We wrongly think world likes what we like: study
By IANS,
Washington : People have the tendency to presume the whole world likes what they like. But when it comes to things they dislike, they don't generalise the same way.
For example, people are shocked when a cherished product is discontinued for lack of sale or the favourite confectionary offered by them is not eaten, according to a study.
"The things we like are seen to contain primarily good characteristics, while things we dislike are seen to contain a mix of bad, neutral, or good characteristics," the study said.
Scientists create retina from human embryonic stem cells
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have created an eight-layer, early stage retina from human embryonic stem cells, the first three-dimensional tissue structure to be made from stem cells. The complex tissue structure offers hope to millions with degenerative eye disorders.
It also marks the first step toward the development of transplant-ready retinas to treat eye disorders such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration that affect millions.
Scientists watch evolution unfold in a bottle
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists now have physical proof of how species evolve and the fittest survive, after a 21-year study in which they documented the evolution of single-celled E. coli bacteria over 40,000 generations.
Richard Lenski, Hannah professor of microbial ecology at Michigan State University (MSU), said: "It's extra nice now to be able to show precisely how selection has changed the genomes of these bacteria, step by step over tens of thousands of generations."
Cloudy sky plays spoilsport in Bihar’s ‘eclipse village’
By IANS,
Taregna (Bihar) : Thousands of people who have gathered in this Bihar village to witness the century's largest total eclipse were disappointed Wednesday as the sun remained hidden under cloudy skies.
The eclipse was to begin at 5:29 a.m just after the sunrise but cloudy skies spoiled the mood of the thousands of people, children and adults, who thronged there to watch the celestial spectacle
However, people are optimistic for a more clear picture when the eclipse will reach its totality at 6:24 a.m.
India defers lunar mission launch
By IANS
Bangalore : India's first exploratory mission to moon Chandrayaan-1, scheduled for launch April 9, has been deferred, a top space agency official said here Tuesday.
"As a number of pre-launch tests have to be conducted, it is difficult to meet the April 9 deadline," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told IANS on phone.
"The mission payload has 12 instruments. We will decide on the next launch date by this month-end after a review meeting," he said.
Meteor bombardment may have made earth more habitable
By IANS,
London : Large bombardments of meteorites nearly four billion years ago probably made earth and mars more habitable by modifying their atmosphere.
When a meteorite enters a planet's atmosphere, extreme heat causes some of the minerals and organic matter on its outer crust to be released as water and carbon dioxide before it breaks up and hits the ground.
China’s army goes digital
By Xinhua
Nanning (China) : While digital technology allows commanders of China's People's Liberation Army's (PLA) to electronically monitor borders round the clock, cooks in the barracks conjure up tasty dishes using recipes from e-books through computers in the kitchen.
World largest ice embedded telescope coming up at Antarctica
By IANS,
Washington : An international team is building the world's largest neutrino telescope in the Antarctic, deep beneath the continent's snow-covered surface.
Dubbed "IceCube", the telescope will occupy a cubic kilometre of Antarctica when it is completed in 2011, opening super-sensitive new eyes into the heavens.
"IceCube will provide new information about some of the most violent and far-away astrophysical events in the cosmos," said Thomas Gaisser, professor of Physics and Astronomy University of Delaware (U-D), and one of the project's lead scientists.
Chinese scientists solving mystery of acupuncture through light beams
By IANS,
Beijing : Scientists in China claimed to have found a breakthrough in acupuncture therapy which would help detect cancer and brain tumours in patients at an early stage through a super powerful X-ray beam.
The researchers working on synchrotron have detected evidence that acupuncture points differ from other parts of the body.
Mind-boggling image of vast glittering sky captured
By IANS,
London : The GigaGalaxy Zoom project has captured a mind-boggling, magnificent, 800-million-pixel panoramic view of the vast glittering sky. This 360-degree starscape, covering the entire celestial sphere, reveals the cosmic landscape that surrounds our tiny blue planet.
This staggering panorama serves as the first of three extremely high-resolution images featured in the project, launched by European Organisation for Astronomical Research (ESO).
Chandrayaan confirms moon was once completely molten: Scientist
By IANS,
Panaji : Chandrayaan's moon mineralogy mapper has confirmed the magma ocean hypothesis, meaning that the moon was once completely molten, a senior scientist said Wednesday.
"It proves beyond doubt the magma ocean hypothesis. There is no other way this massive rock type could be formed," said Carle Pieters, science manager at the NASA-supported spectroscopy facility at Brown University in the US.
Pieters, who was in charge of the moon mineralogy mapper on Chandrayaan, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Low Cost Planetary Mission Conference here.
Electronic passports to be launched Wednesday
By IANS,
New Delhi : External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present electronic passports to President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Vice-President Hamid Ansari Wednesday, marking the introduction of the new scheme in India.
The e-passport, also called biometric passports, will carry the biological features and facial imprints of a holder and will be at par with international civil aviation standards.
Microsoft offers free trial of Windows 8
By IANS,
London : Microsoft gave reviewers and the public their first taste of its revolutionary new operating system Windows 8, the Daily Mail reported Thursday.
Plants change chemical defences to suit habitat
By IANS,
Washington : Closely related plants produce their own natural chemical cocktails, adapting each set to the individual plant's specific habitat.
Comparing anti-fungals produced by tobacco and henbane, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered that only a few mutations in a key enzyme are enough to shift the whole output to an entirely new product mixture.
Microsoft to launch Office 2010 for Indian users in June
By IANS,
New Delhi : Global software giant Microsoft Corp will launch the latest version of its popular application suite MS Office 2010 for Indian users in June, a top official said here Thursday.
"The Office 2010 will be available for both businesses and consumers in June," Microsoft Corp's India chairman Ravi Venkatesan told reporters here on the sidelines of an seminar on social inclusion here.
Scientists find strange ring circling dead star
By Xinhua,
Washington : Scientists have found a bizarre ring of material around the magnetic remains of a star that blasted to smithereens, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has said.
The stellar corpse, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars.
