAT-1 into the intended orbit. The satellite could not be raised to the intended orbit.
US scientist’s flip-flop on Chandrayaan
By IANS,
Panaji : Three days after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) admitted the abrupt end of its Chandrayaan-1 mission, a leading US-based scientist associated with the project Wednesday termed it "a complete success", but added that "what we have not achieved is our ultimate goal, which was a much more extended mission that was to be achieved during the full two years".
Soya shake may help reduce fat in postmenopausal women
By IANS
New York : A study by US scientists suggests that a soya based drink a day may help postmenopausal women to reduce fat, particularly the fat that accumulates on the stomach.
Abdominal fat is particularly bad for health. It raises the risk of heart attacks and diabetes. Soya may also help women cut risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes, the study suggests.
Virus of infidelity infects 76 percent of relationships: Study
By IANS,
Washington : Infidelity is widespread with people tending to cheat on their partners very often, which may be as high as 40 to 76 percent, according to a study.
The probability of someone cheating... (is) very high," said Geneviève Beaulieu-Pelletier, doctoral student at the Université de Montréal's Department of Psychology.
China automaker develops engine for new ethanol type
By Xinhua
Beijing, Jan 1 (Xinhua) Dongfeng Motor Corporation, one of China's largest auto makers, has developed technology to use a new type of ethanol as fuel in cars.
The new technology could produce combustible gas, mainly hydrogen, from hydrous ethanol that contained 65 percent ethanol. The present ethanol-fuelled vehicles need pure ethanol blended with gas, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said.
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.
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.
Electronic voting machines not foolproof, nor safe from hackers
By IANS,
Washington : Students in an advanced computer security course at Rice University, Houston, are learning just how easy it is to break into software used in today's voting machines.
Dan Wallach, a Rice University associate professor and director of its Computer Security Lab, tested his students through a real-life experiment. They were told to do their very best to rig an electronic voting machine (EVM) in the classroom.
How old is your oldest bulb? This one’s 70
By Asit Srivastava, IANS,
Lucknow : Seventy years old and still glowing. It's a light bulb, which has recently become the most prized possession of Lucknow resident Girish Chandra Gupta, who now aims to enter the record books, claiming to have a "rare bulb".
"It was only last month that I came to know the importance of the bulb after coming across an article in a Hindi daily," says Gupta, who runs a grocery shop from his small house located in a congested lane in the Hussainganj locality of this Uttar Pradesh capital.
Internet dating more intense, says study
By IANS,
Sydney : The web is altering the very nature of intimacy, emotion and dating, according to a new study.
An audit of online dating sites as part of the study has found that they are informal and are fast emerging as an effective way of developing one's “social and intimate circle”.
The study, which audited 60 sites and conducted in-depth interviews with users, also found that the online communication had more intensity and immediacy, and, in some ways, was almost addictive in nature.
Indian Mars Orbiter completes 100 days in space
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's maiden Mars Orbiter spacecraft completes 100 days Wednesday cruising through interplanetary space in its voyage towards the red planet.
"Health of...
Robotic ants being designed to build homes on Mars
Washington, Oct 27 (IANS) Human beings might colonise Mars one day, but ant-sized microbots will have to build homes for the first group of pioneer scientists there.
"We now know there is water and dust so all they would need is some sort of glue to start building structures, such as homes for human scientists," said Marc Szymanski, robotics researcher at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
He is part of a team of scientists developing tiny robots that can perform different tasks collectively like termites, ants or bees, for the greater good of the colony.
Facebook reunites Indonesian siblings after 35 years
By DPA,
Jakarta : An Indonesian woman found a brother who had been missing for more than three decades through the popular social networking site Facebook, a report said Tuesday.
Nurlianti Dehi was separated from her elder brother Anton in 1974 when he left their hometown in Central Sulawesi province for neighbouring North Sulawesi, according to the online edition of the Media Indonesia daily.
Anton maintained contact with his family for the first two years but later cut off communication completely, she told the newspaper.
Solar plane takes off for Hawaii from Japan
Tokyo : The Swiss-made solar-powered plane, Solar Impulse 2, on Monday started its second bid at a record-breaking flight across the Pacific Ocean.
According to...
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).
Clouds mar solar eclipse spectacle in Orissa
By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Those who had hoped to witness the century's longest solar eclipse in Orissa were disappointed Wednesday as the sky remained overcast in most parts of the state.
Thousands of people woke up early in the morning and were armed with special glasses to see the phenomenon. However, clouds spoiled the party although there was a partial eclipse in the state.
