Technology

Amateur astronomers and scientists plan to launch a nationwide campaign to track the comet ISON, which will appear in the inner solar system for over a month from Nov 28.

“Though the comet has entered the solar system in July and is visible through telescope presently, it can been viewed through naked eye from Nov 28 till December-end as it gets closer to the sun at a distance of 150 million km from the earth,” Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samithi official H.S. Jayakumar said.

NASA is on a lookout for a asteroid in space, which is circling the Sun and is passing close to Earth.

The US space agency has proposed that the rock should neither be too big nor too small and should be about 7-10 metres in diameter.

They also said that the rock can’t be spinning too rapidly, asserting that neither should it be the speed demon nor can it be a heap of loose material, like a rubble pile.

The rock, if the space agency can find it, is going to become the target for what the agency calls the Asteroid Redirect Mission.

Scientists have developed an interactive life-sized robot that acts as a stand-up comic and has already garnered many laughs from the audience during its unique performance here.

RoboThespian, a robot designed by Engineered Arts of Cornwall in the UK, told jokes that were well received in a recent performance at the Barbican Center in London.

The performance was the idea of Pat Healey, professor of human interaction and head of the school’s Cognitive Science Group, and Kleomenis Katevas, doctoral candidate, both at Queen Mary University of London.

With a forest cover 47.3 percent of its total geographical area — more than double the national average of 21 percent — Sikkim is India’s greenest state, official data shows.

“The forest cover in the state, based on the interpretation of satellite data, is 3,359 sq km, which is 47.3 percent of state’s geographical area,” a statement released here Sunday by the Sikkim government said.

In terms of the density of forest canopy, the state has 500 sq km area under very dense forests, 2,161 sq km area under moderately dense, and 698 sq km under open forests.

NASA is on a lookout for a asteroid in space, which is circling the Sun and is passing close to Earth.

The US space agency has proposed that the rock should neither be too big nor too small and should be about 7-10 metres in diameter.

They also said that the rock can’t be spinning too rapidly, asserting that neither should it be the speed demon nor can it be a heap of loose material, like a rubble pile.

The rock, if the space agency can find it, is going to become the target for what the agency calls the Asteroid Redirect Mission.

The countdown has begun for the crucial launch of India’s GSLV-D5 on Monday. The launch will take place at 4:50 pm from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. The GSLV will carry a communications satellite GSAT-14 and is powered by indigenous cryogenic engines which is being tested after a failed attempt over three years ago.

The rocket carrying the 1,982-kg satellite would be launched from the second launchpad at Indian Space Research Organisation’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

A new study suggests that an iPhone uses more energy than a refrigerator.

According to the Breakthrough Institute, the new research claims that a fridge uses just 322 kWh per year, compared with the 361 kWh for an iPhone, if you include its wireless connections, data usage, and battery charges, Newser.com reported.

But that’s nothing compared to information and communications technology worldwide, which uses 10 percent of global electricity—and that’s a low estimate.

New trends like wireless broadband could make the figure even higher.

It is important to perfect early the technology for India’s heavy rocket geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) as seven satellites are lined up to be launched by this rocket, the chief of India’s space agency said Sunday.

In the world of cyber fraud, a fake fan on Instagram can be worth five times more than a stolen credit card number.

As social media has become increasingly influential in shaping reputations, hackers have used their computer skills to create and sell false endorsements – such as “likes” and “followers” – that purport to come from users of Facebook, its photo-sharing app Instagram, Twitter, Google’s YouTube, LinkedIn and other popular websites.

MTNL’s website for Mumbai has been attacked by a suspected Pakistani hacker operating from Australia.

While MTNL on Friday claimed that its website has been restored, some users complained that they were unable to access it.

“Hacked homepage if in cache of that customer, should be refreshed, otherwise it will continue to show old page,” MTNL spokesperson in Delhi today said.

The website showed the message: “MrCreepy Was Here. Napsters CrEw. Happy Independence Day Pakistan. http://Facebook.Com/m3creepy. Greets: SEEKER, Dr.FREAK, MKHAN SWATI, And All Pakistani Hackers :D”.

NASA has released a map of all the known asteroids that are passing Earth within a close range.

The 1,400 asteroids, whose orbits are given a web-like appearance in the spirograph, are considered fairly dangerous but are not expected to pose an imminent threat for at least another 100 years, Metro.co.uk reported.

The “potentially hazardous asteroids” (PHA) are large – estimated at about 460ft or 140m in size – and can reportedly pass within 4.7million miles of the Earth’s orbit. In these terms – that’s pretty close.

A Chinese smartphone reportedly sold 1, 00,000 units in 90 seconds and its makers believe that it is like a combination of Apple, Amazon and Google.