These are the cores of massive stars that blew up in supernova explosions, but unlike other dead stars, they slowly pulsate with X-rays and have tremendously strong magnetic fields.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope had spotted the ring.
Logica’s Indian subsidiary helps reduce carbon emission
By IANS,
Bangalore : The Indian subsidiary of the London-based Logica plc helped the leading IT services firm reduce carbon emission by 11.3 percent in 18 months, the company said Monday.
"We have achieved 11.3 percent reduction in our carbon footprint in the last 18 months and set a target of reducing it by another 10 percent next year," Logica India chief executive Abhya Gupte said in a statement here.
The reduction enabled the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to rank the British firm top of the FTSE 350 for IT services in its global 500 report.
India adds 20.3 million telephone subscribers in March
By IANS,
New Delhi: India's telecom density rose to 52.74 percent in March this year as the country added 20.3 million subscribers during the month, the telecom regulator said here Monday.
"The number of telephone subscribers in India increased to 621.28 million at the end of March 2010 from 600.98 Million in February 2010, thereby registering a growth rate of 3.38 percent. With this, the overall teledensity in India reaches 52.74 percent," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement.
In February, the teledensity stood at 51.05 percent.
Requiem for Earth, Red Alarm is On
By Prensa Latina,
Washington : No scientific obituary has been published, but according to a recent report resumed by Mike Davis of alternative media Tomdispatch.com, humanity is entering the “Anthropocene”, epoch defined by the emergence of urban-industrial society as a geological force.
The Geological Society of London defines that the new age shows a heating trend and a radical instability expected of future environments.
Iran, US claim progress in latest round of n-talks
Vienna: Iran and six world powers are making progress in the latest round of talks over Iran's long-disputed nuclear programme, said top diplomats of...
Fake ‘dislike’ button spreads across Facebook
By IANS,
Washington : Social networking website Facebook, which offers its subscribers only a "like" button for anyone's updates, is now faced with a fake "dislike" button, which is spreading like a virus across the site.
The fake dislike button is followed with a link that takes people to a fake application. Instead of installing a dislike button, the application uses the person's network to continue spreading the fake programme.
Graham Cluley of the British security firm Sophos wrote in a blog that the fake dislike buttons "are going viral" on Facebook.
Cabinet approves six satellite launch vehicle flights
By IANS,
New Delhi : The Indian cabinet Thursday approved the launch of six geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) flights at an estimated cost of Rs.12.80 billion, with a foreign exchange component of Rs.2.72 billion.
"With this, end-to-end capability to launch communication satellites will be available during the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12)," Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters after a cabinet meeting presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The six flights will be undertaken during 2010-12, he added.
No solution yet to BlackBerry security issue
By IANS,
New Delhi : A solution to the security concerns over BlackBerry services in India has still to be hammered out as its licensor Research-in-Motion (RIM) has sought more time from the Indian government to reach an agreement.
Executives from the Canada-based firm, senior government officials, representatives from security agencies and services met Tuesday here for the second time after India raised concerns that BlackBerry services may be used by terrorist outfits as the e-mails between these cannot be intercepted.
Iran builds new space centre
By IANS,
Tehran : Iran is building a new space centre to launch satellites, Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Sunday.
Spiderman, squid inspire innovative ways of stopping runaway drivers
By IANS,
Washington : Celluloid superhero Spiderman and the giant squid are inspiring scientists to think of innovative ways to stop erring drivers in their tracks.
Runaway drivers are a common problem for law enforcement. They just won't stop unless 'persuaded' by bullets, barriers, spikes, or snares, all of them a risky business indeed.
Shooting up a fugitive's car may be a possibility - but what if children or hostages are in it? Lay down barriers, and the driver might swerve into a school bus. Spike his tires, and he might fishtail into a van - if the spikes stop him at all.
VXL Technologies launches safety device for seafarers
By IANS,
Kolkata: To help the seafarers in distress, VXL Technologies has launched a global positioning system (GPS) based search-and-rescue beacon, called Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT), a company official said Thursday.
"By pressing a button of this transmitter, fishermen can save themselves when they are in danger," the company's executive director B.D. Bose told reporters here.
Two NASA rovers weathered Martian dust storm
By Fakir Balaji
Hyderabad, Sep 25 (IANS) Two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, launched in 2003 by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), weathered a massive dust storm on that planet this July, a senior NASA scientist told the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here Tuesday.
Astronauts make risky spacewalk to repair broken solar wing
By KUNA
Washington : US Astronauts made risky spacewalk outside the international space station on Wednesday to replace a broken motor needed to tilt a solar wing, clearing a major obstacle to the new module outpost.
During their seven-hour spacewalk Wednesday, Commander Peggy Whitson and fellow NASA astronaut Daniel Tani successfully replaced the broken motor at the base of one of the station's solar wings, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on its website. It's unclear why the first motor failed.
China tests space module for 2011 launch
By IANS,
Beijing : China has finished construction of its first module of an unmanned space station and is testing it for a launch in 2011, a military official has said.
The 8.5-tonne Tiangong-1 space module will be put into orbit in 2011 and experts are testing its electronic, mechanical and thermal properties, the unnamed official was quoted as saying by China Daily.
A carrier rocket named Long March II-F will launch the Tiangong-1 into space, the official said, adding that a group of Chinese astronauts, including two women, is undergoing training for the purpose.
New global map most comprehensive ever
By IANS
New York : A new global map that details the planet's land cover with a resolution 10 times sharper than any of its predecessors is also the most comprehensive ever.
The map is based on 20 terabytes of imagery - the equivalent of data in 20 million books - acquired from May 2005 to April 2006 by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument.
There are 22 different land cover types shown in the map, including croplands, wetlands, forests, artificial surfaces, water bodies and permanent snow and ice.
Now barcodes to help hone diagnostics
By IANS,
Sydney : You've seen barcodes on consumer products - now these, or something very similar, will soon be put to medical use.
Ultra-sensitive fluorescent barcodes called nanostrings, developed by Australian scientists, will greatly hone diagnostics and clinical development, according to a new study.
The nanostring will enable a more accurate detection of molecules associated with particular diseases and will be able to identify new molecules associated with diseases, said Krassen Dimitrov of the University of Queensland.