The solar eclipse was only visible for three minutes at the Pathani Samant Planetarium in Bhubaneswar, where thousands of people gathered to watch the rare sight.
Australian-Indian behind computers that can read human emotion
By Neena Bhandari, IANS,
Sydney : An Australian-Indian is part of a consortium of scientists who are developing and licensing information and communication technologies (ICTs) that can interact with humans in an emotionally intelligent manner.
Some of the top minds working in corporate and university research laboratories in Australia, India, Japan and Singapore have developed emotionally intelligent computers - which their new company, Human Mind Innovations (HMI) Pty Ltd, will license and put to commercial use.
Why little fish diet to stay alive
By IANS,
Sydney : Like humans, little fish also diet - not to look more presentable, but out of dire necessity. They don't want to get on the wrong side of more dominant fish and risk being gobbled up.
A new study, by researchers at James Cook University, has also found that bigger fish use the threat of punishment to keep competitors in line.
Nine win funding for rural innovation projects
By IANS
Chennai : The Rural Innovation Fund (RIF), promoted by Microsoft India among others, has selected nine innovators, who will receive $15,000 (Rs.590,000) each to implement their projects to empower rural India.
Microsoft India has established a RIF corpus of $200,000 to encourage innovations that will benefit rural India.
Venezuela sends satellite to join space club nations
By Prensa Latina,
Caracas : Venezuela has joined the space club nations by launching its first satellite, built with Chinese technology, into orbit successfully earlier this week.
Named after Simon Bolivar, the hero of South American independence, the communications satellite Venesat-1 was launched from China Wednesday.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who monitored the launch along with his fellow leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales from the eastern town of Luepa, described it as a "construction of socialism" and a "symbol of Latin American integration".
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 sees record revenue through Windows 7
By DPA,
Seattle : The launch of Windows 7 propelled Microsoft to record third-quarter revenue of $14.5 billion, a 6-percent increase from a year ago, the world's largest software company said Thursday.
Microsoft earned $4 billion in net income, a rise of 35 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago.
New NASA mission to reveal moon’s evolution
By Xinhua
Washington : NASA will launch a new mission that will peer deep inside the moon to reveal its anatomy and history, announced Alan Stern, the agency's Associate Administrator for Science, in a press release on Tuesday.
The name of the new moon mission is "Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory," or GRAIL. It will cost 375 million U.S. dollars and is scheduled to launch in 2011, according to the announcement.
Washington : NASA will launch a new mission that will peer deep inside the moon to reveal its anatomy and history, announced Alan Stern, the agency's Associate Administrator for Science, in a press release on Tuesday.
The name of the new moon mission is "Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory," or GRAIL. It will cost 375 million U.S. dollars and is scheduled to launch in 2011, according to the announcement.
Iran says space program poses no threat to peace
By RIA Novosti
Tehran : A spokesman for Iran's government gave assurances on Tuesday that the country's achievements in space technology and research pose no threat to peace and stability in the world.
Gholam-Hossein Elham's comments come a day after Tehran's successful launch of the Explorer-1 research rocket, which is reportedly capable of carrying a satellite into orbit, and the unveiling of the country's first domestically built satellite, named Omid, or Hope.
Want to go north? Ask a cow
By IANS,
London : The cow is considered sacred in India. Now scientists know it is also a dependable, navigational compass.
Scientists watched thousands of Google images of the humble quadruped in India, Britain, Ireland, USA to conclude cows automatically point to the north because they have their own inbuilt compasses aligning with the earth's magnetic field.
Although, in many cases, the images were not clear enough to determine which way the cattle were facing they were aligned on a north/south axis.
US scientists find fresh evidence of life on Mars
By IANS,
Pasadena (California) : There is fresh evidence pointing to life on Mars in the distant past, US scientists claim.
In two new studies, the scientists report that Mars once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the "potential to support life".
They reached this conclusion on the basis of data from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) and two other instruments on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
Iranian Scientists produce mouse using stem cells
By NNN-IRNA
Scientists of Iran’s Royan Research Center have successfully produced a mouse using embryonic stem cells.
Director of the center's stem cells group, Hossein Baharvand, said that in the next phase, the experts are expected to produce mice with specific characteristics by genetically changing the mouse embryonic stem cells.
"The mechanism could be used in studying the performance of a specific gene in a living body," Baharvand said.
NASA scientists to create giant telescopes on moon
By IANS,
Washington : NASA scientists will fabricate the biggest ever telescopes on the lunar surface with a mixture of carbon and plenty of moon dust.
