The Kiha E200, as it is known, is equipped with a diesel engine, two electric motors under each of its cars and lithium ion batteries on the roof.
New nanotech gene therapy system created
Wikipedia to launch community driven Internet search engine
Internet encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, is contemplating building a community driven Internet search engine named Wikia,that will compete with the likes of Google and Yahoo, the company's founder Jimmy Wales has said.
# polysilicon?
* It is a material used in the manufacture of the LCD screen in high-end multimedia projectors. It gives a better contrast ratio and faster response time than TFT LCD screens.
* Polysilicon technology splits light into red, green and blue (RGB) components and directs each to its own liquid crystal display (LCD) panel. Each LCD creates an image for its respective color by blocking out portions of the light (similar to a film negative). The output or images of the three panels is then "assembled" by a prism and transmitted through a lens to project a fully saturated color image.
What are fibroids?
Fibroid tumors are usually benign (non-cancerous) tumors found, most often, in the uterus of women in their 30's and 40's, although they occasionally develop on other organs which contain smooth muscle cells.
Fibroid tumors are solid tumors which are made of fibrous tissue, hence the name 'fibroid' tumor. Most often fibroids occur as multiple tumor masses which are slow-growing and often cause no symptoms.
Phoenix mission to Mars launched
The solar-powered Phoenix will spend nine months hurtling toward Mars where its final mission will be a scientific survey of the planet's polar region. One of the goals will be to help determine if the red planet's polar area is in anyway suitable to support human habitation.
The world's largest bolometer camera
The world's largest bolometer camera for sub-millimetre astronomy has been put into service at the 12-m APEX telescope, located on the 5100m high Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes.
LArge BOlometer Camera (LABOCA) was specifically designed for the study of extremely cold astronomical objects
Casimir force
it is the ultimate cause of the friction in the Nanoworld in particular in some micro-electrom-chanical systems.
this force normally causes objects to stick together by quantum force .It can be reversed in vaccum ,where objects start repelling each other.
By manipulating Casimir force the performance of everyday devices ,from car airbags to computer chips can improve.
out of
A theory that holds that Anatomically moden man first erose from tne point in Africa.and fanned out to conquer the globe . the theory bolsters(improves) the notion that homosapiens evolved from diffrent population in diffrent part of the globe
Bangalore to host Asia-Pacific Space Agency meeting
Indian Space Research Organisation will be hosting the 14th Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum meeting (APRSAF-14) in November.
Ahead of this meet and also as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Space Age, a "water rocket making and launching event" will be held here for the students of Asia-Pacific countries
Who are cyberchondriacs?
Much like hypochondriacs who obsess about any small ache or pain they may have, cybercondriacs frequently surf the internet to glean information about anything that affects them. They now form 84% of all adult net users.
The term could also refer to people who imagine they have a disease because their symptoms match those on a health website.
Generating electricity through body heat
* German scientists have developed a method which harnesses the temperature difference between the body’s surface and that of the surroundings.
* This invention is expected to help power medical equipment such as sensors attached to the body of a patient in an intensive care unit.
Largest ever swarm of supergiant stars in Milky Way discovered
Astronomers have found the largest known swarm of red supergiant stars near the central bulge of the Milky Way galaxy.
Red supergiants are among the largest stars in the universe - and in fact are second in size only to rare 'hypergiant' stars such Eta Carinae. Spanning several hundred times the diameter of the Sun, each could fit millions of Sun-like stars inside it.
Till now only about 200 red supergiants have been identified in the Milky Way galaxy.
Remains of 8000 year old Stone Age settlement found
Archaeologists have found the remains of a busy Stone Age settlement dating back 8000 years on the floor of the
The site, just off the
# What is didaskaleinophobia?
* It is the fear of going to school.
* It is also used to refer to social anxiety disorder (SAD), which is a common form of anxiety disorder that causes sufferers to experience intense anxiety in some or all of the social interactions and public events of everyday life. For instance, some sufferers have difficulty attending parties or meetings, making a phone call, walking into a shop to purchase goods, or asking for help from authority figures.
Bio-dynamised water to hit Indian market
Bio-dynamised water,is set to hit Indian markets .The technology was brought to
#The bio-dynamising process includes infusing electro- magnetic waves and metallic trace elements into the water, apart from using the reverse osmosis technique, to purify heavily contaminated water.
#As part of the process, electrodes of a particular metal or a combination of metals are inserted into the water.
*Carbon reinforces the immune system, chromium is good for the eyes, sugar assimilation and hair revitalisation, while copper is an anti-inflammatory element and eases kidney problems.
*Germanium helps cure cancer and boosts the immune system while gold can be useful for heart diseases and high blood pressure, Uthirapathy said.
*Electrodes of iron, magnesium, manganese, nickel, silicon and silver are also available to treat specific ailments.
Global diabetes research centre to come up near Chennai
A global research centre to intensify studies on diabetes among Asian Indians would be set up at suburban Siruseri by the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF) in collaboration with
Plant growth hormones – Auxins
* Researchers at the
* Auxin is vital to a plant’s growth and development. It aids responses to changes in light, gravity and water. It also assists the plant in producing fruit and dropping leaves.
Blu-Ray disc
* It has a storage capacity of 5 to 10 times over a DVD. Its storage capacity comes in terms of layers. A double-layer Blu-Ray disc can store up to 50 GB. Its capacity goes on increasing with addition of layers.
Artificial glaciers; ever heard of them?
* It is an interesting story. about Mr. Chewang Norphel (68). He is considered the glacier man of Ladakh.
* To understand his story, it is imperative that we know a bit about Ladakh’s environment. Ladakh is in a rain-shadow area. The average rainfall seldom exceeds 50 mm. The only water source is glacier water coming down the mountains. When the glaciers melt in summer, they release a little water that is used by the people of Ladakh to irrigate their crops. But the problem is, natural glaciers release water too late in the summer to be of help to the farmers to start their sowing season.
* So, using some local ingenuity, he built his first ‘artificial glacier’ from stone embankments and a few hundred meters of iron pipe in Phuktsey village in Leh District in 1992.
* How is this done: First, water from an existing stream was diverted through iron pipes to a shady area of the valley. From there, the water was made to flow out onto a sloping hill at regular intervals all through the winter. As temperatures drop steadily, the water in these small pools freezes. Once this cycle has been repeated over many weeks, a thick sheet of ice forms, resembling a long, thin glacier.
* Advantages of the artificial glacier: It is closer to the village and is at a comparatively lower altitude. Early water release (a whole month before snow starts melting in the mountains) from an artificial glacier enables the farmers to start their sowing works.
Armed version of Dhruv chopper makes first flight
The "weaponised" version of the Dhruv, built by state-run aviation major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, is equipped with "fire and forget" air-to-air missiles, 70 mm rockets that can be fired in direct and indirect mode and a 20 mm gun turret.
The other Dhruv flew with the high-power Shakti engine that was jointly designed by HAL and
The Compact Disk or CD is 25 years old
It was on August 7,1982, that the world’s first music CD rolled off the assembly line in a factory near Hannover in Germany, owned by Philips, the Dutch company that co-developed the new recording technology with Japan-based Sony.
The technology of the music CD was soon modified to create the CD-ROM (for read only memory) which quickly became the de facto recording and portable storage medium for the personal computer. The total sale of CDs now exceed 200 billion; but after the turn of the century, CDs which could hold about 650 megabytes of data or 70 minutes of video, saw a drop in demand as buyers moved to the Digital Versatile Disk or DVD with an almost seven-fold increase in capacity.
Interestingly, the world’s second largest maker of optical storage devices such as CDs and DVDs is an Indian undertaking — Moser Baer — which rolls out over 3.2 billion disks a year from its plant in Noida near Delhi.
The company has already moved to the next era of the high density DVD which kicks up the storage capacity of each platter to over 25 gigabytes. It is operating internationally certified production processes for both competing high density DVD standards — HD DVD and Blu ray.