Scientists writing foolproof computer security code
By IANS,
Washington : We often see websites asking us to key in wavy letters into a box to prevent computer robots from hacking into servers and databases. But these codes, which are becoming increasingly complex for an average person, are not immune to security breaches.
A project led by Danny Cohen-Or, computer science professor at the Tel Aviv University (TAU), shows how a new kind of video captcha code may be harder to outsmart. Captcha technology is intended to block spam e-mail and automated systems.
Indian IT firms will consolidate, focus on Europe, Asia-Pacific
By Gyanendra Kumar Keshri, IANS,
Indian lunar probe starts remote sensing of Moon
By RIA Novosti,
New Delhi : India's first lunar probe entered its final polar orbit around the Moon late on Wednesday and has now begun remote sensing of the surface, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on Thursday.
Chandrayaan-1, meaning "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit, was launched on an Indian-built PSLV-C11 rocket on October 22.
Asia’s first human DNA bank comes up in Lucknow
By IANS,
Lucknow : Asia's first -- and the world's second -- human DNA bank has been set up at the Biotech Park in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow district, said an official Wednesday.
"DNA Identification System (DIS) will be one of the most important functions of the DNA bank that will facilitate establishing identity of individuals within a few seconds," Biotech Park's CEO P.K. Seth told IANS.
The members of the DNA bank will receive a microchip based DNA card containing information of their fingerprints, and anthropological details, said Seth.
Facebook grows, makes a profit
By DPA,
San Francisco : Facebook, the world's largest social network on the internet, is finally turning a profit, the privately held company said.
The Silicon Valley, California, company, which was started six years ago by a student at Harvard University, said late Tuesday that it had reached a positive cash flow for the first time and also passed the 300-million user mark.
The stratospheric growth in the site's user base from 150 million at the start of the year, allowed the company to turn a profit earlier than the 2010 date it had previously predicted.
NASA buys life-like humanoid as tour guide
By IANS,
London : A life-like robot, which speaks more than a dozen languages and has a pawky sense of humour, has been bought by NASA to become a robotic tour guide.
Tweaking Vista – a bit more challenging than before
By DPA
Washington : It's difficult to call a new operating system your own until you've customised it to your liking.
Making small changes in how an operating system looks and works is commonly referred to as "tweaking", and tweaking Windows Vista can be a bit more challenging than with previous versions of Windows.
In part, that's because the way you customise Vista has changed a lot - and some of the tools that you might have used to tweak Vista's predecessors aren't supported under the new operating system.
Playing computer games is beneficial: study
By DPA,
San Francisco : A national study in the US has concluded that computer games foster social interaction and civic engagement and that there was no evidence that they incited users to violence.
The study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly all teens play video games and that their games' activity has become a major component of their overall social experience.
Study shows comet much more like asteroid
By Xinhua
Beijing : A chemical analysis of samples of rock dust retrieved from a comet showed that the comet is much more like an asteroid than scientists had expected, media reported Monday.
A lot of the material detected in a comet called Wild 2 was formed very close to the sun in the early solar system and was somehow later transported to the outer solar system.
Beijing : A chemical analysis of samples of rock dust retrieved from a comet showed that the comet is much more like an asteroid than scientists had expected, media reported Monday.
A lot of the material detected in a comet called Wild 2 was formed very close to the sun in the early solar system and was somehow later transported to the outer solar system.
Scientists, farmers fast to protest Bt Brinjal
By IANS,
Kolkata : A group of scientists, academicians and farmers observed a day's protest fast at the Kolkata Book Fair Saturday against the possible release of genetically modified crop Bt Brinjal for commercial cultivation.
"The volunteers from Green Peace, city-based green body Development Research Communication and Services Centre (DRCSC) and the farmers of an organisation called Seva participated in the fast," Green Peace's sustainable agricultural campaigner R. Jaykrishna told IANS.
New internet security system no longer secure
By IANS,
London : Researchers have cracked the so-called McEliece encryption system, to potentially secure Internet traffic during the age of quantum computing in future.
The attack succeeded last month by means of a large number of linked computers throughout the world, informed Eindhoven University of Technology (EUT) Netherlands professor Tanja Lange.
India’s rocket goes into space with 10 satellites
By IANS,
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) : The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C9 lifted off successfully with 10 satellites - two Indian and eight foreign - at 9.23 a.m. Monday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.
Officials said the satellites' launches were progressing as expected. Around 16 minutes into the flight, the satellites will be injected into the polar sun synchronous orbit inclined at an angle of 97.94 degree to the equator.
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.
Toonz, Marvel tie up for second part of X-Men series
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Singapore-based animation major Toonz Entertainment Pte Ltd has tied up with Marvel Animation to produce the second part of the popular animated television series "Wolverine and the X-Men", a top official said here Tuesday.
Toonz Group chief executive P. Jayakumar said the company was thrilled to join hands with Marvel, a global leader in animated entertainment industry, to showcase "one of the most sought-after, iconic characters of all time".
Russia to launch its first weather satellite
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia is set to launch its first weather satellite, Meteor-M1, in the fourth quarter of 2008, the satellite's manufacturer said Wednesday.
Russia currently has no weather satellites and gets its information from foreign sources.
The Russian state research and development company VNIIEM said its specialists had assembled the satellite and launched "the final stage of complex tests".
The 2.7-tonne Meteor-M1 will be put into a 830-km orbit by a Soyuz-2 launch vehicle and a Frigate upper stage.
Its service life will be five to seven years.
Unseen for 112 years, dwarf cloud rat captured
By Xinhua,
Beijing : Unseen in the canopies of tall trees in the Philippines for more than 112 years, a greater dwarf cloud rat has been found and captured in the island nation's Mount Pulag National Park.
The fist-sized mammal has dense, soft, reddish-brown fur, a black mask around large dark eyes, small rounded ears, a broad and blunt snout, and a long tail covered with dark hair.
N-bombs to destroy earth-bound asteroids in space!
By IANS,
Washington : Nuclear bombs - itself a threat to the humanity - to save the earth from dangerous space rocks?