"We could make huge telescopes on the moon relatively easily, and avoid the large expense of transporting a large mirror from Earth," said Peter Chen of NASA.
"Since most of the materials are already there in the form of dust, you don't have to bring very much stuff with you, and that saves a ton of money."
New infra-red device can remotely detect bombs
Washington: Scientists have developed a new infra-red model that can detect potentially dangerous materials from a distance.
"The idea for this infra-red technology is to...
NASA names planet after Kerala professor
By IANS,
New York/Kollam (Kerala) : In a rare honour, the US space agency NASA has named a 'minor' planet after a Kerala zoology professor in appreciation of his environmental research.
Sainudeen Pattazhy, who teaches in a college in Kollam, received a phone call from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory run by the space agency Wednesday that the minor planet '5178 CD4' has been named after him.
GVK Bio gets approval from Turkey for bioequivalence studies
By IANS,
Hyderabad : GVK Biosciences, a leading contract research organisation, Wednesday said it has received approval from Turkey to conduct bioequivalence studies.
A three-member delegation from Turkey's ministry of health inspected the GVK Bio clinical pharmacology unit (CPU) here and carried out a detailed audit of the facility for systems and processes.
This approval enables GVK Bio to cater to generic drug manufacturers in Turkey as well as to those who intend to market their products in the country, said a statement from GVK Bio.
Divorces contributing to global warming: study
By IANS
Sydney : Increasing number of divorces are contributing to global warming, says a new study that suggests people should save their marriages to save the environment.
After divorce a woman moves out and forms a new household. The study by researchers at the Michigan State University found that this leads to less efficient use of natural resources, more demand for land for housing, and higher expenditure on utilities, reported the online edition of News Australia.
Researchers surveyed 3,283 homes in the US between 2001 and 2005.
Taiwan uses global positioning system to catch bike thieves
By DPA
Taipei, Feb 16 (DPA) The Taiwan police are using the global positioning system (GPS) to catch bike and motorbike thieves, a radio station reported Saturday.
The police in Taichung, a city in central Taiwan, hit upon the idea after receiving many complaints from people whose bikes and motorbikes parked near Taichung railway station were stolen, the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) reported.
The police installed the GPS under the saddles of several bikes and motorbikes and parked them near the railway station to trap potential thieves.
NASA successfully tests first deep space Internet
By Xinhua,
Washington : US space agency NASA said it has successfully tested the first deep space communications network modelled on the Internet.
NASA engineers used a special software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking or DTN to transmit dozens of images to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about 30 million km from the Earth.
Pollution forces birds to change their tune
By IANS
London : A new study reveals that male wild birds exposed to pollution develop more complex songs, preferred by the females, though they show reduced immunity.
Katherine Buchanan and her colleagues at Cardiff University came to this conclusion after studying male European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) foraging at a sewage treatment works in southwestern Britain.
Analysing earthworms that constituted their prey, the researchers found that birds exposed to greater pollution developed longer and more complex songs compared to a control group male birds.
Researchers uncover music’s secret structure
By IANS,
Washington : More than 200 years after Pythagoras discovered the orderliness of music, three professors have devised a way of analysing music that takes advantage of the deep, complex mathematics seemingly enmeshed in its very fabric.
Writing in the April 18 issue of Science, they have outlined a method called "geometrical music theory" that translates the language of musical theory into that of contemporary geometry.
India’s multipurpose scientific vessel ready
By IANS
Chennai : India's new multipurpose scientific vessel is ready for deployment and will be at the forefront of the country's sea research.
Named Sagar Nidhi, it is parked off the east coast of Tamil Nadu. Sagar Nidhi will be dedicated to the nation after Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal returns from Australia, officials at a scientists' meet here said.
It is expected to provide logistical support in India's Antarctic II and Arctic missions, which are on the cards in the next five years.
DNA test on yeti hair found in India
By IANS,
London : Scientists propose to conduct DNA tests on some hair said to belong to the mythical yeti. Apparently the hair was collected by a yeti believer in a dense jungle in northeastern India.
Initial tests on the hair carried out by Oxford Brookes University showed they did not match any of the known animals. University officials said they could belong to an as yet unidentified species of animal that many swear to have seen in the Himalayas or in the northeastern forests.
Adlabs launches India’s first 6-D movie screen in Agra
By IANS,
Agra/Mumbai : Adlabs Cinema Friday launched India's first six-dimension (6-D) movie screen at Agra, where cutting edge technology would provide a multi-sensory cinematic experience as never experienced by the audience.
