Science

London, November 29: Scientists have found a way to reverse aging, unlocking the secret of eternal youth and paving the way for a drug to keep one “forever young”.

Lives could be longer and healthier, free from illnesses such as Alzheimer’s and heart disease, with skin and hair retaining their youthful lustre. Increasing the number of years of healthy life would greatly ease health service costs and reduce the burden on families of caring for frail relatives, the Daily Mail reported, citing the journal Nature.

London, November 28: A high-powered laser, which unblocks arteries in minutes, is being used on patients for the first time in London.

The Turbo Elite ‘drill’ fitted to a new laser, called the Excimer, blasts tissue into particles so small they can only be seen under a microscope.

Trials at University College Hospital in London have proved a major success with reduced operating times and hospital stays.

Bangalore, November 19: India’s premier space agency ISRO will launch Resourcesat-2 advanced remote sensing satellite on board home-made PSLV rocket in January.

The Bangalore-headquartered space agency held a mission readiness review in the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh today during which ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan and top ISRO officials were present.

The standard PSLV-C16, with six strap-on boosters, would carry Resourcesat-2, auxiliary spacecraft of Youthsat and X-sat.

San Francisco, November 13: Facebook is set to announce a new e-mail feature on Monday that could challenge Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail as the most popular online e-mail services, according to news reports on Friday.

The service by the popular social networking company will for the first time allow the site’s 500 million members to use “@facebook.com” addresses and will also be integrated with Microsoft’s recently introduced Office online services.

New Delhi, November 11: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday assumed additional charge of the science and technology ministry and said his focus will be on establishing an alliance between both the ministries.

He took over from Prithviraj Chavan, who was appointed chief minister of Maharashtra.

Sibal said it is necessary that both the ministries work in tandem.

Hyderabad, November 11: Internet search leader Google has developed an image format called WebP, which promises to make transfer of images over the web faster by reducing the size of files, a company executive said Thursday.

WebP, which Google is hoping will replace the popular JPEG format, reduces file size by 39 percent on an average, without affecting its quality, said Krishnendu Choudhary, a member of the five-member team that developed the technology.

Hyderabad, November 11: Internet search leader Google has developed an image format called WebP, which promises to make transfer of images over the web faster by reducing the size of files, a company executive said Thursday.

WebP, which Google is hoping will replace the popular JPEG format, reduces file size by 39 percent on an average, without affecting its quality, said Krishnendu Choudhary, a member of the five-member team that developed the technology.

Berlin, November 11: The debate over Iran’s nuclear programme heated up over the summer, with advocates for a military strike against Tehran at loggerheads with analysts calling for a diplomatic resolution.

Unknown to many of them at the time, a computer virus, likely written by a government, was moving quickly around the globe, infecting specific computer systems at nuclear plants.

“An electronic war has been launched against Iran,” Mahmoud Liaii, a top official in Tehran, was quoted as saying in September, after the country confirmed the worm infected its systems.

New York, November 10: Google has unveiled a new “Instant Previews” feature on its search engine, which the company said will enable users to choose the right search results in a faster way.

“Instant Previews provides a graphic overview of a search result and highlights the most relevant sections, making finding the right page as quick and easy as flipping through a magazine,” Raj Krishnan, a Google product manager, was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

London, November 05: NASA’s Deep Impact craft flew within 435 miles (700 km) of comet Hartley 2 the closest ever any man-made object got to such a celestial body.

The images at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reveal a peanut-shaped comet. It is the fifth time that a comet’s core has been viewed up close.

The latest mission is not the first for Deep Impact. In 2005, it dazzled the world when it fired a copper probe into another comet, Tempel 1, giving scientists their first look at the interior.

Dehradun, October 31: This robot may not have a Rajnikanth-like image, but the model created by a 17-year-old Doon School student possesses emotional intelligence and can even dish out answers for unexpected questions with the help of the Internet.

The 3-dimension Robo ‘iTalk’, an award winning working model, talks in English, lisps like a human and understands human moods of happiness and anger with the help of unique programmed algorithms and a ‘software development kit’ offered by the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

London, October 29: People could form the backbone of powerful new mobile internet networks by carrying wearable sensors.

The sensors could create new ultra high bandwidth mobile internet infrastructures and reduce the density of mobile phone base stations.

Engineers from Queen’s Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology are working on a new project based on the rapidly developing science of body-centric communications.

‘Wireless’ humans could backbone new mobile networks

London, October 28: The US space agency Nasa is planning an audacious mission to send a manned spacecraft on a one-way trip to permanently settle human beings on other planets, reports Daily Mail, London.

The ambitious idea is known as the Hundred Years Starship and would send astronauts to colonise planets like Mars, knowing they could never come home.