Sounds like a new...
Birds can practically smell out predators
By IANS,
London : Birds can detect and avoid predators by smell, an ability earlier thought to be associated with other animal species, according to latest research.
Birds are not only capable of identifying enemies through chemical signals, but also alter their behaviour depending on perceived risk levels, a recent study found.
The use of smell to detect chemical signals can be useful for birds say in feeding and orientation. However, it can boost their chances of survival if they can know whether the smell detected is associated with a predator, reports Sciencedaily.
Supercomputer helps design drugs faster
By IANS
Sydney : A supercomputer is helping speed up the design of new drugs manifold, doing away with cumbersome, time-consuming procedures.
The results are as accurate as those obtained from the lab, saving time and resources, besides calculating the desired 'redox' potential of drugs much faster than existing methods.
The 'redox' potential is the ability of drug molecules to exchange electrons, which determine how powerfully they can act on the body, said researcher Mansoor Namazian of Australian National University (ANU).
EVMs cannot be manipulated, says chief election commissioner
By IANS,
Agartala: The electronic voting machines (EVM) are secure for the purpose they serve as they cannot be manipulated, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) V.S. Sampath said here Saturday.
UAE university boasts of region’s biggest grid computing system
By NNN-WAM
WAM Dubai : Sun Microsystems has deployed one of the most advanced super grid computers in the world at the UAE University. The system is the regions biggest grid computing system and places the UAE University in the Top 500 list of high performance computing grids worldwide.
The super grid is deployed in service of the community at large, and will support the teaching and research missions of the University by providing students and faculty with unprecedented computing power.
ISRO slow on internet?
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) symbolises nothing less than rockets, satellites and moon missions but when it comes to a professional need as simple as uploading contents on the website, the presitigious organisation seems to have bungled.
The 97th edition of the Indian Science Congress, organized by the ISRO and the Kerala University, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday.
Shenzhou VII locks in for return to earth after space walk
By Tham Choy Lin, NNN-Bernama,
Beijing : The Shenzhou VII space mission that pulled off China?s first spacewalk has entered into the journey back to earth and can expect a euphoric welcome on Sunday evening.
The return capsule carrying astronaut Zhai Zhigang, who performed the historic feat, and two other astronauts will touch down at about 5.40pm in the steppes of central Inner Mongolia, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Nine of 10 e-mails are spam
By DPA,
Mainz (Germany) : Most daily e-mails are not sent between friends or even business partners. Instead, 92 percent of e-mails sent between January and March 2008 were spam.
This was revealed by Sophos, a Mainz-based information technology security firm that regularly monitors internet mail.
The United States remains the world champion when it comes to spam as more than 15 percent originated there, the firm said.
Sophos, however, did not track the number of spams actually reaching the mailboxes of internet users.
India: Deccan plateau may hold answer to reduce carbon emissions
By NNN-PTI
Visakhapatnam (India) : The vast tracts of India's Deccan volcanic plateau may hold the answer to reduce carbon emissions responsible for global warming that has posed a threat to the earth.
Indian geologists have discovered that the sprawling basalt rocks in the Deccan plateau had turned carbon dioxide trapped in them during their formation into carbonates or varieties of salts over the years.
Planetary collision created Earth and Moon
By IANS,
London : The Earth and Moon were created as the result of a giant collision between two planets the size of Mars and Venus, research says.
The research from the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, shows that the Earth and Moon must have formed much later - perhaps up to 150 million years after the formation of the solar system, 4,567 million years ago.
German scientists identify world’s oldest dog bone
By DPA,
Tuebingen (Germany) : German scientists have identified the world's oldest dog bone, proving that humans kept dogs more than 14,000 years ago, Tuebingen University said Tuesday.
The canine jaw was found in Switzerland in 1873, but has only just been analysed by researchers across the border in Tuebingen. The findings were reported in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
The dog lived between 14,100 and 14,600 years ago, according to archaeologists Hannes Napierala and Hans-Peter Uerpmann.
"At this time, humans were still hunter-gatherers," Napierala said.
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.
Haryana farmers use SMS to solve agriculture-related problems
By IANS
Chandigarh : Farmers in Haryana are using the SMS (short messaging service) facility on their mobile phones to get answers to their agriculture-related queries.
A free SMS service started by the state's agriculture department in Feb this year has become quite a hit with farmers of the state. They can get answers to all their queries by sending an SMS to a number assigned by the state government.
US explorer traces asteroid near Tadpole Nebula
By IANS,
Los Angeles : NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has sent images of an asteroid marching across Tadpole Nebula.
As WISE scanned the sky on a recent mission, it caught the asteroid passing by in our solar system, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said Thursday.
The asteroid, 1719 Jens, left tracks across the image, seen as a line of yellow-green dots around the Tadpole Nebula, a star-forming region at 12,000 light years from the earth, Xinhua reported.
U.S. scientists map first nanoscale image of soil
By Xinhua,
Washington : Researchers from Cornell University has looked "closely" at the soil for the first time -- at a scale of 50 nanometers, revealing an incredible variety of organic compounds in it, reported the April issue of Nature Geoscience which is available Monday.
"There is this incredible nanoscale heterogeneity of organic matter in terms of soil," said Johannes Lehmann, lead author of the study, in a statement on Monday. "None of these compounds that you can see on a nanoscale level looks anything close to the sum of the entire organic matter."
Himachal roadways starts 3D online booking
By IANS
Shimla : The Himachal Roadways Transport Corporation (HRTC) has become the first state roadways in the country to provide three dimensional (3D) secure online booking and cancellation facilities, transport officials said Saturday.
Google Earth helps youth to trace lost home – after 13 years
By Brij Khandelwal, IANS
Agra : Orphaned at seven, he ran away from home to escape the tyranny of his uncle and was taken care of by an affluent Muslim family in northern India. Now at 20, Rakesh Singh has through Google Earth traced his village near Agra and is fighting to get his property back.
Rakesh, who developed an early fascination for computers, has found his village in Kiraoli, about 22 km from the Taj Mahal city, thanks to his interest in the internet.