China to set up first research station at South Pole
*
* Construction of the new station is part of the country's contribution to International Polar Year (IPY) 2007/2008 which runs from
*
World's first 'mode locked silicon evanescent laser' created
Scientists at the
Mode-locked evanescent lasers can deliver stable short pulses of laser light that are useful for many optical applications, including high-speed data transmission, multiple wavelength generation, remote sensing (LIDAR) and highly accurate optical clocks.
World record: Artificial insemination of blackbuck
Scientists at the Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) of the prestigious Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CCMB),
This is the first successful artificial insemination in the world in oestrus-induced blackbuck, by non-surgical intra-vaginal insemination.
Leptospirosis
# Leptospirosis [lep-to-spy-RO-sis] is a potentially serious bacterial illness that is most common in the tropics. Leptospirosis can affect many parts of the body.
# Infected wild and domestic animals pass leptospirosis-causing bacteria in their urine.
# People get leptospirosis by contact with fresh water, wet soil, or vegetation that has been contaminated by the urine of infected animals.
# Leptospirosis is treatable with antibiotics.
# To prevent leptospirosis, minimize contact with fresh water and mud that might be contaminated with the urine of infected animals
SAR
* It stands for Specific Absorption Rate – the count which specifies the amount of radio waves (radio frequency energy) absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone.
* Now the government (Telecom Engineering Centre of the DoT) is debating the issue and is likely to make it mandatory for all cell phone manufacturers to make this information available as an option on the cell phones. Further it may prescribe an upper limit of the SAR. Cell phones not complying with this limit will not be allowed to be sold in
* Already US and EU have upper limits at 1.6 watts/kg and 2 w/kg respectively.
Lymphoma molecular process discovered
Researchers from the
Researchers found PAX5 stimulates the growth of cancerous tumors by spurring cell division normally observed during B cell immune response. They said PAX5 hijacks the body's own defense system designed to multiply antibody-making B cells exposed to foreign antigens.
The scientists said their discovery might lead to a new cancer treatment target.
Cyberslacking: Wasting time on the internet.
GSLV launched successfully
* The launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV-F04, turned out to be “a sweet success,” with the launch vehicle lifting off flawlessly and injecting the communication satellite, INSAT-4CR, in its pre-determined orbit.
* The INSAT-4CR, at 2,130 kg, is the heaviest satellite to be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Its transponders would be used for direct-to-home telecast, video-picture transmission, telecasting news live using a satellite and business communications..
* The GSLV-F04, a three-stage vehicle, is 49 metres tall and weighs 414 tonnes. The first stage is fired by solid propellants. There are four strap-on booster motors, powered by liquid propellants, strung around the core first stage. The second stage is fired by liquid propellants. The third, uppermost stage uses cryogenic fluids — liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidiser.
Bharat Biotech launches two new vaccines
* Biotechnology firm Bharat Biotech International (BBIL) has announced the launch of BioHib, the first indigenously developed and manufactured Haemophilus Influenza Type B (Hib) vaccine in India, and Comvac 4-HB, a tetravalent combination vaccine.
Why do babies have more bones than adults?
* As babies grow up, their bones fuse together to form one bone. At birth, babies have more cartilage than bone. New born babies have about 305 bones. As they age, they become 206 bones.
New climate pact – successor for the
* 158 industrial nations agreed on Friday to consider stiff 2020 goals for cutting greenhouse gases. The 158 nation talks are moderated by the head (Executive Secretary) of the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) Mr. Yvo de Boer.
* The countries agreed that 25 to 40% emission cuts below the 1990 levels would be a good starting point for the negotiations on the new pact.
INSAT 4CR placed in orbit
GSLV-F04’s launch was successful and it placed the satellite successfully in the orbit.
* In the process, the satellite became the first one to be lifted off the Indian shores after sunset.
* This is also the first time that
* 2007 also proved to be a year with maximum satellite launches (three of them) and all successful.
* Now we have notched up more successes than failures in our space program. Let’s take a look at the failures, as successes are many:
o 1979, August 10: Rohini (satellite) – SLV3 (launch vehicle)
o 1987, March 24: SRAS-A -- ASLV-D1
o 1988, July 13: SRAS-B – ASLV-D2
o 1993, Sep 20: IRAS-1E – PSLV-D1
o 2006, July 10: INSAT-4C -- GSLV-F02
* GSLV-F04 is a three stage vehicle
o First stage is fired by solid propellants.
o Second stage is fired by liquid propellants. Liquid propellants are in the strap on motors strung around the core first stage.
o Third stage uses cryogenic fluids – liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer.
Underwater BrahMos
Defence Minister A.K.
New technique developed in surgery
The doctors at corporate
What is oenology?
* It is the study of all aspects of wine making in the world. It is the study of wine production.
What is onychophagy?
* It is the medical term for nails that have been bitten enough to become deformed.
Solar powered UAV sets record duration flight
The Zephyr Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) built by
The previous unmanned endurance record was set in 2001 by a jet-powered US Air Force Global Hawk surveillance aircraft, which flew for more than 30 hours.
Scientists identify stem cells in tendons
tendon injury is a difficult one to treat, not only for athletes, but for patients who suffer from tendinopathy such as tendon rupture or ectopic ossification. This research demonstrates that scientists can use stem cells to repair tendons.
Alzheimer's memory loss mechanism found
Researchers at the University of California-San Francisco's Gladstone Institute and the Baylor College of Medicine discovered a mechanism by which the protein Amyloid-beta might impair neurological functions in Alzheimer's disease and this mechanism is responsible for memory loss observed in Alzheimer's disease.
SKorea unveils test reactor in search of limitless energy
South Korea began operating a nuclear fusion test reactor using an advanced superconducting magnetic system, as part of an international search for a limitless clean energy source.
Supercomputer in India
Supercomputers have become a reality in India with Wipro Infotech launching Supernova, a range of supercomputers with superstorage capacity, which will be affordalble by huge segment of people in the country.
Supernova includes a range of supercomputers with an entry-level configuration delivering one trillion mathematical calculations per second going up to hundred thousand trillions calculations per second and superstorage scaling to multiple hundred petabytes.
Supernova promised to meet faster data crunching and storage needs of high-end scientific research labs in defence, geological surveys, biotechnology, animation and other high end design space.
Key features of Supernova supercomputers include seamless scalability from one teroflop to hundreds of petaflops. It's based on open source, a standards-based product, not proprietary.
Thirteenth international ozone day celebrated
The thirteenth international day for preservation of the ozone layer was celebrated on 16 september to commemorate the date of signing the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
The Montreal Protocol is a landmark international agreement to protect the ozone layer. It was negotiated under the framework of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (1985), which outlines governments' responsibilities for protecting human health and the environment against the adverse effects of ozone depletion.
The treaty was first signed in 1987 and substantially amended in 1990 and 1992. The Montreal Protocol stipulates that the production and consumption of compounds that deplete ozone in the stratosphere-chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons, carbon tetrachloride, and methyl chloroform-are to be phased out by 2000 (2005 for methyl chloroform). These compounds significantly deplete the stratospheric ozone layer that shields the planet from damaging UV-B radiation. To date, 191 countries have signed the Protocol.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)'s theme for 2007 is Celebrating 20 Years of Progress of the Montreal Protocol's goals. The Montreal Protocol has been hailed as perhaps the most successful international treaty to date and provides a message of hope for working cooperatively to solve major environmental problems. In recognition of the importance of the Montreal Protocol and its works, various activities are being planned by regions and countries world-wide to celebrate this event and to further raise awareness on ozone layer protection.
While India is still debating how to make the Indo-US nuclear deal work, an American company, anxious to enter the Indian market, has offered to build commercial nuclear power reactors in the country.
These reactors will rely entirely on
The California-based Dauvergne Brothers Inc (DBI) says its novel type of thorium breeder reactor is fuelled with fissile material like uranium only once when it is started. It runs for its full operational life on Uranium-233 (or U-233) bred in its core from thorium.