London, October 27: People are more comfortable with being dishonest on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook than they are when speaking to someone face-to-face, a survey shows.

A survey of about 2,000 people in Britain by Optimum Research, on behalf of Direct Line insurance firm, found that just 20 percent of people said they were more honest when communicating via Twitter or text messages.

Almost a third said they were more frank when speaking to someone in the flesh, reports the Telegraph.

New Delhi, October 24: He is a master at “ethical hacking”, has authored 14 books and is all of 25. And now Ankit Fadia is all set to pen a fictional novel on cyber terrorism which he hopes to convert into a movie some day.

“I am writing a fiction novel on cyber terrorism. Depending upon the response to the book, I plan to turn it into a movie. I have spoken to some production houses… let’s see how it shapes up,” Fadia told IANS.

Washington, October 24: Findings of a new experiment suggest that the lunar regolith or soil contains 5.6% by weight of water-ice at the site of the experiment.

Scientists smashed a rocket and a probe into a lunar crater last year, the impact of which uncovered fascinating chemical compounds and a large water resource.

A Nasa-led team told Science magazine that about 155 kg of water vapor and water-ice were blown out of the crater.

“That’s a significant amount of water,” said Anthony Colaprete of NASA’s Ames research center.

Hyderabad, October 23: “I will throw your computer out!” How many times have you driven your parents to yell at you so?

The experience of V Jayanth Kumar has been similar. With his addiciton to gaming, he drove his parents mad many a times. Little did his family or Jayanth himself know that a gaming career awaited him in an activity that seemed a sheer waste of time.

Hyderabad, October 22: IDEA Cellular has launched online reality show — Idea Language Champion (on www.idealanguage.co.in), to demonstrate that networking on the internet can also help millions of people communicate with those speaking a different language, without actually knowing the language.

Washington, October 22: A year after announcing the discovery of water molecules on the moon, NASA scientists have now said the earth’s satellite is not only rich in useful materials, it has a water cycle of its own.

In fact, new studies suggest that there is a lot more water on the moon than earlier thought.

The new data uncovered by NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO found evidence that the lunar soil within shadowy craters is rich in useful materials, and the moon is chemically active and has a water cycle.

Mumbai, October 21: Apple unveiled thinnest, lightest laptop with iPhone and iPad features of MacBook.

Apple has unveiled the thinnest, lightest laptop ever which combines features from the iPhone and iPad with traditional series of MacBook.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the new MacBook Air Wednesday night which will incorporate FaceTime video conferencing and a suite of applications, which the company is now bringing to all its Macs. FaceTime allows for video calls between iPhones, iPod touches and Macs.

Mumbai, October 20: Indian mobile handsets company Micromax Wednesday launched a touch screen smartphone, modu T, in partnership with Israel-based modu Limited to tap the “aspirational” segment of the consumers.

The 3.5G modu T was awarded the Guinness World Record for being the lightest touch phone in the world.

Priced at Rs.12,000, the 2.2-inch touch screen phone will be available in the market with pre-bundled 2GB memory card from Oct 22.

Geneva, October 19: The popularity of text messaging has leapt three-fold in the past three years, with almost 200,000 text messages sent every second, the UN telecommunications agency said Tuesday.

A total of 1.8 trillion SMSs were sent in 2007, but in 2010, the number sent has jumped to 6.1 trillion, said the International Telecommunication Union.

This translates to revenues of 14,000 dollars (10,050 euros) every second and 812,000 dollars every minute, said the agency.

Washington, October 16: The end of the world as we know it cannot be avoided, but it can be predicted, according to a group of astrophysicists who see a 50 percent chance of the final countdown ending in 3.7 billion years.

“Time is unlikely to end in our lifetime, but there is a 50 percent chance that time will end within the next 3.7 billion years,” according to the team of US and Japanese scientists, who are challenging a long-standing theory of the universe.

New Delhi, October 15: Software majors Microsoft and Autodesk will provide free software to students and engineering faculty in colleges under the ambit of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

AICTE Chairman S.S. Mantha signed MoUs with Autodesk Chief Education Officer Joe Asthroth and Microsoft General Manager – Developer Partner Evangelism Moorthy Uppaluri Friday.

The step will benefit nearly 50 lakh students and over 3 lakh faculty all over the country as unique ID and passwords will be provided to them.

London, October 15: A life-sized female robot, known as HRP-4, has been taught to sing just like a real pop star.
It has movable features that are able to mimic the expressions of a human singer.

She is able to ‘sing’ using a synthesized voice technology that sounds and breathes like a human too, reports the Daily Mail.

Masataka Goto, from Japan’s Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, said: “This robot primarily utilises two technologies. One is for its singing voice.”