India to rollout 3G services by mid-2008: A. Raja
By IANS
New Delhi : Indian mobile users will be able to use 3G services by the middle of next year, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said here Thursday.
"We are hopeful that some spectrum for both 2G and 3G services will be vacated by the end of this year. I hope that could pave the way for a rollout of 3G services by mid next year," the minister said at a 3G summit.
On being asked how much spectrum would be vacated, the minister replied, "That is up to the defence ministry to decide."
Mountain ranges rise faster than believed: study
By IANS,
Washington : Mountains can double their heights within two to four million years - many times faster than the existing tectonic theory surmises, a new study has found.
The rapid uplift implies that the current theory of plate tectonics will have to be modified to include a process of “delamination”, according to Carmala Garizone of the University of Rochester.
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore collaborated in the study.
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...
Google Street View also copied people’s emails, passwords
By IANS,
London : In a major privacy breach, internet search giant Google copied computer passwords and entire emails from households across Britain.
Killer algae is key player in mass extinction
By IANS,
Washington : Super volcanoes and crashing asteroids corner all the horrific glory for mass extinction, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world's great species annihilations.
Today, just about anywhere there is water, there can be toxic algae. The microscopic plants usually exist in small concentrations, but a sudden warming in the water or an injection of dust or sediment from land can trigger a bloom that kills thousands of fish, poisons shellfish, or even humans.
Curiosity lands on Mars
By IANS,
Washington : US space agency's nuclear-powered rover Curiosity touched down on Mars Sunday.
India may emerge as data hub for nearby countries: Gartner
By IANS,
Mumbai : With India's data storage capacity expected to double by 2012, it may emerge as the data centre hub for nearby markets such as West Asia, east Africa and southeast Asia, according to a research report prepared by global information technology (IT) market tracker Gartner Inc.
India's total data centre capacity, including both captive and hosted, will grow 31 percent from 1.337 million square feet in 2007 to 5.143 million square feet by 2012, Gartner said in a media release here Wednesday.
Chandrayaan-I enters lunar orbit
By IANS,
Bangalore : India's first unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-I was Saturday put into lunar orbit at around 5.15 p.m., scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said here.
The spacecraft was successfully put into an elliptical orbit after complex manoeuvres.
"The liquid apogee motor on board the spacecraft was fired for about 805 seconds to put Chandrayaan-1 into an elliptical orbit with 7,500 km aposelene (farthest from moon) and 500 km pericelene (nearest to moon)," ISRO director S. Satish told IANS.
NASA’s next generation rocket makes booming debut
By DPA,
Washington : A giant next generation space rocket Wednesday shot off its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida in the US for its very first test flight.
The 100-metre tall Ares I-X rocket sped into the sky over the Florida coast trailing a plume of flames and steam in a trial that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) hoped would provide crucial information about technology that is to replace the ageing space shuttle fleet.
Five billion people to use cell phones in 2010: UN
By IANS,
Madrid: The number of mobile phone users across the world would increase to five billion this year, a UN telecommunication agency said Monday.
The number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has reached 4.6 billion and is expected to increase to five billion this year, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
"Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services," ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure said.
Mars probe fit to peek under Earth’s ice sheets
By Xinhua,
Beijing : A space-based radar aboard a European Mars probe could not only peer under the frozen extraterrestrial seas of moons such as Europa and Titan, but also see beneath the surface of ice sheets on Earth.
The space radar would take its cue from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument, which has probed the Red Planet's underground for evidence of water from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express spacecraft.
Russia launches US communication satellite
By RIA Novosti,
Moscow : Russia Saturday launched a rocket carrying a US communication satellite into space from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
"The launch of the Proton-M rocket fitted with a Breeze-M booster and carrying a ProtoStar-2 telecommunication satellite went ahead at the scheduled time," a spokesperson of the Roscosmos said.
ProtoStar Ltd is a private company based in Bermuda. Its US operations are based in San Francisco and California, while its Asian operations are conducted from Singapore.
US not fixated on Iran answering queries on nuclear projects
Tehran: US Secretary of State John Kerry has acknowledged for the first time that a final nuclear deal would not require Iran to detail...
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.
Google teams with Intel, Sony on new TV platform
By DPA,
San Francisco : Tired of flipping through hundreds of cable channels to find something to watch? Google may be able to help you.
The web search giant has teamed up with Intel, Sony and Logitech to develop a new television platform that the company hopes will extend its dominance from computers and cellphones to televisions, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Microsoft issues Word patch to comply with patent ruling
By DPA,
San Francisco : Microsoft Wednesday issued a patch for its Word software to comply with a court ruling Tuesday that it infringed on patents relating to the use of XML or extensible markup language in its flagship word processing software.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word programs containing the infringing code from Jan 11, 2010. It also upheld jury-imposed damages of $290 million.
NASA seeks to proceed with mars rover launch in 2009
By SPA,
Washington : The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has decided to proceed with plans to launch a big new rover to Mars next year.
Friday’s decision came after concerns were raised about the budget and technical progress for the Mars Science Laboratory.
The head of the Mars exploration program at NASA’s Los Angeles office said the space agency will examine the mission’s progress again in January.
British gangs duping people to buy malicious software
By IANS,
London : Britons are being duped to buy malicious software in the guise of anti-virus protection by criminals posing as legitimate IT experts, officials warned Monday.
Sky gazers in for celestial treat Tuesday
By IANS,
New Delhi : Sky gazers can look forward to an exhibition of celestial fireworks as the night sky will be lit up by Geminid meteor showers that are expected to peak Tuesday.
TCS bags $100 mn deal with NXP
By IANS,
Mumbai : India's leading IT firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) has signed a five-year contract worth $100 million with Dutch chip maker NXP Semiconductors B.V., founded by Philips.
TCS will provide consultancy services as well as application management, development and support services across NXP's supply chain operations.
TCS chief operating officer and executive director N. Chandrasekaran said, "The engagement with NXP is a perfect demonstration of our business credentials in a specialist sector and enables TCS to develop a deep relationship with NXP."
