Field measurements in the spectacular blue ice region of Antarctica have also shown that this part of the ice sheet has increased in height.
Making sure that ESA’s CryoSat mission is delivering accurate data to work out precisely how the thickness of Earth’s ice is changing is a continuing effort, and one that takes teams of scientists to some of the harshest environments on the planet.
NASA’s Cassini probe is set to make its lowest pass yet over the south polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus in order to “taste” the icy particles spraying out from its surface.
The close approach will be at an altitude of 74km and is scheduled to occur at 19:30 GMT on March 27, 2012.
Scientists will use Cassini’s Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer instrument to learn more about the composition, density and variability of the plume from Enceladus.
The probe’s plasma spectrometer will also help astronomers study Saturn’s magnetic and plasma environment near Enceladus.
Shaving could soon be a thing of the past, say scientists who claim to have developed a rub-on gel which could keep men stubble-free.
A team at the University of Pennsylvania says that early results from the experimental gel has showed it stops beards from growing.
The daily rub-on gel is made from a drug called cidofovir, which has been around for more than a decade and is widely used in high doses in the treatment of AIDS. Doctors, however, found that the drug caused alopecia – or lack of hair growth – the faces of men who had it injected.
Human noises, such as the rumble of traffic or the hum of machines, do affect birds and animals which change their behaviour accordingly, indicates a new study.
As many animals also pollinate plants or eat or disperse their seeds, human noise can have ripple effects on plants, too, says the study led by Clinton Francis of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Centre, North Carolina (US).
A Russian rocket carrying a US telecommunications satellite blasted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan Sunday.
The Proton-M rocket carrying Intelsat-22 lifted off at 4.10 p.m., Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said.
The satellite is equipped with 90 transponders to provide telecommunications services in Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Xinhua reported.
A special equipment is installed on the satellite that will aid the Australian defence force. The six-tonne satellite is expected to operate for 15 years.
Destiny had separated them in 1988, but Google and Facebook united them after 24 years. This sums up the story of a family based in Khandwa, located around 200 km from the state capital.
Sheru, now Shaaru Brali, separated from his family at a tender age of six while returning home along with his elder brother Guddu, who used to sell tea in trains at Burhanpur station, and another brother Kallu (Salim).
In a recently carried out research by an international team of researchers it has been unveiled that human walking upright might have instigated millions of years ago.
Dr Brian Richmond stated: “These chimpanzees provide a model of the ecological conditions under which our earliest ancestors might have begun walking on two legs.”
“Something as simple as carrying—an activity we engage in every day—may have, under the right conditions, led to upright walking and set our ancestors on a path apart from other apes that ultimately led to the origin of our kind,” he added further.
Facebook and lawmakers have warned employers against requesting Facebook passwords while screening job applicants, a controversial practice that underscores the blurring distinction between personal and professional lives the era of social media.
The practice has reportedly grown more commonplace as companies increasingly regard profiles – or embarrassing photos from wild nights out – as windows into a prospective employee’s character.
Scientists have developed a cylinder, which hides contents and makes them invisible to magnetic fields.
The device was built using superconductor and ferromagnetic materials available on the market.
For the breakthrough invention, UAB researchers collaborated with an experimental group from the Academy of Sciences of Slovakia.
The cylinder is built using high temperature superconductor material, easily refrigerated with liquid nitrogen and covered in a layer of iron, nickel and chrome. This simple and accessible formula has been used to create a true invisibility cloak.
Excitement over the first-ever launch of a private spaceship to the International Space Station next month is steadily building, astronauts and NASA flight controllers said.
“Our fingers are crossed for SpaceX to launch and successfully come to the space station,” Indian American NASA astronaut Sunita Williams said during a news conference on Tuesday.
Williams is due to lift off atop a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on July 15, along with a Russian cosmonaut and a Japanese astronaut, to serve on the space station’s Expedition 32 and Expedition 33 missions.
Findings of a new study has given insight into what allows plate tectonics – the movement of the Earth’s crustal plates – to occur.
A layer of partially molten rock about 22 to 75 miles underground can’t be the only mechanism that allows continents to gradually shift their position over millions of years, said a NASA-sponsored researcher.
Fresh water supplies are unlikely to keep up with global demand by 2040, increasing political instability, hobbling economic growth and endangering world food markets, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment released on Thursday.
The report by the office of the Director of National Intelligence said that areas including South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa will face major challenges in coping with water problems that could hinder the ability to produce food and generate energy.
The potential for on-shore wind energy deployment in India is considerably higher than the official estimates— around 20 times and up to 30 times greater than the present government estimate of 102 gigawatts, according to a new study led by an Indian origin scientist.
This landmark finding by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may have significant impact on India’s renewable energy strategy as it attempts to cope with a massive and chronic shortage of electricity.