Xiaomi, the company who made the Hongmi smartphone, announced that a further 7.45 million devices had been reserved adding that they tend to build as many devices as they believe will sell in a given year.

The Hongmi, the name meaning Red Rice costs just 83 pounds with a hardware that includes a 4.7-inch screen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, the Independent reports.

Researchers Omega-3 rich oils, which are present in fish, can help improve membrane fluidity in retina cells and help fight age-related eye diseases.

The study suggests that incubating retinal cells with vegetable oils induces biochemical and biophysical changes in the cell membrane, which may have a beneficial effect in preventing or slowing the development of retinopathy.

A Pentagon commissioned report has revealed that US’ nuclear facilities are vulnerable to terrorist attacks which could potentially help the attackers build an improvised fission bomb.

The study carried out by University of Texas researchers found contrast to what the nuclear industry says about its own safeguards, Fox News reports.

According to the report, the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) has said that in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, it undertook re-assessment of its plant security and pumped up protections.

Social media giant Facebook is reportedly working on a small test for a new mobile payments service that would allow users to link their financial account details to the site and make purchases on apps using that information.

Facebook said that there is no set schedule for providing the services to users and the service would use payment information that shoppers store on Facebook to automatically complete checkout forms of certain mobile apps and then the app would process the purchase, News.com.au reports.

Analysis of an Antarctic ice core has revealed that warming in the frozen continent began about 22,000 years ago, a few thousand years earlier than suggested by earlier records.

The new research shows that Antarctic warming began at least two, and perhaps four, millennia earlier than had been previously believed.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has already entered interstellar space, according to reports.

The model described in the paper is new and different from other models used so far to explain the data the spacecraft has been sending back from more than 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) away from our Sun.

Researchers have succeeded in precisely measuring the expansion velocity of a shockwave of the supernova remnant W44.

The remnant is located in the constellation of Aquila, approximately 10,000 light-years away from our solar system.

The team, led by Tomoro Sashida and Tomoharu Oka (Keio University), observed the high-temperature and high-density molecular gas in the millimeter/submillimeter wave ranges.

The analysis shows that the expansion velocity of the W44 shockwave is 12.9 plus/minus 0.2 km/sec.

Microsoft’s altered version of its latest OS called Windows 8.1 is reportedly speculated to hit stores earlier than expected.

The launch of the tweaked version to Windows 8 is now speculated to be little earlier and might hit the stores as early as October, the Washington Post reports.

According to the report, the tweaks to 8.1 version will have the ‘start button’ along with smaller Live Tiles and more search integration.

Space Agency, NASA, is planning to send a 3-D printer to the International Space Station in June, when the fifth SpaceX supply mission is scheduled.

In a video published on Monday, the agency said that a functional 3-D printer is going to help astronauts keep a steady supply of all the little parts that are needed to keep the 15-year-old station in working order without having to deliver or find storage space for replacements, CNN reported.

Space Agency, NASA, is planning to send a 3-D printer to the International Space Station in June, when the fifth SpaceX supply mission is scheduled.

In a video published on Monday, the agency said that a functional 3-D printer is going to help astronauts keep a steady supply of all the little parts that are needed to keep the 15-year-old station in working order without having to deliver or find storage space for replacements, CNN reported.

Two artists have developed a suit that grows food while the person donning it, goes about their daily routine.

Michael Burton and Michiko Nitta’s Algaculture Symbiosis Suit has a series of tubes, which are placed in front of the mouth, which capture carbon dioxide and feed it to suit-embedded algae’s ever-growing population, Discovery News reported.

The wearer just needs to sit by a window or go outside to help algae grow.

The suit made its debut, last year, outside the Victoria and Albert Museum.

——–ANI

An app development group based in London has reportedly discovered that smartphone battery temperatures are correlated to actually weather conditions and this information can be used for real-time temperature readings in major cities. James Robinson, cofounder and CTO of OpenSignal found that temperature sensors built into smartphone batteries that prevent them from overheating can be trapped to reveal weather data, the Discovery News reports.

Search engine Google has reportedly argued that its mail-service users have ‘no legitimate expectation of content privacy’ in response to a class-action lawsuit which has accused Google of violating wiretap law when it scans emails to serve up targeted ads.

According to the Huffington Post, Google has argued that all users of Gmail must necessarily expect that their emails will be subject to automated processing by ECS providers asserting that if a user entrusts his personal messages to a third party, he can’t expect that the third party won’t touch any of that information.

Scientists have discovered a protein switch that can either increase or decrease memory-building activity in brain cells, depending on the signals it detects.

Its dual role means the protein is key to understanding the complex network of signals that shapes our brain’s circuitry, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.