Thorium, which
The largest single telescope in the world
The Large Binocular Telescope in
Scientists synthesise memory in yeast cells
Astronomers successfully launch 'Life on Mars "Pregnancy Test"' probe
Astronomers have launched into space the key components of a new approach to discover life on Mars.
The test is part of a 12-day low Earth orbit experiment to assess their survivability in the space radiation experiment - a prelude to future journeys to Mars, and is based in technology similar to that used in pregnancy test kits.
The so-called immunoassays are embodied in the "Life Marker Chip" (LMC) experiment, which has the potential to detect trace levels of biomarkers in the Martian environment.
Biomarkers are molecular fingerprints that indicate if life currently is, or ever was, present on Mars. The LMC experiment has been proposed for the European Space Agency's ExoMars rover mission, which is planned for launch in 2013.
Virgin coconut oil
Normally coconut oil is extracted from copra, which is dried coconut. But virgin coconut oil is one that is extracted from the green coconut or coconut milk. This is said to carry more health benefits with a higher presence of vitamin E and lauric acid and absence of trasfatty acids.
New heart failure pump is developed
Thoratec Corp., a
The pump is implanted into the patient's body and pumps blood from the weakened left ventricle to the rest of the body at the same rate as a healthy heart. In addition to helping 75 percent of patients stay alive for at least six months, or until a donor heart becomes available, the device assists patients' original hearts regain function, thereby allowing other organs to heal by restoring blood flow.
The experimental device is about the size of a D-cell battery, giving it the potential to help more women, teenagers and smaller men with end-stage heart failure whose bodies aren't big enough for other devices.
Earth-imaging satellite launched into space
The WorldView-1 satellite, built for DigitalGlobe, a privately held Colorado-based provider of high-resolution commercial satellite imagery, was lofted into space aboard a Delta 2 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in
WorldView-1 was designed to collect up to 751,100 square kilometers of imagery a day.
Information gathered by the 5,000-pound probe can be used by governments and companies to assess damage after a natural disaster or plan escape routes before a catastrophe.
Newly-discovered comet named after Chinese astronomer
A new comet has been named after a Chinese astronomer, Dr Zhao Haibin.
Zhao, who leads an NEO (Near Earth Object) research team at the Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory of the
The orbit of the new comet, named "P/2007S1(ZHAO)", was found to be an ellipse whose eccentricity is 0.344, and the comet's period of revolution around the sun is 7.46 years.
Living fossil
* The Horseshoe crab is an example of a living fossil.
* Its appearance has not changed since its origin over 20 mn years ago.
* So far the largest solar plant in the world is a 12 MW plant in
*
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
* It is a data collection system based on tiny micro-chips attached to a box, pallet or an individual item that communicates with other devices using radio waves. Device readers capture the data from tags and, in some cases, write to them as well. The software then collates and distributes the data.
* It is nowadays used mostly in retail, asset tracking and logistics fields.
*An RFID tag is a small object, such as an adhesive sticker, that can be attached to or incorporated into a product. RFID tags contain antennas to enable them to receive and respond to radio-frequency queries from an RFID transceiver.
What is a green building?
* Green building is the practice of:
o increasing the efficiency with which buildings and their sites use and harvest energy, water, and materials;
o reducing building impacts on human health and the environment, and
o having a good building life cycle through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and removal.
* A totally new virus has struck its cows. It is the first case of bluetongue disease.
* This disease does not affect humans. It affects ruminants – sheep, cattle, deer and goats. It can cause high mortality rates and reduce milk yield in cattle.
Martian rovers
* The two rovers that are currently operating on Mars are
*
Types of diabetes
* There are two types of diabetes:
o Type I: It is the most common form of diabetes in children and occurs when the immune system goes haywire and starts attacking insulin producing cells in the pancreas.
o Type II: This usually occurs in adults and is linked to poor diet and lack of exercise.
Cold fusion
* There are two methods in which nuclear energy can be produced. One is the nuclear fission. The other is nuclear fusion. The latter one is usually the thermo nuclear fusion that is widely known. But there is a third method called cold fusion.
* When deuterium atoms are inserted inside a metal such as palladium, titanium, nickel, etc., in sufficiently large numbers and if the right Nuclear Active Environment is created, a variety of nuclear reactions are found to occur involving not only the deuterium nuclei but also the host metal atoms. In this process, excess energy is often found to be produced and in some cases nuclear particles such as neutrons, X-rays or even charged particles are released. This is called cold fusion.
Such research has been suspended in
Stem cells are master cells that can grow into any bodily tissues, which scientists say could lead to revolutionary new cures for hard-to-treat diseases.
The proposed revision would allow scientists to use only eggs set to be destroyed after fertility treatments or from other lawful uses.
When did oxygen appear on Earth?
* Recent research suggests that Oxygen would have appeared on Earth for the first time about 50 to 100 mn years before the Great Oxidation Event. The latter is believed to have occurred about 2.3 to 2.4 bn years ago. Today oxygen makes up about 21% of the atmosphere. Before the Great Oxidation Event occurred it was methane and ammonia which composed the atmosphere on the Earth.
WiTricity
* It is wireless electricity.
* The key technology behind this is to make the recharding device and the device that needs power to resonate at the same frequency. This allows them to exchange power efficiently.
* The power source is kept at a distance of 2 meters from the bulb in this experiment.
* The word ‘witricity’ was coined back in 2005.
* Witricity exploits the coupling between electromagnetic resonant objects to transfer energy wirelessly between them.
Asteroid could hit earth in 2029
* Apophis an asteroid, which is due to cross earth’s orbit in 2029 could probably hit the earth under certain conditions, says a Russian scientist.
Osmotic power plants
* It is interesting to know how power is produced through this process.
* Sea water and fresh water are separated by a membrane. The sea water draws fresh water through the membrane. This results in increased pressure on the sea water side. The increased pressure is used to produce power with a turbine.
World's first pre-quake alert system set up in Japan
The Japan Meteorological Agency Monday began operating the world's first system to give pre-earthquake warnings to the public.
The system is designed to detect earthquakes by sensing small seismic waves that precede big quakes and give warnings a few seconds before a major quake hits to regions expected to suffer damage.
Warnings would be aired through a public television station, NHK, and private stations as well as radio stations, the agency said.
The service is only available in
Earth celebrates Sputnik's 50th birthday
Fifty years ago Thursday -- Oct. 4, 1957 -- the world's first artificial satellite was launched by the
Called Sputnik, meaning fellow traveler, it was about the size of a basketball, weighed 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth while transmitting a series of rapid beeps.
As a technical achievement, Sputnik caught the world's attention and the American public off-guard, said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, noting many people feared the Soviets' ability to launch satellites might also mean they had the capability to launch ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear weapons to the
Then, on
On
The Sputnik launch also led to NASA's creation on
.
Scientists create transparent, thin plastic strong like steel
Scientists of University of Michigan have developed a biodegradable transparent new plastic as strong as steel and as thin as a sheet of paper that requires very little energy to produce.
Agni-I test-fired
The short range variant of
The test-firing, termed as "users trial", was conducted from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) launch complex.
This was the fourth test-firing of the surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which is capable of striking a target upto a distance of 700 kms.
s first trial was carried out on
The second and third trials were conducted on
t has a length of 15 metres and weighs 12 tons. It is capable of carrying a 1000 kg payload and both nuclear as well as conventional warhead, they said.
The missile is powered by solid fuel rocket that propels it at a velocity of 2.5 km per second, the sources said adding the army has raised a missile group (334) for the 700 km range Agni-I ballistic missile.
Duck-billed dinosaur
* Discovered in Arizona Line in 2002, this is amazing scientists. It has robust jaws that allowed it to eat just about any vegetation that came across. The jaws are believed to be capable of crunching even trees. It is believed to have roamed the earth 75 mn years ago.