International Space Station’s orbit raised 3 miles
By RIA Novosti
Moscow : The orbital altitude of the International Space Station (ISS) has been increased by 5 kilometers (3 miles), a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center said on Thursday.
"The correction of the orbit of the ISS started at 8:16 a.m. Moscow time [5:16 a.m. GMT] by using thrusters on the Russian module Zvezda," the spokesman said, adding that the procedure had lasted 123 seconds.
He said the correction was made without the participation of the space station's crew.
Tamil Nadu villages get Internet, telemedicine facilities
By IANS
Mahabalipuram : A community project to provide high speed Internet, telemedicine, e-education and e-governance services to the rural areas of Tamil Nadu was made operational Wednesday in Vadugambadi, about 60 km south of state capital Chennai.
The facilities will be provided for the first time in India with the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) systems under the Gramjyoti programme of the central government.
Star attacks planet with radiation
By IANS,
Washington : A nearby star is bombarding its companion planet with a barrage of X-rays, hundred thousand times more intense than the earth receives from the Sun, a NASA discovery says.
ISS crew lands safely in Kazakhstan
By DPA,
Moscow : Three crewmembers of the International Space Station (ISS) returned safely to earth Saturday, the Interfax agency reported.
South Korean scientist Yi So Yeon, US astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malentchenko landed in Kazakhstan at 0951 GMT in a Soyuz capsule, the mission control centre in Moscow said.
The capsule had undocked from the ISS at 0806 GMT for the return journey.
Google Chrome is third most popular browser
By IANS,
London : Google Chrome is now the world's third most popular web browser with one in five users preferring it.
Revolutionary fuel cell design to make cheaper vehicles feasible
By IANS,
Sydney : A reworked design of fuel cells used in the latest hybrid cars will help make vehicles more reliable and cheaper to build in the future.
The breakthrough is based on the inclusion of a specially-coated form of popular outdoor and sporting clothing material Goretex in the fuel cell.
Monash University scientists have designed and tested an air-electrode, where a fine layer 100 times thinner than human hair of highly conductive plastic is deposited on the breathable fabric. The conductive plastic acts as both the fuel cell electrode and catalyst.
CDC eyes India acquisitions to propel growth
By IANS
Bangalore : CDC Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC Corp and a provider of industry-specific enterprise software applications and business services, plans strategic acquisitions in India to expand its presence and scale up its client base, a senior company official said here Wednesday.
Google launches Web browser to compete with Microsoft
By Xinhua,
Los Angeles : Google launched on Tuesday a beta version of its browser for Windows, called Google Chrome, in more than 100 countries.
With the Web browser, Google wants to be in a better position to compete with the likes of Internet Explorer and Firefox.
This was seen as yet another salvo in Google's intensifying battle with Microsoft to dominate not only what people do on the Web but also how they get there.
With the Web browser, Google wants to be in a better position to compete with the likes of Internet Explorer and Firefox.
This was seen as yet another salvo in Google's intensifying battle with Microsoft to dominate not only what people do on the Web but also how they get there.
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).
New software to convert ordinary laptops into supercomputers
By IANS,
Washington : A new software will convert ordinary laptops into powerful supercomputers to extract features and patterns from enormously complex data sets.
The tool - a set of problem-solving calculations known as an algorithm - is compact enough to run on computers and laptops with as little as two gigabytes of memory.
It has been designed and developed by scientists at University of California, Davis (UC-D), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 hits snags
By DPA,
San Francisco : Despite some initial glowing reviews, Microsoft has been flooded with complaints about its new Internet Explorer 8 and has seen early users downgrade to the previous version, Information Week has reported.
The software giant is hoping that its new browser will help stem a steady flight of surfers to rival products, most notably the open-source Firefox browser.
According to the latest figures, Firefox now controls 22 percent of the browser market compared to 67 percent for Internet Explorer, which once enjoyed more than 90 percent of the market.
Google, YouTube to get Russian site blacklist updates
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow: Google and YouTube will receive updates regarding "blacklisted" websites in Russia, the country's communications oversight agency said.
Mission Ulysses to study sun nearing its end
By IANS
New York : The long-running Ulysses mission, which was launched to study the sun's poles and its influence on surrounding space, is coming to an end.
After more than 17 years in space - almost four times its expected lifetime - the mission is finally running out of power and is likely to finish sometime in the next month or two, a release by the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
A joint mission by ESA and NASA, Ulysses was launched in 1990 from a space shuttle. The data it sent has forever changed the way scientists view the sun and its effect on the space surrounding it.