Scientists invent bionic eyeball to cure blindness
By DPA,
Hamburg : German scientists have invented a wireless bionic eyeball that can restore vision to patients who have become blind due to retina damage or disease.
The new prosthetic device caps 12 years of research to help these patients. This work has resulted in a unique system - a fully implantable visual prosthesis.
The scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems in Duisburg, Germany, say that the bionic eye can bypass the damaged retina.
The system comprises an implant and an external transmitter integrated in an eyeglasses-frame.
New medical weapons against anthrax attacks
By IANS,
London: The 2001 anthrax attacks in the US are fostering development of a new generation of vaccines and antibiotics to protect people against deadly bacteria in future bio-terrorist incidents.
Dimitrios Bouzianas, molecular endocrinologist, AHEPA University Hospital in Macedonia, Greece, notes that several existing antibiotics are available to combat an anthrax infection.
Facebook users dial 911 over outage, cops frown
New York : Will you call 911 if Facebook goes off the radar? This is exactly some users in Los Angeles did when the...
Arianespace to launch India’s communication satellites
By IANS
New Delhi : The government has decided to place the contract for launching of GSAT-8/INSAT-4G communication satellites with Arianespace of Europe.
The decision was approved by the union cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday.
The cabinet approval has however put a rider, saying "The cost of the project should not exceed $67.5 million or Rs.2.97 billion", said Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi while briefing newsmen on the decisions of the cabinet.
Watch an asteroid eclipse a star over Europe
By IANS,
London : In a rare celestial event over Europe, skywatchers will be able to see an asteroid briefly block out the light from a star as it passes in front of the star Thursday night.
It may be the only asteroid eclipse that will take place this century, observable with the naked eye.
A similar situation like a solar eclipse can happen with asteroids - the sun-orbiting, rocky or metallic objects that are left over from the formation of the solar system.
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.
U.S. expert: short-term earthquake prediction “very difficult”
By Xinhua,
Washington : After last week's deadly earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan province, quake prediction has become an issue of intense public concern. However, accurate predictions in the short term are indeed "very difficult," said Lucile Jones, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),in a recent interview with Xinhua.
When asked what factors affect the prediction of earthquakes, she said: "This depends on what you mean by predict."
Power station successfully traps CO2 emission
By IANS,
Sydney : In a pilot project that has far-reaching implications, an Australian power station has used a “carbon capturing” plant to trap a bulk of its CO2 emissions.
The “post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant” at the Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria's Latrobe Valley trapped up to 85 percent of its CO2 emissions.
The 10.5 metre-high pilot plant is designed to capture up to 1,000 tonnes of CO2 annually from the power station's exhaust-gas flues. Future trials will involve the use of a range of different CO2-capture liquids.
Unmanned planes will be commonplace within a decade
By IANS,
Sydney : UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, used with deadly precision in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan, are likely to be adapted to civilian work within the next decade.
New research indicates that robotic, or pilot-less, planes will be commonplace within five to 10 years and make manned flights seem passe.
For example, Rod Walker of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) said recent trials have looked at using automated planes for fisheries and border protection in the Cape York area.
Scientists discover hottest ever planet
By IANS,
London : An exoplanet has been found to be the hottest planet discovered so far with a record-breaking temperature of 3,200 degrees Celsius.
IITs must act as catalyst to boost technical education: Sibal
By IANS,
New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Saturday said the country's premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) must focus on quality research and act as a catalyst to boost technical education in India.
At IIT-Delhi's convocation ceremony, the minister said: "The great challenge before the IITs is to act as a catalyst in the growth of quality technical education in the country.
UFO seen at China airport
By IANS,
Beijing : Air traffic at an airport in China was restricted for about an hour after a UFO was spotted over it, media reports said Thursday.
Canadian scientists to launch miniature asteroid tracker
By Xinhua,
Ottawa : A Canadian research team unveiled a plan Monday to launch a mini-satellite that will be able to track the skies day and night, and send back early warning of dangerous asteroids approaching Earth.
Currently, all asteroid tracking is done on earth. The sun blocks astronomers' view and they can study asteroids only at night.
But the Canadian-designed NEOSat (Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) is expected to launch in 2010 and its 15 cm-diameter telescope will do 24-hour tracking from space, Canadian Television reported.
Malaysia Airlines chooses Kerala IT firm’s software
By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : MASholidays, the travel and leisure arm of Malaysia Airlines, has opted for the city-based IBS Software Services' tour management solution 'iFly Tour', the IT firm said here Thursday.
iFly Tour, a product under the iFly solution suite, offers an online booking system that is fully integrated with real time inventory of flights, hotel rooms and other products.
"With this new online booking system, MASholidays will introduce new packages and provide more flexibility in our offerings," said Dato Rashid Khan, commercial director of Malaysia Airlines.
Astronauts get ready for first spacewalk
By SPA,
Houston : Shuttle Discovery's astronauts geared up for the first spacewalk of their mission Tuesday and the Installation of Japan's giant lab to the international space station.
The two spacecraft linked up Monday, and the 10 space travelers immediately got ready to tackle their first big job.
Discovery's designated spacewalkers, Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan Jr., will prep the US$1 billion (¤640 million) lab, named Kibo _ Japanese for hope _ for installation.
Coastlines remain intact, despite climate change: study
By IANS,
Sydney : Preliminary research from the windswept coast of southern France suggest that world's coastlines remain largely intact despite climate change.
The urgent question is whether even small changes in sea levels due to climate change will wreck this natural balance and trigger devastating coastal erosion.
Key parameters are being recorded on equipment constructed by a joint team from Universities of New South Wales (UNSW) and Plymouth (Britain), in what is believed to be the single largest array of scientific instruments ever deployed in experimental coastal research.
NASA scientists find smallest, lightest black hole
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA scientists have identified the smallest, lightest black hole yet found.
The new lightweight record-holder weighs in at about 3.8 times the mass of our sun and is only 15 miles (24 kilometers) in diameter.
Beijing : NASA scientists have identified the smallest, lightest black hole yet found.
The new lightweight record-holder weighs in at about 3.8 times the mass of our sun and is only 15 miles (24 kilometers) in diameter.