'.asia' launched as Internet domain
The regional domain comes after the launch of the European-based .eu name last year and aims to join .com and .net as a widely used website suffix.
The .asia domain acts like a channel or a portal, showing your commitment to the Asian market as a whole
Most luminous supernova ever found
Astronomer Robert Quimby has found the most luminous supernova ever for the second time round.
Quimby discovered supernova 2005ap , peaked at more than 100 billion times the brightness of the Sun
Mystery behind moon's elongated orbit solved
Now, a new study of the moon's orbital history has shown that Earth's sister planet, Venus and gas giant Jupiter takes turns to tug at the moon on rare occasions when their distant and puny gravitational tugs can have an effect.
when the moon's orbit and the orbits of Venus and Jupiter are in synch, and over the eons with repeated tugs, the two planets could have cumulative effects.These 'resonance' effects have pulled the moon out of its circular orbit and elongated it.It's a chaotic process. Things perturb each other weakly, but when you get resonance, the perturbations keep adding up.
what brought the moon into synch with Jupiter and Venus, at different times, was Earth's oceans.
The constant tidal tug-of-war between the oceans and the moon caused the latter (Jupiter an Venus) to recede further from Earth, gradually increasing the time it took to complete an orbit. It also makes the moon's orbit more circular.
But as the lengthening time period of a lunar orbit increased, it crossed into long episodes of resonance with Jupiter and then Venus. The tiny pushes upset the moon's neat circular path, making it the elongated orbit we see today.
The search for alien life has begun
The first radio telescope dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has formally started operations.
The first phase of the Allen Telescope Array, which is being built near
the Allen Telescope Array will specifically allow SETI astronomers to survey the skies for signs of alien intelligence 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
How we hear whispers
MIT researchers have shed more light on the current understanding of the inner ear function, by discovering a small mechanism inside the organ that helps us hear whispers.
The tectorial membrane, a gelatinous structure inside the cochlea of the ear, is much more important to hearing than previously thought.
The cochlea, is a part of the inner ear where physical sound is translated into electrical signals for the brain.
Inside this coiled tube, sound waves glide along a thin membrane, known as the basilar membrane, causing hair-like fibers on the membrane to vibrate at different frequencies. Once stimulated, the fibers emit electrical pulses that the brain uses to determine the pitch of the sound.
Hovering right above all of this is the tectorial membrane, along which a different kind of sound wave travels.
This wave, which bounces from side to side, can stimulate the hair cells and also enhance their sensitivity, which Ghaffari said might help elucidate how we can pick up on sounds that are as quiet as a whisper.
Green' roofs to keep you warm in winter; cool in summer.
The prototype system combines four different technologies into one high-efficiency roof: pigments that reflect infrared light, barrel-shaped tiles (instead of shingles), radiant barriers, and phase-changing materials are the ingredients.
The radiant barriers are thin layers of metal or aluminium foil that help limit the amount of heat that transfers into the Upper floor.
Those barriers sandwich the fourth technology: a layer of phase-changing material. This is made up of tiny beads of wax with interiors designed to melt at particular temperatures.
During the day, the beads absorb heat from the sun and melt. At night, as the surrounding air cools, the beads give off the heat and solidify.
New Alzheimer's test reported
A blood test that can diagnose Alzheimer's disease, perhaps years before memory loss sets in.
The researchers, mainly based at
Alzheimer is a progressive and fatal brain disease. Alzheimer's destroys brain cells, causing problems with memory, thinking and behavior severe enough to affect work, lifelong hobbies or social life. Alzheimer’s gets worse over time, and it is fatal. Today it is the seventh-leading cause of death in the
It has no current cure. But treatments for symptoms, combined with the right services and support, can make life better.
PRECISION FARMING:
Precision farming, sometimes called site-specific farming, is an emerging technology that allows farmers to adjust for within-field variability in characteristics like soil fertility and weed populations. Precision farming uses the global positioning system (GPS), consisting of 24 satellites that transmit signals picked up by user receivers to define the receiver's location. With this information and on-board sensors, farm equipment can monitor crop yields and guide applications of crop inputs like fertilizers and herbicides.
Precision farming has the potential to reduce costs through more efficient and effective applications of crop inputs. It can also reduce environmental impacts by allowing farmers to apply inputs only where they are needed at the appropriate rate.
Cockroaches become the first species to conceive in space
The cockroach is one of the toughest insects on the planet. It is capable of living for a month without food and can even survive on the glue from the back of postage stamp.
What does a gamma ray observatory do in space?
* A new powerful satellite will constantly scan the sky for gamma rays – energy from power gamma ray bursters, which are some of the most mysterious objects in space. A consortium of 6 nations has built the satellite:
* The gamma ray tracker contains 16 towers of silicon and lead sheets.
* Incoming gamma ray strikes top of tower, converts into one electron and one positron.
* Electron and positron trigger sensors that determine precisely where in sky the ray came from.
* Lower stack of cesium-iodide sensors determines the ray’s energy.
* Satellite then transmits data to scientists on earth.
What is a fifth generation aircraft?
o Fifth-generation aircraft are designed and fabricated to incorporate stealth technologies that include advanced composite materials, radar-reflecting and radar-absorbing surfaces, and integrated advanced electronics and weapons systems.
Geoweb
* It is the convergence of geographical (location based) information with details that are available on the internet.
* This is the technology that makes it possible for people to be guided during traffic jams, in finding the nearest store peddling the goods and services they are seeking etc., through mobiles, laptops et
New improved test to detect cervical cancer
* Canadian scientists have developed a new HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) screening test which is reportedly more effective than the present pap smear test.
Scientists discover genes responsible for ageing
*
* The gene IRS-1 is involved in regulating the function of insulin – a harmone that controls the amount of sugar in blood.
* Experiments in mice confirmed that those without this gene lived 20% longer and had much healthier lives.
NEC launches world's fastest supercomputer
The new SX-9 model is equipped with a central processing unit core that can process information at a maximum speed of 102.4 gigaflops. One gigaflop is equivalent to one billion floating point operations per second.
When connected with up to 512 units, one unit of the SX-9, which can be equipped with up to 16 CPUs, can perform information processing at 839 teraflops. One teraflop represents one trillion floating point operations per second.
The vector-type supercomputer can conduct scientific and technical computations at high speed, which would be useful for work on climate, aeronautics or space, environmental simulations and fluid dynamics.
NASA scientists discover heftiest known Black Hole
Using two NASA satellites, astronomers have discovered the heftiest known black hole to orbit a star.
The new black hole, with a mass 24 to 33 times that of our Sun, is more massive than scientists expected for a black hole that formed from a dying star.
The newly discovered object belongs to the category of "stellar-mass" black holes. Formed in the death throes of massive stars, they are smaller than the monster black holes found in galactic cores. The previous record holder for largest stellar-mass black hole is a 16-solar-mass black hole in the galaxy M33.
The black hole is located in the nearby dwarf galaxy IC 10, 1.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Country's first mobile flight simulator launched
Abhijit Air Safety Foundation (AASF) Chairperson Kavita Gadgil and her husband, Retired Wing Commander Anil Gadgil, who is also a pilot, have started the foundation in memory of their son Flt Lt Abhijit Gadgil, who lost his life in a MIG fighter plane crash at Suratgarh in Rajasthan six years ago.
Flight simulation is an important training tool right from the basic to the advanced and complex forms of flight training. The flight simulator has been mounted on wheels so that it can reach for those areas and people where, there is no exposure to such flight training. Admissions to the course will begin on November 7 and the course will start from December 30.
First stem cell therapy for genetic skin disease conducted
Doctors at the University of Minnesota Children's Hospital, Fairview have performed the first ever bone marrow and cord blood transplant on an 18-month-old boy to treat recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB).
The boy, who has received both umbilical cord blood and bone marrow from a perfectly matched sibling, has the most severe form of RDEB, which also causes skin to slough off on the inside of the body, affecting the mouth, esophagus, and gastrointestinal tract.