Treatment for baldness: Australian scientists discover key gene
By IANS,
Melbourne : Australian scientists claim to have discovered a gene responsible for baldness in women which may lead to an effective treatment for hair loss.
Researchers at the University of Melbourne and St Vincent's Hospital studied the DNA of almost 500 women who had lost at least 50 percent of hair on their scalp. Aged between 18 and 65, all the women who participated in the study, suffered severe hair loss, a condition that will affect up to 55 percent of Australian women, including up to one in 10 teenagers.
India to use Embraer platform for airborne early warning system
By IANS,
New Delhi : In a path breaking development, India and Brazil Thursday inked a deal to jointly develop an airborne early warning and control system (AEWCS) for the Indian Air Force to supplement a larger eye-in-the-sky system it will induct later this year.
The agreement was signed here by S. Christopher, director of the Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS) of the Defence Research and Development Organistion (DRDO) and Luis Carlos Aguiar, Embraer's executive vice president for defence and government markets.
The project is believed to be valued at Rs.18 billion ($415 million).
AITA clears the air over project Apollo Mission 2018
By IANS,
New Delhi : The All India Tennis Association (AITA) secretary Anil Khanna Monday was at pains to explain that the apex organisation of the game was only trying to bring about transparency in the sponsorship world and it had nothing to do with Mahesh Bhupathi as a media report suggested.
Khanna said that AITA was not interested in kicking up an unnecessary controversy, it only sought to check the veracity of ads in the media about a corporate - Apollo Tyres - in quest of producing Grand Slam champions.
Astronomers discover earliest ever black holes
By IANS,
New Delhi : Scientists from prestigious Yale University of the US have discovered the earliest black holes ever detected, a statement from the university said Thursday.
Now a car with inbuilt electric scooter
By IANS,
Melbourne : Traffic snarls in cities need not cause much worry as a new car with an inbuilt electric scooter that flips and folds into the boot will allow commuters to zip through the congested streets.
Carmaker Volkswagen is working on a bike that neatly compacts into the boot of a car and can be recharged on the move, The Age reported.
The "Bik.e" may look like a traditional push bike, but there are no pedals - thus it's actually more like a folding electric scooter.
Technical snag hits BSNL mobile services in Himachal
By IANS,
Shimla: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) CellOne mobile services were hit in Himachal Pradesh Thursday due to a major technical snag, an official said here.
"Due to some major technical problem at the Sundernagar telephone exchange (in Mandi district), the mobile connectivity of CellOne across the state was badly affected throughout the day today (Thursday)," a senior BSNL officer said, on condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
However, he said, by the evening almost 90 percent of connectivity of the mobile users was restored.
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.
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.
India’s Internet access hit after cable damage off Egypt
By IANS
Bangalore/New Delhi : India's Internet connectivity was disrupted Thursday after two undersea cables were damaged in the Mediterranean, although IT majors reported no impact on business. Smaller companies and individual surfers would, however, have to make do with slower speeds till the cables are repaired.
"Slow connectivity, choking and other problems have been caused across India due the cable damage," Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) President Rajesh Chharia said, adding it may take 10-15 days for normalcy to be restored.
Facebook users’ details on sale in New Zealand
By IANS,
Auckland : A Russian computer hacker is suspected to have set up an underground nexus in New Zealand for selling secret details of people using online social networking site Facebook.
Police are hunting the hacker who may have set up shop in New Zealand, selling the account details of millions of Facebook users, tvnz.co.nz reported.
Detectives from the National Cyber Crime Centre are investigating whether the hacker Kirllos is using New Zealand as a base.
He is offering to sell Facebook user names and passwords on an underground hacker forum.
New force-field to make Mars space trip possible
By IANS,
London : 'Space weather', comprising solar radiation and cosmic rays, poses the single biggest hurdle to man's trip to Mars.
However, latest research shows how advances in fusion research may reduce the threat to acceptable levels, making man's first Mars mission a much greater possibility.
Solar energetic particles, although part of 'cosmic rays' spectrum, are causing the greatest concern because they are the most likely to cause deadly radiation damage to astronauts.
Prince Andrew launches ARM’s social programme
By IANS
Bangalore : Duke of York Prince Andrew Thursday launched chip designer ARM's corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme here that will benefit hundreds of underprivileged children in India's silicon hub.
