Science

Mumbai, August 30: BlackBerry mobile phone maker Research In Motion(RIM) on Monday escaped a ban of its popular core services for at least two months after it offered to give security agencies access to them with immediate effect.

Facing tomorrow’s shutdown deadline for the encrypted BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES) and BlackBerry Messenger Services (BMs), the Canadian phonemaker RIM made certain proposals for lawful access to these popular services by the country’s law enforcement agencies, giving some relief to the country’s one million subscribers.

London, August 26: Scientists in Canada and Sweden have used laboratory-made biosynthetic corneas to restore vision to patients in a small human trial, and shown for the first time that they can help to repair damaged eye tissue.

London, August 26: Lab grown artificial corneas have been transplanted into patients’ eyes for the first time, offering hope to millions of partially sighted people.

The new technique involves growing human tissue or collagen in the lab and then shaping it, using a contact lens mould.

Damaged and scarred tissue from the front of the eye is then removed and the “biosynthetic” replacement is stitched in its place, reports the Telegraph.

Ultimately, existing cells and nerves in the eye grow over the artificial cornea, incorporating it fully into the eye.

New York, August 26L Google Inc. Wednesday said its Gmail service will add a feature that allows users to call any phone directly from their computers.

“Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail,” Robin Schriebman, a software engineer at Google, wrote on the company’s blog.

“We’ve been testing this feature internally and have found it to be useful in a lot of situations, ranging from making a quick call to a restaurant, to placing a call when you’re in an area with bad reception,” Schriebman wrote.

Hyderabad, August 25: Humane Society International (HIS), an animal welfare group, wants a ban on the genetic engineering and cloning of farm animals aimed at boosting egg, meat or milk production.

The society has urged India’s GM regulator, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), to prohibit genetic engineering to save animals from suffering.

Thanking GEAC for opposing the development of transgenic chicken at the Project Directorate on Poultry, Hyderabad, the group said developments in biotechnology had raised new concerns about animal welfare.

Washington, August 25: A new solar system have found, the largest ever detected, which is believed to have up to seven planets orbiting a sun-like star 127 light years away from the earth by Astronomers.

The new planetary system contains at least five planets orbiting the sun-like star HD 10180. The researchers also have tantalising evidence that two other planets may be present, one of which would have the lowest mass ever found, Europe’s astronomical observatory centre European Southern Observatory (ESO) has said.

San Francisco, August 25: Yahoo has completed the migration of its web and mobile search functions to Microsoft’s Bing search engine as the two companies hope that their combined market power may prove a more significant threat to the dominance of Google.

The integration comes more than a year after Yahoo and Microsoft announced their 10-year search deal under which Microsoft will power Yahoo’s search site, while Yahoo manages sales for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

Japan, August 24: A rare flash caused by a meteor colliding with Jupiter has been videographed by an amateur astronomer.

Masayuki Tachikawa, aged 52, recorded the flash of light lasting less than two seconds, at his home in Kumamoto City, southern Japan.

“I took it for noise signals at first but I was really surprised because the image of the light remained on the video,” Tachikawa said, according to the Telegraph.

New Delhi, August 22: Search engine giant Google received notice from Indian government over showing Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) as a part of Pakistan.

State for telecom and IT minister, Sachin Pilot said, “Any wrongful depiction of Indian map and its boundaries is liable for action under the India Information Technology Act. Google has been asked to immediately correct this inaccuracy.”

Google Insights for Search, a tool which shows search volume patterns across specific regions, had shown a map of India as part of Pakistan.

Washington, August 21: Astronomers have declared that the moon is shrinking after spotting wrinkles all over the lunar surface. The tell-tale contraction marks were discovered by US scientists who examined thousands of photographs of the moon’s surface taken by a Nasa orbiter.

Some of the wrinkles are several miles long and rise tens of metres above the dusty terrain. Researchers believe they arise from the moon decreasing in size by around 200 metres across its diameter. The moon’s mean diameter is generally calculated to be 2,159 miles.

Washington, August 20: The only natural satellite of earth, the moon is shrinking, US scientists declared on Thursday, Aug 20, but not to worry much about it.

This discovery was made by US scientists who examined thousands of photographs of the moon’s surface taken by a Nasa orbiter.