The doctors have already used bone marrow to successfully cure the disease in mice, along with collaborators from
Indonesian volcano Kelud erupts
An estimated 350,000 people live within 10 km of the volcano, which is about 90 km southwest of
When
3 planets discovered
New species of pig-like animal discovered
Scientists have discovered a new species of a pig-like mammal called a peccary in the southeastern Amazon region of
Given the name Pecari Maximus, this new animal was found in the basin of the Rio Aripuan. It was confirmed to be a distinct species via a genetic analysis conducted by the Leiden Centre for Environmental Sciences in the
Peccaries are hoofed animals closely related to swine and hippopotami. Until now, only three species were known to science - the collared peccary, the white-lipped peccary and the Chaccoan peccary.
Though Pecari Maximus is new to science, locals already knew about the creature. Tupi Indians called it Caitetu Munde, which means 'great peccary which lives in pairs.'
Scientists create 'smart' microchip theory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers say the theory eventually might advance telecommunications, spectroscopy and remote sensing.
Chang’e-1, Enters moon orbit
India to become third biggest CO2 emitter by 2015
India will become the third-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide by 2015 and rapid economic growth of the country and its neighbour China will have devastating consequences for the world's energy supply unless the two Asian giants make efforts to curb demand and greenhouse gas emissions, the International Energy Agency has warned.
Astronomers discover five-planet system orbiting star
Astronomers have said they have discovered a fifth planet orbiting a sun-like star 41 light years away, making it the first planetary quintet outside our solar system.
The newfound planet joins four others circling the nearby star 55 Cancri in the constellation Cancer.
Although it resides in the star's so-called habitable zone, a place where liquid water and mild temperatures should exist, it is more like Saturn than Earth and therefore not likely to support life.
Still, scientists have not ruled out the possibility of finding an Earth-like planet within this system as technology improves.
The other planets in the 55 Cancri system were discovered between 1996 and 2004.
The innermost planet is believed to resemble
Scientists have detected some 250 exoplanets, or planets orbiting a star other than the sun.
The 55 Cancri star holds the record for number of confirmed planets.
Only one other star is known to have four planets, while several others have three or less.
The 2,700 kg satellite 'Yaogan III' was launched onboard a Long March-4C carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north
The satellite, to be used for scientific research, land resources surveying, crop yield estimate and disaster prevention and relief, entered the preset orbit 21 minutes later, a news agency said.
"Yaogan III!1" launch was the 104th mission of China's Long March series of rockets since 24th April, 1970, when a Long March March-1 rocket successfully shot China's first satellite Dongfanghong into space.
Cabir
* Is a form of ‘worm’ (virus attacking cell phones) that propagates through blue-tooth and runs on Symbian mobiles (phones).
PCOS
* It stands for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, an hormonal disorder affecting women in reproductive age, affecting fertility and pregnancy. Today, some 2 in 10 women suffer from this syndrome in
trans-fats
* Artificial trans-fats are formed when food manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil to make it solidify, in a process called hydrogenation.
* Partially hydrogenated oil boosts the stability of a food’s flavour, as well as its shelf life, and the oil has long been a key ingredient in baked and fried foods.
* Cholesterol is two types – bad LDL and good HDL types.
What is SAR?
* Specific absorption rate. It is the unit of measurement for the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone.
Founder of Internet
* Mr. Vint Cerf is one of the founders of Internet. He currently works for Google as its Chief Internet Evangelist and Vice President.
* He says that there are about 2.5 bn devices which are accessing the internet.
* Internet has touched a population of 100 crores. It does not reach the remaining 550 crore population as yet.
Macular degeneration
* It is a leading cause of blindness in older adults in the developed world affecting nearly 25 to 30 mn people.
* Scientists have developed an implant that attaches to the retina, which can restore partial sight to those suffering from macular degeneration. This devise is in early stages of clinical testing.
AIDS virus weakness
* The structure of a protein on the surface of HIV as it looks while the protein is bound to an infection-fighting antibody is revealed by atomic-level images of the virus made by scientists of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, US. A protein called gp120, seems susceptible to attack by this antibody, which is called b12 and is capable of broadly neutralizing the virus.
Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDG) in Airlines
* These guidelines stipulate that a minimum number of flights should be deployed on loss making routes.
* The Airlines have been demanding that a fund, termed the Essential Air Services Fund, may be created levying a cess on both the domestic and international passengers. The Civil Aviation Ministry will utilize the fund to provide to subsidy to airlines flying to identified uneconomic routes.
* But this is surely going to impose an additional burden on the consumer. This needs some explanation. The RDG make it mandatory to the company to fly to uneconomic routes. The expenditure/loss relating to such operations cannot be transferred by the Airline directly to the other passengers. It is only the combined performance of the company that will matter. Now, the creation of a fund, will make it easy for the companies to charge additional amounts from the customers.
MRTA – Multi Role Transport Aircraft
* This is expected to replace the Indian Air Force’s ageing workhorse, the AN-32 medium tactical transport aircraft (known as Metac). Presently there are about 80 AN-32 planes with the IAF.
ICANN stand for
* Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number
* ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers. These include domain names (like .org, .museum and country codes like .UK), as well as the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols. Computers use these identifiers to reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resources is vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularly to develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability.
* It maintains what are called ‘root servers’ hosting the database of all these names and numbers. Whenever we type a name in the browser’s address bar, actually the request for resolving the name with an IP address (number) ultimately gets resolved by these root servers.
ISRO successfully tests Indigenous Cryogenic Stage
ISRO successfully tested indigenously developed Cryogenic Stage, to be employed as the upper stage of
With this test, the indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage has been fully qualified on the ground. The flight stage was getting ready for use in the next mission of GSLV (GSLV-D3) in 2008.
The indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) was powered by a regeneratively cooled cryogenic engine, which works on staged combustion cycle developing a thrust of 69.5 KN in vacuum. The other stage systems include insulated propellant tanks, booster pumps, inter-stage structures, fill and drain systems, pressurisation systems, gas bottles, command block, igniters, pyro valves and cold gas orientation and stabilisation system. Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) from the respective tanks were fed by individual booster pumps to the main turbo-pump, which rotates at 39,000 rpm to ensure a high flow rate of 16.5 kg or sec of propellants into the combustion chamber. The main turbine was driven by the hot gas produced in a pre-burner. Thrust control and mixture ratio control were achieved by two independent regulators. LOX and Gaseous Hydrogen (GH2) were ignited by pyrogen type igniters in the pre-burner as well as in the main and steering engines.
New species of plant found
A two-member team of researchers has found in Wayanad a new species of plant that has not been listed in any botanical records from Kattimattom forest situated at an altitude of 1,400 metres above sea level in Meppadi range.
The plant that belongs to the family of custard apple (Annonaceae) has been named Miliusa wayanaddica by its discoverers Dr. M.K. Ratheesh Narayanan and Dr. Sujanapal.
Diabetes causing genes
* HLA-A and HLA-B are the genes that help the body to fight infection. Their faulty versions lead the immune system to destroy insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas.
* Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, is caused by the destruction of cells in the pancreas.
New theory suggests salamanders relocated 25,000 kilometres from
A new research on the history of ancient amphibians has indicated that salamanders once relocated almost 25,000 kilometres from
The plethodontidae salamander family contains about 380 species, 98% of which live in the
The mystery started to unravel four years ago when Vieites and his colleagues went to
Karsenia was found to be closely related to a genus called Hydromantes , found in both
The research team confirmed that Karsenia is a descendant of North American species 2
they also added information about its sideways relationships to European species and Hydromantes in
Together these data suggest that salamanders travelled from
Although salamanders are amphibious, they do not swim in salt water, making ocean crossing impossible. This leaves the Bering land bridge, which has periodically connected
It is, however, odd for temperate-dwelling salamanders to be so far north as the Bering land bridge
World's largest known horned dinosaur unearthed
The bones of this dinosaur were excavated at Horseshoe Canyon Formation in
The previous record-holder was Pentaceratops sternbergi, which hailed from what is now
The new dinosaur, Eotriceratops ("early Triceratops") xerinsularis, is the earliest known confirmed relative of the rhino-like Triceratops, which was slightly smaller in size, with the largest specimens measuring just over 29 feet in length.
