Technology

Now, urine-powered toilets to generate electricity

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A “pee-powered” toilet that generates electricity from urine is being launched by a university of England.

Scientists behind the high-tech loo hope that it can be used by aid agencies in disaster zones to supply much-needed ‘urine- produced- electricity’ to refugee camps, the Mirror reported.

The research team led by Professor Ioannis Ieropoulos, from University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol, said that they have already proved that this way of generating electricity works.

Exploding star confirms effect predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity 100-yrs-ago

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Astronomers have captured the moment a far off star exploded, not once but four times and in doing so they confirmed an effect predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity 100 years ago.

The exploding star, or supernova, was directly behind a cluster of huge galaxies whose enormous mass warped space-time, creating a cosmic magnifying glass.

Light from the supernova passing through the distorted region produced multiple images.

20pc of Mars’ surface was likely water 4.5 billion-yrs-ago

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Around 4.5 billion years ago, Mars was host to a body of water that was larger than the Arctic Ocean.

At around .085 miles deep, the water would have covered Mars’ surface, but it’s more likely the pool was slightly greater than one mile deep. In that case, it would have covered around 20 percent of the planet.

The new findings come from a team of researchers who collected data via three large telescopes on Earth: the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, and the Keck II telescope and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii.

Google celebrates Holi with doodle

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Google has dedicated its doodle to the most colorful and fun festival of India, Holi.

The doodle includes splashing different colors on Google’s home page and ends with a smiley that represents good wishes for people to have a safe and hassle-free Holi.

Holi is a carnival of colors, which involves drenching everyone in colored powder, paste and water. (ANI)

Spectrum auction sees bids of Rs.65,000 crore at end of Day Two

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Day Two of the e-auction of radio frequency spectrum, or airwaves, for telecom services saw bids placed for all the four frequencies on the block, with the eight companies in the fray making an offer for Rs.65,000 crore at the end of the 11th round, the government said on Thursday.

“The auction of spectrum in 2,100 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz Bands re- commenced today (Thursday) at 9 a.m. and today, 5 rounds of bidding were completed. Till now, 11 rounds of bidding have taken place,” a government statement said.

Galactic ‘rain’ could slow down star formation

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Pouring cool gases called galactic “rain” may slow down star formation in certain galaxies, astronomers have found.

“We know that precipitation can slow us down on our way to work,” said lead researcher Mark Voit, professor of physics and astronomy at Michigan State University.

“Now we know it can also slow down star formation in galaxies with huge black holes,” Voit added.

“Obviously, it is not in the form of rain or snow, but rather cool gas that helps make the creation of stars possible. When conditions are right, these cooling gas clouds help make stars,” the researchers said.

New exoplanet with four stars found

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Researchers using Adaptive Optics System developed by Indian scientists at Pune-based Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics have discovered a new exoplanet with four stars.

The four-star planetary system, called 30 Ari, is located 136 light-years away in the constellation Aries.

This is only the second time that a planet has been identified in a quadruple star system.

The first four-star planet, KIC 4862625, was discovered in 2013 by citizen scientists using public data from NASA’s Kepler mission.

Twitter may purchase live-streaming app Periscope: Report

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Twitter has reportedly been in talks to purchase live streaming app Periscope, which, if materialized, would facilitate users to fire up live video wherever they are and broadcast it to allow people to watch it.

According to TechCrunch, the talks are in early stages and the possible deal might be worth around 100 million dollars.

Periscope is similar to the recently launched phenomenon called ‘ Meerkat’, which allows users to stream video from their smartphones to their followers in real time.

–ANI

‘Love hormone’ oxytocin can be next big thing in psychiatric disorder therapies

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A new study has revealed that oxytocin, also referred as “love hormone,” may enhance social function in psychiatric disorders.

Researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, have shown inducing the release of brain oxytocin may be a viable therapeutic option for enhancing social function in psychiatric disorders, including autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia.

Soon, flexible touch-sensitive skin sensors to operate mobile devices

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A team of computer scientists is developing flexible sensors that turn skin into a touch-sensitive interaction space for mobile devices.

Scientists from Saarbrucken in collaboration with researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed touch-sensitive stickers made from flexible silicone and electrically conducting sensors that can be worn on the skin.

Spider venom may harbor chronic pain cure

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Scientists have identified 7 compounds in spider venom that may harbor cure for chronic pain.

According to the new research, these compounds block a key step in the body’s ability to pass pain signals to the brain. The hunt for a medicine based on just one of these compounds could open up a new class of potent painkillers.

Yahoo Mail introduces new ‘Contact Cards’ that show person’s useful information

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Yahoo has rolled out new “Contact Cards” in Yahoo Mail that linger over a person’s name in a message and show useful information about the person like their phone number, links to social profiles, company and title.

According to TechCrunch, Yahoo said that the new system is powered by Xobni technology.