Google’s black ribbon tribute to Kalam
New Delhi : Google on Thursday paid tribute to former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, with a black ribbon on its homepage.
Kalam died...
‘Google collected private data from Spanish Wi-Fi networks’
By IANS/EFE,
Madrid : Google has "illegally" collected private data from Wi-Fi networks in Spain through its Street View project, a crime prevention association said Sunday.
A complaint has been filed against Google in a Madrid court, the NGO APEDANICA said.
The Spanish Data Protection Association (AEPD) opened a probe May 19 to determine if Google had broken the law protecting citizens' personal data and rights.
Google blamed an "error" for the slip-up. Javier Rodriguez, the company's director for Spain, said the data would be returned to AEPD.
Eurofighter Typhoon targets 300 additional orders in next 20 years
By IANS,
New Delhi: The four-nation Eurofighter consortium foresees substantial growth opportunities on the world market, with India playing a crucial role, it said Friday.
"We evaluate the global demand for combat aircraft in the next 20 years at around 800 units. For Eurofighter Typhoon, we target 300 additional export contracts, with Asia representing a substantial part of these orders," Enzo Casolini, CEO of Eurofighter GmbH, said.
130 websites blocked in Tajikistan
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Dushanbe: Over 130 websites have been blocked in Tajikistan in connection with "technical repair work", the country's telecom agency said.
Scientists probe earth’s core with quake ‘whispers’
By IANS,
London : Scientists are observing distant earthquakes by 'listening' to them to reveal new clues about the top of the earth's core.
The approach is akin to hearing a conversation across a whispering gallery, such as those in the domes of some large cathedrals.
Using a novel digital processing approach, researchers at the University of Calgary (U-C) analysed faint signals produced by 44 earthquakes. They were able to measure the sound speed at the top of earth's core with unprecedented accuracy.
China’s first lunar probe enters moon’s orbit
Beijing, Nov 5 (Xinhua) China's lunar probe Chang'e-1 successfully entered moon's orbit Monday, becoming China's first circumlunar satellite.
Chang'e-1, following the instructions of the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre (BACC), started braking at 11.15 a.m. at a position around 300 km away from the moon and entered the moon's orbit at around 11.37 a.m. after completing the braking, according to the BACC.
NASA spacecraft spots new moonlet in Saturn’s rings
By Xinhua,
Washington : Scientists have found a new moonlet hidden in one of Saturn's dazzling outer rings, the Scientific American website has reported.
Saturn's G ring, a faint band of material near the outer bounds of the planet's famed ring system, hosts a bright arc about 150,000 km long.
The arc, or partial ring, which stretches through about a sixth of the G ring's length, is believed to provide the rest of the ring with dust and ice, but its evolution has remained a mystery.
Other universes exist alongside our own
By IANS,
London : Scientists say they have found evidence that our universe was 'jostled' by other parallel universes in the distant past.
Russian ‘internet blacklist’ site faces attack
By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Moscow: A Russian website with a special register of "blacklisted" sites came under attack shortly after it went online Thursday, said the federal agency which runs it.
Arctic boulders confirm that glaciers are thinning
By IANS
London : Huge boulders could enable scientists to predict the contribution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) to sea level rise, according to the latest issue of Geology.
These boulders - deposited by three glaciers in the Amundsen Sea region - are currently being studied by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Durham University and Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute.
Cargo ship to undock from ISS, serve as technical platform
By RIA Novosti,
Russia's unmanned Progress spacecraft, due to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on June 30, will be used as a technical space platform before being dumped in the Pacific, mission control said Monday.
"The undocking is planned for 22:30 Moscow time, June 30. The operation will be carried out automatically," mission control spokesman Valery Lyndin said. "As for when the freighter will be buried, a decision has yet to be made."
Security gaps discovered in Adobe Flash Player, updates recommended
By DPA,
Bonn : Users of Adobe Flash Player are advised to update the latest version of the software after security gaps were discovered in early releases of the media viewer.
Those gaps have been sealed with the new version of the programme, according to Germany's BSI Federal Office for Security in Information Technology.
The problems with the old version could enable hackers to access a person's computer with only one visit to an insecure website.
Advance IST by 30 minutes, save Rs.10 bn: scientists
By IANS
New Delhi : A group of scientists have suggested that the Indian Standard Time (IST) be shifted forward by 30 minutes to reduce peak time energy demand and save at least Rs.10 billion per year.
According to a paper prepared by Dilip R. Ahuja, D.P. Sen, both from the National Institute of Advanced Studies, and V.K. Agrawal, Southern Regional Load Despatch Centre, Bangalore, the shift in IST by 30 minutes will help India use more daylight and reduce the peak power demand during evening.
Scientists create metal that pumps liquid uphill like a tree
By IANS,
Washington : Trees draw vast amounts of water from their roots up to their leaves hundreds of feet above the ground through capillary action. But now University of Rochester scientists have created a simple slab of metal that lifts liquid using the same principle, but at a much faster speed.
The metal may prove invaluable in pumping microscopic amounts of liquid around a medical diagnostic chip, cooling a computer's processor, or turning almost any simple metal into an anti-bacterial surface.
Massive asteroid could hit Earth in 2182
By IANS,
London : A massive asteroid might crash into Earth in 2182, scientists have warned.
The asteroid, called 1999 RQ36, has a one-in-thousand chance of actually hitting the Earth at some point before the year 2200, but is most likely to hit on Sep 24, 2182.
The asteroid was first discovered in the year 1999 and is more than 1,800 feet across. If an asteroid of this size hits the Earth it would cause widespread devastation and possible mass extinction, reports the Daily Mail.
Insects might help make cheaper biofuels
By IANS,
Washington : The help of insects might be required to make a biofuel like bioethanol commercially viable, according to an entomologist.
Michael Scharf, entomologist at the University of Florida, Gainesville and his colleague Aurélien Tartar informed how enzymes produced by both termites and the micro-organisms that inhabit their gut - known as symbionts - could help to produce ethanol from non-edible plant material such as straw and wood.
China’s First Manned Space Mission
By SPA
Beijing : China plans to carry out its first spacewalk in second half of the year, an official of the nation's manned space program said here on Thursday, according to Xinhua.