Andrew, second son and the third child of British Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, dedicated 6,000 hours of ARM employees' work to three social organizations - Ashwini Charitable Trust, Sahasra Deepika Institute for Education and the Marathalli government school, located in and around Bangalore.
Internet highly vulnerable to phishing attacks
By IANS,
London : You are browsing a particular website thinking that it is perfectly secure, but it may not be the case as experts have uncovered chinks in Internet security.
For instance, a weakness in the Internet digital certificate infrastructure allows attackers to forge certificates completely trusted by all commonly used web browsers.
Consequently, it is possible to impersonate secure websites and email servers and to perform virtually undetectable phishing attacks, implying that secure websites are porous and unsafe.
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.
Indian-American detects black holes with 10 billion times sun’s mass
By IANS,
Washington : There are limits to how big super gigantic black holes can grow, according to the latest research led by an Indian-American astrophysicist of Yale University.
These "ultra-massive" black holes have been shown to have masses upwards of one billion times that of our own Sun, which is where they have set the limit on themselves.
Priyamvada Natarajan, associate professor of astronomy at Yale and Ezequiel Treister, a postdoctoral fellow at Hawaii University, have shown that even the biggest of these gravitational monsters can't keep growing forever.
Interactive websites shape popular perception: study
By IANS,
Toronto : An attractively designed website, encouraging interaction with a target audience, helps shape popular perceptions about an organisation or the groups it represents.
S. Shyam Sundar of Pennsylvania State University and colleagues are trying to fathom how such interactivity influences public perception of an organisation.
In previous studies of such websites, Sundar had found that candidates were rated more positively if their site had some interactive features, independently of the quality of content.
Vaccines for heart attacks to be ready within 5 years
By IANS,
London : Vaccines targeting the build-up of fatty deposits in arteries (plaques) could be available within five years to prevent heart attacks.
Researchers replicate ‘all seeing eye’ of insects
By IANS,
Sydney : Inspired by the 'all seeing eyes' of insects, scientists have built an artificial one with an unobstructed all-round view.
It has potential uses for guiding robot vehicles and aircraft, providing low-cost panoramic security surveillance and novel lighting systems.
The 'eye', designed by a team from The Vision Centre (TVC), is a tool to emulate exactly what insects see as they zip around the landscape, as part of a larger project to understand how they navigate, find food, escape predators and especially, how insects like bees find their way home.
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.
Yahoo Unveils Voice Search Service For Mobile Device Users
By Bernama
Los Angeles : Yahoo has become the first major search engine to let people search the Internet by talking to a mobile device, China's XINHUA news agency quoted a newspaper, as saying on Thursday.
Through the technology from a Massachusetts start-up, Yahoo's mobile search engine, known as oneSearch, could allow users of popular PDAs like BlackBerry Curves, Pearls or the 8800 series to scour the Web with their voice, the San Jose Mercury News daily reported.
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.
Maveric Systems to set up research centre in IIT-Madras
By IANS,
Chennai : City-based Maveric Systems Ltd (MSL), an independent software testing company, will set up a 40-member research centre in the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) Research Park, a top official said here Wednesday.
"The company has set a goal of generating around 30 percent revenue from intellectual property (IP)-based services by 2012. The alliance with IIT-M Research Park will enable us to achieve that goal," MSL executive director V.N. Mahesh told reporters.
Phoenix probe lands successfully on Mars
By DPA,
Washington : NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander landed successfully on the red planet, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory learned late Sunday.
Confirmation of the landing took more than 15 minutes to be transmitted from the robotic probe, due to the time needed for radio signals to reach Earth from Mars.
Earlier in the day, Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona had said that Mars was literally pulling on our spacecraft, and at the same time it was pulling on our emotions.
Smart clothes to power portable electronic devices
By IANS,
Washington: Engineers have created energy-scavenging nanofibres that could one day be woven into clothing and textiles.
The nanofibres can convert energy from mechanical stresses into electricity, and could one day be used to create clothing that can power small electronics, says a new study, conducted by University of California, Berkeley (UCB) researchers.
Indonesia to develop 2nd generation version of satellite
By Xinhua
Jakarta : After successfully launching its LAPAN-TUBSAT satellite last year, the Indonesian National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan) is preparing to construct a second generation version of the earth surveillance satellite for orbit in 2010.
While the construction of the first satellite took place in Germany, the construction of the next, named LAPAN-A2, will take place in Indonesia entirely under Indonesian engineers, the Jakarta Post daily on Friday quoted Lapan's head Adi Sadewo Salatun as saying.