The probe will travel 350 million km in 11 months before entering planet's orbit.
"Yinghuo-1 will reach the preset circling orbit and send back the first images of the red planet in September 2010," said Chen Changya, a researcher with the Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering.
"The 110-kg Mars probe will circle around the planet for one year, though it has a designed life of two years. It will conduct scientific exploration tasks, including exploring the Martian space environment, and relay back the first Mars images taken by a Chinese satellite.
After entering Mars' orbit, Yinghuo-1 will be detached from the Russian spacecraft, which will land on the Martian moon and return to Earth with soil samples.
Earlier NASA's twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers, launched on June 10 and July 7, 2003, landed on Mars on January 3 and January 24, to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars
27th Indian Expedition to
The 27th Indian Scientific expedition to
he Expedition will be led by Mr Arun Chaturvedi, a senior scientist from Geological Survey of India, who holds an unique record of having been the leader of two earlier expeditions.
The contingent of 61 persons will be joining the expedition. 26 of them have already reached the destination for preparation of the logistic tasks. Altogether 22 institutions including three universities are participating this time.
Thirty three scientific programmes will be undertaken in two seperate areas this time. Installation of a Earth Station at Maitri will be the prominent among them. A vast library is also to be set up at the Indian Station this time.
World's largest and deadliest spitting cobra identified
Researchers have identified the world's largest and most deadliest known species of spitting cobra.
Named as Ashe's spitting cobra, or large brown spitting cobra, this reptile can reach lengths of more than 9 feet (274 centimeters) and is believed to deliver more venom with a single bite than any other cobra on the planet.
Known to exist in the dry lowlands of north and east
other variants of the black-necked spitting cobra fought harder when handled and took longer to settle down in captivity. Also, once these snakes were placed in cages, they became picky eaters.
But the 'Ashe's cobra' was less resistant to handling, generally less alert, less picky and were much bigger than the black necked spitting cobra.
The new finding might prove to be of significance for residents along
Though the venom of the new species of the cobra is similar to the species it was previously grouped with, it can deliver about twice the amount of venom with a single bite.
Indian astronomers discover longest intergalactic beam
A team of Indian astronomers have discovered the longest intergalactic beam, stretching for more than a million light years, that might help to reveal how such jets of matter bind themselves together.
The discovery emerged from a large elliptical galaxy called CGCG 049-033, which is about 600 million light years away.
A team led by Joydeep Bagchi of
The jet they saw is nearly 1.5 million light years long, twice the length of the previous record holder.
It also has an unusual characteristic not observed in other jets.
Jets usually come in fairly well matched pairs, pointing in opposite directions. The new jet's counterpart, however, appears much shorter. That could be because the apparently shorter jet is pointing away from us; so light from its far end might not have had time to reach us yet.
Jets are seen all over the cosmos squirting out of many different types of object, including stars that are just beginning to form. The most powerful ones come from the cores of active galaxies, where gas falling towards a giant black hole generates a mixture of heat, high-energy particles and magnetic fields.
Interestingly, the radio waves emitted by the newly discovered jet are strongly polarised, revealing a powerful magnetic field wrapped around the jet.
India to launch ICBM, develops missile defence shield
Both are homegrown systems and make
"Yes, the launch of the Agni-IV (ICBM) is on the anvil. We also plan further tests of the (3,000 km) Agni-III," V.K. Saraswat, chief controller (R&D) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) told reporters here.
"The launch of Agni-IV is scheduled for June (2008), with another launch planned towards the end of year," said Saraswat, who is also the programme director of the DRDO's air defence project.
DRDO scientists had in April successfully test fired the Agni-III intermediate range ballistic missile, saying at the time they could extend its range to 3,000 km.
A decision on the extended range "was left to the government", DRDO chief M. Natarajan had then said.
Agni-III builds on its predecessors, Agni-I that is a single stage 700-km missile, and Agni-II that is a two-stage 2,000-km system. These two have already been inducted into the armed forces. Agni-III's induction is some three years away.
Speaking about the ballistic missile defence (BMD) system, Saraswat said this would be ready for deployment in two to three years.
The system comprises two elements - an exo-atmospheric (above the atmosphere) interceptor missile that can engage targets at a height of 50 km and an endo-atmospheric (within the atmosphere) supersonic interceptor that can eliminate targets at a height of 15 km.
The first, a modified Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) missile, was tested in November 2006 while two trials of the new Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor were conducted in the first week of this month.
"This is what makes our BMD system superior to the Patriot that cannot engage targets beyond 15 km. We can go much higher," Saraswat said of the system that has been eight years in development.
Giving details of the AAD tests, the scientist said that on Dec 6, a Prithvi missile modified to "mimic" a hostile ballistic missile was fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea in Orissa, some 230 km from the state capital
The new interceptor was fired from
"The endo-atmospheric interceptor impacted with the (incoming) missile at 15 km altitude at high supersonic speed, exactly as designed," Saraswat said.
"All the elements of BMD system such as long range tracking radar, multi-function fire control radar, mission control centre, launch control centre, mobile launcher, mobile and multi layer communication system, and data links to the interceptor participated in the mission," he added.
On Dec 6, DRDO scientists had conducted a mock trial of the AAD system by using an electronic target fired from the ITR.
According to Saraswat, each BMD battery, as the integrated system is called, can guard the skies over a radius of 200 sq km.
"Thus, for
NASA discovers magnetic ropes which connect Earth to the Sun
A fleet of NASA spacecraft has discovered the existence of giant magnetic ropes (a twisted bundle of magnetic fields), that connects Earth's upper atmosphere directly to the sun, among other findings.
The discovery was a result of the analysis of the spectacular eruptions of Northern Lights called "substorms" and the source of their power.
The magnetopause is where the solar wind and Earth's magnetic field meet and push against one another. There, the rope formed and unraveled in just a few minutes, providing a brief but significant conduit for solar wind energy.
Among other findings, the mission known as THEMIS (Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms) observed the dynamics of a rapidly developing substorm, and witnessed small explosions in the outskirts of Earth's magnetic field.
Study suggests genetic causes for male infertility
US researchers have suggested that epigenetics, or the way DNA is processed and expressed, might be the underlying cause for male infertility.
The launch was conducted at
This is the first commercial launch of a Brazilian rocket. AEB plans to carry out more launches of this kind for scientific purposes from the Alcantara launch centre in northeastern Maranhao state.
The Alcantara base is closer to the Equator, which could lessen the cost of future flights, and it is configured to launch larger rockets.
It was from that base that AEB launched its first rocket containing scientific experiments.
The VSB-30 was launched, likewise after several days' delay due to poor weather, carrying a payload of exclusively Brazilian experiments.
Why do the jaundiced person do look greenish yellow?
The bile juice secereted in the liver gets stored in the gall bladder. It is concentarated to a level.it contains two imp pigments called Bileverdin and bilerubin. these pigments are greenish yellow in colour as they contain cyanin in their molecule. these ttwo pigments are the end products of haemoglobin breakdown called haematin and globin.
These two pigments are separated from the blood stream by the liver cells and stored in the gall bladder. They are then let down the intestinal tract. The colour of the faecal matter is due to this greenish yellow pigment.
These pigments have an affinity to settle themselves in the connective tissues, and loose areolar tissues in the body. Such tissues are available in the sclera of eye, (the white portion of the eye ball), underneath the skin, tip of nose, as well ears, and underneath the tongue.
The pigments settle down there, colouring such white tissues, giving a final colour of greenish yellow which is the colour of the pigment.