Three Google users have reportedly sued the search giant claiming they were deceived by its new privacy rules that combines user information across a number of company services.
The suit filed in the US District Court in Manhattan, which seeks class-action status, alleged that the Google deceived its users on what was going on when it combined privacy policies for about 60 products into one.
European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) VISTA telescope has captured a treasure trove of over 200 000 galaxies using infrared light.
The new picture of an unremarkable patch of sky comes from the UltraVISTA survey and reveals the widest deep view of the sky ever taken.
It forms just one part of a huge collection of fully processed images from all the VISTA surveys that is now being made available by ESO to astronomers worldwide. UltraVISTA is a treasure trove that is being used to study distant galaxies in the early Universe as well as for many other science projects.
“CSI” creator Anthony Zuiker is making a movie destined for the small screen.
The creator of the hit CBS television show plans to debut the as-yet-unfinished feature, “Cybergeddon,” on Yahoo in installments this fall. His latest foray into online storytelling follows his partnership on a horror series for YouTube.
It also marks Yahoo’s second stab at tapping Hollywood talent to create original online video. In January, Yahoo said a series of 20 animated webisodes developed by Tom Hanks called “Electric City” would debut on the site this spring.
Researchers led by one of Indian origin have come up with a new imaging system could use opaque walls, doors or floors as ‘mirrors’ to collect information about scenes outside its line of sight.
In December, MIT Media Lab researchers caused a stir by releasing a slow-motion video of a burst of light traveling the length of a plastic bottle. But the experimental setup that enabled that video was designed for a much different application: a camera that can see around corners.
An exploding star known as a Type Ia supernova plays a vital role in our understanding of the universe.
Studies of Type Ia supernovae led to the discovery of dark energy, which garnered the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Yet the cause of this variety of exploding star remains elusive.
All evidence points to a white dwarf that feeds off its companions star, gaining mass, growing unstable, and ultimately detonating. But does that white dwarf draw material from a Sun-like star, an evolved red giant star, or from a second white dwarf, or is something more exotic going on.
Greenhouse gases are on track for inflicting costs of nearly USD 2 trillion annually in damage to the oceans by 2100, according to a Swedish study published today.
The estimate by the Stockholm Environment Institute is based on the assumption that climate-altering carbon emissions continue their upward spiral without a pause.
Warmer seas will lead to greater acidification and oxygen loss, hitting fisheries and coral reefs, it warns.
Rising sea levels and storms will boost the risk of flood damage, especially around the coastlines of Africa and Asia, it adds.
Apple’s new third generation iPad runs significantly hotter than its two predecessors during intensive use, a test by the consumer magazine has revealed.
According to ‘Consumer Reports’, the newest version of the market-leading tablet computer, that has sold over three million units since launch on Friday, ran as hot as 116 degrees after running a graphics-intensive video game for 45 straight minutes.
The test showed that the device got hottest on its back panel, in one corner, likely near the computer processor.
The home sparrow population in the Union Territory of Puducherry is on the verge of extinction.
An official source said that this “agonizing trend has emerged due to unbridled urbanisation, lack of vegetation covers and other environmental disturbances”.
The source said that the cyclone Thane had had its impact on wide number and variety of birds and with the trees having fallen under the impact of the storm the birds had borne the impact of the storm.
Facebook will pay just a 1.1 percent fee to underwriters of its initial public offering, according to a source with knowledge of the company’s plans, doling out a much slimmer than typical payout.
Sources had said the company’s underwriters would swallow a fee much lower than the 6 percent to 7 percent that is typical on Wall Street, because of the prestige of being associated with Silicon Valley’s largest ever IPO, as well as the promise of being bankers in future to the world’s largest social network.
NASA is scheduled to launch five rockets in just over five minutes Wednesday night as part of a study of the high-altitude jet stream, the US space agency announced Monday.
The Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment will gather information needed to better understand the process responsible for the high-altitude jet stream located 60 to 65 miles above the surface of the Earth, Xinhua reported.
As part the mission, the five rockets will release a chemical tracer that will form milky, white clouds that allow scientists and the public to “see” the winds in space, NASA said.
In a new record for Apple, the technology giant has sold a whopping three million of its new iPads within just three days of launching the latest version of its blockbuster tablet computer.
The California-based company launched the third version of the iPad on Friday with new features including an improved display, better camera, faster processor and support for AT&T’s and Verizon’s fourth-generation LTE cellular networks.
Unlike dogs, house mice may not be man’s best friend, but they accompanied the two-legged specimen on their colonising drives.
Study co-author Eleanor Jones (affiliated with the Universities of York (Britain) and Uppsala (Sweden) said: “Human settlement history over the last 1,000 years is reflected in the genetic sequence of mouse mitochondrial DNA. We can match the pattern of human populations to that of the house mice.”