The Shenzhou VII spacecraft will be launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the northwestern province of Gansu latein the year and the astronauts will leave their spacecraft for the first time, the official told Xinhua.
The spacecraft will also release a small inspection satellite, which monitors its own performance.
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.
NASA scientists identify smallest known black hole in universe
By Xinhua
Washington : Two astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have identified the smallest known black hole in the universe, according to the Astrophysical Journal on Wednesday.
The two astronomers presented their results this week at an American Astronomical Society meeting.
Messenger craft flies within 200 km of Mercury
By DPA,
Washington : NASA's Messenger spacecraft came within 200 km of Mercury Monday, taking pictures of the rocky planet nearest the sun.
It was the second of three planned flybys for the craft, which is due to settle into orbit around Mercury in 2011, providing what scientists hope will be the most complete picture yet of the solar system's smallest planet.
The 0840 GMT flyby was designed largely to pick up a gravitational boost of energy for the craft. It will begin beaming data back to Earth Wednesday, NASA and university researchers said.
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.
New web resource aims to help Asia’s youth avoid internet dangers
By SPA
Singapore : The Business Software Alliance (BSA) launched an educational Web resource on Tuesday to help youths across Asia understand and avoid the many risks they face on the internet.
According to DPA "The internet has spawned a new generation of youths who spend significant amounts of time in cyberspace, where they are exposed to illegal or unwholesome content, or are lured into unlawful activities," said Jeffrey Hardee, BSA's Vice President for the Asia-Pacific region.
Remember the moon? NASA does, with 2020 vision
Washington, Dec 12 (DPA) Thirty-five years after the last man stood on the moon, the US space agency remains focused on returning humans to Earth's satellite as a launching pad for future exploration of Mars.
Never mind that the US public seemed more fixated on the high-profile arrest earlier this year of an astronaut caught in a jealous love triangle with a colleague, or that the long-delayed installation of a European module on the International Space Station (ISS) was again pushed back with the postponement of the Atlantis shuttle launch Sunday.
Frog fossil in Madagascar big as bowling ball
By Xinhua
Beijing : U.S. scientists' finding of a frog fossil with the size of a bowling ball in Madagascar provides evidence for competing theories that some bridge still connected South America with Africa about 70 million years ago, perhaps via an Antarctica that was much warmer than today, media reported Tuesday.
Beijing : U.S. scientists' finding of a frog fossil with the size of a bowling ball in Madagascar provides evidence for competing theories that some bridge still connected South America with Africa about 70 million years ago, perhaps via an Antarctica that was much warmer than today, media reported Tuesday.
T-Mobile to launch Google phone in October
By DPA,
San Francisco : T-Mobile is to launch the first phone based on Google's Android design Sep 17, in hopes that the new device will compete with Apple's iPhone, Wired magazine reported Friday.
The smartphone will be manufactured by Taiwan-based High Tech Computer, and will have a large touch screen that slides out to reveal a five-row QWERTY keyboard. The device, which will be called the G1, will sell for $150 to T-Mobile customers in the first week of launch before it is offered to other customers at a higher price.
Indian space agency’s top official dies in road mishap
By IANS
Bangalore : Rajeev Lochan, scientific secretary to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was killed late Friday in a road mishap in Andhra Pradesh, it was announced Saturday.
An ISRO official told IANS on phone that Lochan died along with driver Chandran when the Ambassador car in which they were travelling to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh from Bangalore on an official trip met with an accident near Pakala, about 40 km from Tirupati.
New language protects home computers
By IANS,
Washington : Scientists have developed a security language to protect home networks from cyber attacks.
Companies, banks and other organisations take internet security very seriously, erecting firewalls and IT departments to protect them from attacks. But domestic and small office networks are just as vulnerable to hacking, malicious computer code, worms and viruses.
Geon Woo Kim of the Electronics and Telecom Research Institute (ETRI) Korea and colleagues who developed the specific codes said home networks have only a single gateway from the internet.
App for female commuters’ safety launched
Kolkata : Female train commuters in distress can now seek immediate police assistance at the touch of a button -- courtesy a mobile...
Chinese software park’s success a wakeup call for Indian IT industry
By Arun Anand, IANS,
Solar mission to start with 1,300 MW, reach 20,000 by 2022
By IANS,
New Delhi : India's solar mission will set up, in its first phase, 1,100 MW of solar power through the electricity grid and 200 MW off the grid, with the objective of making solar power as cheap as power from coal by the end of the mission, Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said here Monday.
NASA obtains best images of moon’s south pole
By Xinhua
Beijing : NASA said Wednesday that it has obtained the best images of the moon's rugged south polar region, with a resolution to 20 meters per pixel, according to media reports Thursday.
NASA's scientists also said that the region, a possible future landing site for human or robotic lunar missions, is far more rugged than has been thought, with towering peaks and deep craters.
NASA's scientists also said that the region, a possible future landing site for human or robotic lunar missions, is far more rugged than has been thought, with towering peaks and deep craters.
S Africa to launch battery car
By Xinhua,
Johannesburg : A South African-designed, battery-operated passenger car is to be unveiled early next year, Deputy Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom announced on Friday.
The development of the vehicle -- described as "beautiful" by those who have had a glimpse of the design sketches -- could not have come at a better time, he told MPs during debate in Parliament on the science and technology budget vote, the South African Press Association reported.
Germany, India to develop jointly new-era technologies
By DPA
Berlin : Germany and India plan to jointly develop new technologies as part of a "new era" in their science cooperation, Germany's minister of science, Annette Schavan, said Monday.
She spoke just hours before Chancellor Angela Merkel was to land in India for a four-day visit.
Schavan is a member of the delegation accompanying the chancellor. During the visit, an agreement is to be signed to establish the German-Indian Science and Technology Centre, set to open next summer in Delhi.
NASA’s Cassini clicks Saturn’s moon in best-ever resolution
Washington : A pockmarked, icy landscape looms beneath NASA's Cassini spacecraft in new images of Saturn's moon Dione taken during the mission's last close...