More so, in the eye, since the sclera is visible externally, these pigments have a spectral dispersion, to emit greenish hue in UV light, when seen in sunlight.
the colour of the jaundiced person’s eye sclera is yellowish green, and this remains for a fortnight, to get cleared, in spite of the reduction of level of the bile pigments in the blood.
Ariane launches first pan-African satellite
A European Ariane rocket has been launched from Kourou,
The Ariane 5 GS rocket took off at 21.42 GMT Friday, the sixth successful Ariane launch this year,
The Ariane 5 is the only commercial rocket that can put two satellites into orbit at the same time.
The long-awaited
The ATV is the first space vehicle to be built and launched by
The pan-African satellite launched Friday was built by Thales Alenia Space in
The
Picocells
* This is a technology that creates micro cellular sites called ‘picocells’ within an aircraft, without interfering with the airplane’s communication or other systems and will make cell phone calls possible for travelers.
NASA''s new probe to search for ice on Mars in May 2008
NASA''s new probe named Phoenix is all set to touch down on the unexplored north pole of Mars on May 25, 2008, in an attempt to find whether water exists on the Red Planet even today.
Launched in August 2007,
If the isotopic ratios are found to be similar to atmospheric composition, it would be surmised that the water was likely a fairly recent phenomenon in a geologic sense, a mere 100,000 years old or so.
On the other hand, if the ice samples show a disequilibrium with atmospheric measurements, then the water may be ancient, leftover remains of a long-vanished sea.
Polio eradication failure
* Polio is decisively back and
* The rise of polio has much to do with the prevalence of the virus in two states – UP and
* The failure is largely attributed to the wrong choice of immunization made by
* There are three types of polio virus: P1, P2 and P3. Of these, the P2 type is reportedly eradicated. P1 is reportedly more contagious of the three varieties. While the earlier OPV drops were designed to immunize against all the three varieties, switching to a monovalent form (which targets only the more contagious P1 form) of the drops in UP and
#
* One of the important pests of this crop is spindle bug.
* These bugs feed on the top most regions of the leaf axils by injecting toxic saliva, producing elongated necrotic lesions, shredding and short holes in the leaves.
Asteroid to miss Mars; might target Earth in future
An asteroid that has a one in 20 chance of striking Mars on Jan 30, might just fly past, which would probably make it target Earth at some point in the future.
Designated 2007 WD5, the 160-foot wide asteroid was originally identified as a possible risk to Earth, though later analysis showed that it actually might be on a collision course with Mars.
Now, chicken fat converted into biodiesel using methanol
Researchers have been able to convert chicken fat into biodiesel using a chemical process, involving methanol.
Developed by Brent Schulte, a chemical-engineering graduate student, the process for the conversion is known as supercritical methanol treatment.
what is the difference between solar thermal and solar photovoltoics?
o Solar thermal energy is a technology for harnessing solar energy for heat. This is very different from solar photovoltaics, which convert solar energy directly into electricity.
o Polysilicon is the essential raw material in the production of solar cells. This material is very costly right now. About 10 tonnes of this material is required to produce 1 MW of solar energy.
Einstein's "black hole emitting light echoes" theory validated
A new theoretical research from two NASA astrophysicists has suggested that the wrenching gravity just outside the outer boundary of a black hole can produce an effect known as light echoes, as predicted by Albert Einstein.
Many black holes are surrounded by disks of searing hot gas that whirl around at nearly the speed of light. Hot spots within these disks sometimes emit random bursts of X-rays, which have been detected by orbiting X-ray observatories.
But according to Fukumura and Kazanas, things get more interesting when they take into account Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes how extremely massive objects like black holes can actually warp and drag the surrounding space-time.
Mediterranean diet during pregnancy protects against childhood asthma, allergy
A high quality Mediterranean diet during pregnancy can help in putting off the risk of asthma and allergy in children.
A study examined 468 mother and child pairs, who were followed up from pregnancy up to 6.5 years after the birth.
The mothers were then asked to complete food frequency questionnaires here they were asked about their dietary intake during pregnancy and what their children were eating by the time they were 6 years old. They also provided details of their children's respiratory and allergic symptoms, and those with persistent wheezing and allergic reactions.
Around 13 pct children had persistent wheezing, while 17 pct responded positively to skin test allergens and 6pct had asthma-like symptoms plus positive skin test results.
One in every three mothers ate a low quality Mediterranean diet during pregnancy while the rest ate a high quality diet.
It was found that children's diet at the age of 6.5 years had a little impact on their risks of asthmatic symptoms or allergy.
Those who closely followed the traditional Mediterranean diet of vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, fish, dairy products and olive oil were significantly more likely to have children free of asthmatic symptoms and allergies than those who ate a low quality Mediterranean diet.
The diet consisting vegetables more than eight times a week, fish more than three times a week, and legumes more than once a week, seemed more protective than the other.
Minor leg injuries increase blood clots risk in legs, lungs
Minor leg injuries like ankle sprains and muscle ruptures may increase the risk of blood clots in the legs or lungs.
Previous studies revealed that major injuries increased the risk for venous thrombosis. The disorder included deep vein thrombosis, or blood clots in the leg, and pulmonary embolism, or a blood clot that has travelled to the lungs.
Minor injuries that do not require surgery, a plaster cast or extended bed rest were associated with a three-fold greater relative risk of venous thrombosis.
The association appeared local because injuries in the leg were associated strongly with thrombosis, while injuries in other locations were not associated with thrombosis. The association was strongest for injuries that occurred in the month before the venous thrombosis, suggesting a transient effect.
because minor injuries are common, they can be major contributors to the occurrence of venous thrombosis
Many individuals with minor injuries will have contacted the general practitioner first. Therefore, there may be an important task for general practitioners to identify subjects who are at high risk of developing venous thrombosis and subsequently to provide prophylactic measures.
Giant rodent fossil found in Latin America
* The fossil of a rodent the size of a bull is reportedly discovered in the forests of South America – Rio de la Plata in Uruguay. The fossil dates to about 4 mn years.
ISRO plans to launch satellite to study the sun
* It is called “Aditya” and weighs about 100 kg.
* It should be up in space by 2012 to study the dynamic solar corona, the outermost region of the sun. This region has temperatures of over one mn degrees, with solar winds that reach a velocity of up to 1000 km a second. The corona releases energy during solar flares in the form of bursts – manifesting in geomagnetic storms on earth.
* The satellite will carry as its payload an advanced solar coronagraph.
* It will be placed in the near earth orbit of 600 km.
* The launch of the satellite will coincide with the ‘solar maximum’, a phase of high solar dynamism, which will occur once in 11 years. The ‘solar minimum’ occurred in 2006.
about Smiths Cloud ::
* It is a gaseous cloud (mostly Hydrogen) which is 11,000 light years long and 2500 light years wide that is travelling towards our Milky Way galaxy. It is expected to collide with our galaxy in about 40 mn years.
India's first ankle replacement surgery performed
Doctors at a hospital in New Delhi have claimed to have performed the country's first ankle replacement surgery or arthroplasty which was earlier dependent on the western countries.
The 'Mobile-bearing cementless' surgery was done on a 32-year-old woman at Fortis hospital in Noida recently.
The woman had met with an accident four years back and was not able to bear weight on her left ankle.
Uptil now, patients willing to undergo a total ankle arthroplasty were dependent on the western countries, especially the
Ankle replacement is done by removing worn out joints surfaces which are responsible for generating the pain.
The surgery is performed with precise instruments to create a level surface for the implanted prosthesis, an artificial device used to replace a missing body part.
Cemented ankle surgery is very common in the country but now more and more people are shifting to cementless one as it gives better ankle movements without a limp.
The artificial ankle lasts for 15-18 years and can be easily replaced by removing mobile bearing.