Yahoo acquired Xobni in 2013 which was among the first companies to develop an email add-on, pulling in additional information about your contacts right into your inbox.

Astronomers observe second ever planet ‘reared’ by four stars

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Astronomers have discovered a second ever planet with the four parent stars, suggesting planets in quadruple star systems might be less rare than previously thought.

NASA stated that the planet, a gas giant 10 times more massive than Jupiter and located 136 light-years away in the constellation Aries, was known before, but it was thought to have only three stars, not four.

Men are more narcissistic than women

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A new study has found that men are actually more vain and self-centric than women.

The study by University at Buffalo School of Management, which included data of 3 decades from more than 475,000 participants, revealed that men, consistently scored higher in narcissism across multiple generations and regardless of age, in comparison to women.

Facebook develops AI intelligence test

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Facebook has developed a simple test that can help determine the intelligence level of an artificial intelligence software.

The test, developed by researchers at Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence lab, involves 20 tasks, which get progressively harder.

Any potential artificial intelligence (AI) must pass all of them if it is ever to develop true intelligence, researchers said.

Computing pioneer Alan Turing introduced his own test for AI, called The Turing test, in 1950.

India to test flight reusable rocket soon

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India will conduct a test flight of a reusable launch vehicle by the second quarter of this year to reduce the cost of satellite launches, union minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, the minister of state for department of space said the rocket’s 1.5-tonne technology demonstrator would be lofted to a height of 70 km using solid booster to attain five times the speed of sound.

Smartphone shoppers rise significantly in India

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Online purchases made through mobile phones in India have grown by more than 100 percent over the past two years, indicating a steep upward trend in e-commerce propelled by expediency, reveals the MasterCard Online Shopping Survey 2014 released here on Wednesday.

The survey covers 14 countries across Asia Pacific.

Pebble Time becomes most funded project on Kickstarter, raising 13.5 mln dollars in campaign

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Pebble Time has broken all records on Kickstarter as it has been the most-funded project on the platform so far, raising 13.5 million dollars in the campaign.

With just 24 days left for the Pebble Time campaign, it has raised the highest amount of funding in the campaign so far, reported Tech Crunch.

Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky thanked the community for supporting the Kickstarter campaign since day one.

He also said that the company’s objective is to satisfy the users with more such wonderful life simplifying smartwatches.

Astronomers observe wayward star cluster in Milky Way’s ‘suburbs’

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Astronomers have recently observed star cluster in Milky Way’s suburbs that seems oddly out of place.

The new star cluster was discovered by Dongwon Kim , a PhD student at the Australian National University (ANU), together with a team of astronomers (Helmut Jerjen, Antonino Milone, Dougal Mackey, and Gary Da Costa) who are conducting the Stromlo Milky Way Satellite Survey at ANU.

Factors influencing spread of conservation news in social media revealed

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A new study has shown factors influencing which conservation news get shared or liked in social media.

Public awareness is often a crucial first step towards policy change and resolution of conservation issues because societal values determine whether initiatives gain support. There is evidence that public engagement positively influences civic participation. Therefore, conservation science needs to engage the general public to ensure successful conservation interventions.

Google Contacts gets makeover

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Google Contacts, which occupies the core of the company’s other services like, Gmail, Google+, Hangouts and others, is reportedly getting a makeover.

Apart from a new look, the tech giant is also introducing a few new features that will make using Google Contacts a bit easier, reported Tech Crunch.

The new look is inspired from Google’s other services that have adopted its Material Design language.

Twitter introduces two-Step verification, friend finding feature to Login Service Digits

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Twitter has reportedly introduced a friend finding function and two-step verification to Digits, a developer-facing service launched last fall that offers a way to integrate a simpler, password-free login option into third-party mobile applications.

According to TechCrunch, the two-step verification introduced by Twitter will add another layer of security for those who want to take advantage of the newly added feature. Digits already provided a secure way for users to log into apps by using their phone numbers instead of a username and password combination.

Gartner says Apple surpasses Samsung to become world’s largest smartphone maker

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Apple’s record smartphone sales in Q4 last year have prompted analysts to declare that the iPhone maker has retaken the lead as the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer.

Gartner, one of the industry’s top tracking and research firms, also declared Apple as the winner over Samsung as its latest report noted that Apple edged out Samsung by selling 74.8 million iPhones, narrowly edging out Samsung’s 73 million smartphones sold in Q4, reported The Verge.

BriefMe launches mobile app to provide top trending news across social media

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The first ever new ranking system BriefMe has announced its mobile app that intends to provide users with the top trending news across social media.

The team is led by Max Campion with co-founders Hari Ganesan and Rachel Moranis who are a trio of Harvard and Yale, reported TechCrunch.

They believe that the world is ready for just one more news app.

BriefMe collects millions of data points about what is trending and what is not and uses the data to build a list of top ten stories in each of several different news categories. ( news .in” target=”_blank”>ANI)