Dr Ashok Rajpal, Head of the Orthopaedic department at Fortis, has performed the surgery
ISRO successfully launches Israeli satellite "Polaris"
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today successfully launched an Israeli satellite 'Polaris' from the "Satish Dhawan Space Centre" at Sriharikota.
The 350-kg satellite was launched by using the "core-alone configuration" of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
In April 2007, PSLV C-8 successfully put Italian satellite Agile in orbit.
"Polaris", a radar-imaging remote sensing satellite, was mated with the vehicle a week ago.
ISRO was to launch it in September 2007, but was subsequently postponed to October. At that time, the core-alone vehicle that was assembled at the
In normal configuration, the four-stage PSLV has strap-on boosters around its first stage. Weighing 295 tonnes and standing 44 metres tall, it can put satellites weighing up to 1,200 kg in low-earth orbit.
In a core-alone configuration, the six strap-on booster motors are removed and the main PSLV looks like a lean and hungry vehicle. Weighing only 230 tonnes, it can deploy satellites weighing up to 600 kg in orbit.
US team clones human embryo
* A small
* Their success included making five early stage embryos (called blastocysts) from donated human eggs and skin cells from two men.
* Stem cells, you might recall, are found throughout the body, renewing tissue and blood cells. Cells taken from very early human embryos can give rise to all the cells and tissues found in the human body. Scientists hope to harness their power to transform medicine, to repair devastating injuries, replace the brain cells lost in Parkinson’s disease, or to cure juvenile diabetes.
Tamiflu
* It is the preventive vaccine for bird flu. The
* The help offered by it includes: checking the availability of Tamiflu syrup for children from worldwide stocks; providing technical support for animal surveillance, and personnel protection equipment for rapid response teams in
Key to unlocking memory discovered
Scientists claim to have discovered a way to reverse loss of memory, a breakthrough that could bolster the fight against Alzheimer disease.
The accidental discovery came during an experiment to suppress an obese man's appetite by using a technique called deep-brain stimulation which involves stimulating parts of the brain with an electric current.
Instead of losing appetite, the patient was suddenly able to recall in immense detail a moment spent in a park with a friend 30 years earlier.
# When did big bang occur?
* The big bang is believed to have occurred some 14 bn years ago.
* The universe is found to be expanding more quickly than in the past. It had long been assumed that the mutual attraction of the galaxies through gravity would slow the expansion of space. But recent research is supporting a different explanation.
* It is that the universe is filled with the so called dark energy, which counteracts the gravitational attraction that galaxies exert on each other.
* Dark energy is a substance that has been inferred but never seen. It cannot be detected with present technology as it neither emits nor reflects light or radiation.
# Mercury missions
* The last time a NASA craft went to Mercury was Mariner 10 in 1975.
* Now Messenger, the craft that was launched in 2004 has sent some pictures of the planet on its way to find its orbit around the planet sometime in 2011. The craft is on its 8 bn km mission and will fly by Mercury two more times, this October and September 2009 before it finds its orbit.
Multi-modal biometric system to track criminals
Faced with shortcomings in the existing biometric systems in identifying criminals, researchers at IIT-Kanpur have developed a new system which can record multiple traits of people, giving an almost 100 pc matching score.
Experts claim that this system will help the sleuths nab criminals with accuracy and speed and is likely to overcome the flaws of the current biometric system being used by intelligence and security agencies in the country.
The new system can simultaneously integrate five traits -- face, fingerprint, iris (eye), ear and signature -- and the IIT-K has already tested the system on a sample of 1831 individuals.
The system is likely to reduce the time for matching criminal records manifold as it uses various traits for identity verification.
NASA beams music across the universe
* NASA has decided to beam across the universe the Beatles’ song recorded 40 years ago. The music will be digitised and beamed through its deep-space communications network on a 431 light year journey to the North Star, Polaris, where it is scheduled to arrive in 2439.
* The song is titled “Across the Universe”.
* Today is the 45th anniversary of NASA’s deep-space communications network and 50th anniversary of NASA’s foundation
Bacteria could be used as vaccine carriers
* Nobel laureate Barry Marshall said that efforts are going on to clone vaccine molecules into Helicobacter. If this proves successful, what we can expect is that there can be vaccines for chicken flu, HIV, malaria etc. The vaccines could be carried into the human body on top of this bacteria.
* He won the prize in 2005 along with Robin Warren for the discovery of bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer.
Duck-billed dinosaur found in
One of the world's oldest and probably the most primitive duck-billed dinosaurs, that possessed a built in horn to woo females, has been found in
A team of international scientists has discovered the 72 million year old dinosaur, named Velafrons Coahuilensis, at a geological site known as the Cerro del Pueblo formation in Coahuila on the coast of north-central
The 25-ft creature, a youngster that would have grown up to be 35 ft, had a fan-shaped bony crest on its skull filled with nasal passages.
Egypt's earliest agricultural settlement discovered
Archaeologists claim to have found evidence of an ancient Egyptian agricultural settlement, including farmed grains, remains of domesticated animals, pits for cooking and even floors for what appear to be dwellings.
The archaeologists from
Good bacteria can prevent HIV transmission
* Lactobacillus bacteria, commonly found in the small intestine and the vagina is reported to produce hydrogen peroxide. It is believed to hinder the spread of the HIV.
* This bacterium is also stated to be widely found in yogurt.
OXML and ODF format
* Microsoft developed the former format – Open eXtensible Markup Language – as a standard for sharing documents. There is a competing standard which is promoted by Sun Microsystems, IBM, Red Hat and others. This is called the ODF – Open Document Format. The adoption of either of these as an ISO standard is crucial for each camp. The ISO is slated to discuss the issue in
* So, both the camps are trying their best to get
Youngest ever galaxy discovered
* Named A1689-ZD1, this was discovered by the astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy was seen undergoing a firestorm of star birth as it comes out of the ‘dark ages’, a time shortly after the big bang but before the first stars completed reheating the universe.
Hagiography
It is the body of literature describing the lives and veneration of the Christian saints. The literature of hagiography embraces acts of the martyrs (i.e., accounts of their trials and deaths); biographies of saintly monks, bishops, princes, or virgins; and accounts of miracles connected with saints' tombs, relics, icons, or statues.
Hagiographies have been written from the 2nd century AD to instruct and edify readers and glorify the saints. In the Middle Ages it was customary to read aloud at divine office and in the monastic refectory (dining hall) biographies of the principal saints on their feast days. Besides biographies of single saints, other works of hagiography told the stories of a class of saints, such as Eusebius of Caesarea's account of the martyrs of Palestine (4th century AD) and Pope Gregory I the Great's Dialogues, a collection of stories about Saint Benedict and other 6th-century Latin monks. Perhaps the most important hagiographic collection is the Legenda aurea (Golden Legend) of Jacobus de Voragine in the 13th century. Modern critical hagiography began in 17th-century
The importance of hagiography derives from the vital role that the veneration of the saints played throughout medieval civilization in both eastern and western Christendom. Second, this literature preserves much valuable information not only about religious beliefs and customs but also about daily life, institutions, and events in historical periods for which other evidence is either imprecise or nonexistent.
The hagiographer has a threefold task: to collect all the material relevant to each particular saint, to edit the documents according to the best methods of textual criticism, and to interpret the evidence by using literary, historical, and any other pertinent criteria.
Country's first hi-tech TomoTherapy system installed
The Advanced Centre for Treatment Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC) has installed dual purpose hi-tech TomoTherapy system, a first of its kind in the country.
It is used for imaging as well as precise treatment of cancer.
It combines inverse planning, CT-guided patient positioning, and IMRT into one integrated system for enhanced precision in planning and delivery, Banerjee said while elaborating the science and mathematics behind it.
ACTREC is a unit of Department of Atomic energy.
This is a revolutionary technology for image-guided Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). The TomoTherapy has broad applicability in a wide variety of cancers with a potential to improve outcome
S Banerjee, Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
TomoTherapy Inc President and co-founder, Paul Reckwerdt
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