A team led by Thomas Watters at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, studied high-resolution images of the moon taken over the past year by Nasa’s latest moon probe, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

London, August 19: A new cellphone could prove to be a boon for millions of heart patients as it also monitors their conditions.

The H’andy Sana, a touch-screen phone, includes an application called Heart Suite, which enables users to measure, record and send electrocardiograms (ECGs).

Users can have their ECG recorded instantly by pressing two fingers on the side of the phone for half a minute.

They can then despatch the results to a specialist for advice.

It is expected to cost around £490 and is likely to be sold with a large carrier subsidy.

——-IANS

London, August 18: Japanese scientists claimed to have found a novel method of stem cell treatment that can cure paralysed patients.

The research team at Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, found that stem cells taken from brain could be used to restore movement in people with spinal cord injuries.

Experts said the breakthrough can help create a spare set of matching cells, which could be used to “repair” such damage.

New Delhi, August 16: Decks have been cleared for creation of the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India that would replace the Genetic Engineering Approval Authority.

The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, today approved the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill which is expected to be introduced in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament.

The Bill seeks to create a new body to regulate research, manufacture, import and use of products of modern biotechnology.

New Delhi, August 16: Over a month after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) debuted on Twitter, the response from denizens of the fast-growing social networking site has generally been welcoming, although tinged with some surprise that the stodgy Government of India was finally waking up to the power and reach of new media.

MEA’s public diplomacy division created its Twitter account, indiandiplomacy, on July 8. It has since written 94 tweets – some of them being links to press releases and speeches and others being interactions with the tweeting crowd.

Washington, August 14: Scientists have identified two parts of the brain linked with severe anxiety in young monkeys, and they suspect these same areas may also play a role in children who develop anxiety disorders, offering new promise for treatment.

Nervous monkeys in the study showed heightened brain activity in the amygdala and anterior hippocampus, a team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

New Delhi, August 13: The Insat-4B communication satellite is facing a power supply problem leading to 50 percent of its transponders being switched off, parliament was informed on Thursday.

Replying to question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan said that on July 7, the satellite suffered an anomaly in its power supply from one of the two solar arrays.

“An interim measure has been taken by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to restore the services on two affected transponders,” he said.

Mumbai, August 13: The government has strongly refuted the study published in ‘The Lancet Infectious Diseases’, which claimed that a ‘superbug’ bacteria that creates an enzyme called New Delhi-Metallo-1 (NDM-1) has travelled to the UK with patients who went to countries like India and Pakistan for medical treatment.

Strongly objecting to the naming of this enzyme as NDM-1 and the claim that hospitals in India were not safe for treatment, the Indian health ministry said that similar plasmids have been reported in Israel, USA, Greece and even in Scotland, as the report claims.

Ahmedabad, August 12: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Radhakrishnan today gave away Dr Vikram Sarabhai Research (VSR) Awards to four scientists for their “path-breaking” research.

The awards were given to the scientists at a function held at

the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) here on the birth Anniversary of Dr Vikram Sarabhai.

Speaking on the occasion, Radhakrishnan said ISRO was working on ASTROSAT, India’s Astronomy satellite, which would facilitate study of a range of astrophysical objects and would infuse young minds to explore the world of astronomy.

New Delhi, August 12: India on Thursday set Aug 31 as the deadline for telecom operators to allow access to decoded data communications via BlackBerry devices to law enforcement agencies, just as they have access to SMS messages and phone calls.

“If a technical solution is not provided by Aug 31, 2010, the government will review the position and take steps to block these two services from the network,” said a statement by the interior ministry after a meeting chaired by Home Secretary G.K. Pillai.

London, August 12: People who embark on “health tourism” trips to India and Pakistan to get cheaper medical treatment risk picking up and spreading a new superbug, according to an international team of scientists.

The researchers found a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients in Asia and in Britain. NDM-1 makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems.

With international travel for healthcare on the rise, the scientists said they feared this new superbug could soon spread around the world.

New Delhi, August 11: India will launch a satellite to monitor sea water levels in collaboration with the French space agency, Minister of State for Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan said on Wednesday.

The satellite, called Saral, will carry an altimetre (ALTIKA) for studying the sea surface heights and an ARGOS payload, which is a satellite-based data collection platform.

Toronto, August 11: The human brain on a microchip is almost ready!
Turning into reality science fiction of films such as “The Terminator” – where machines and men meld into reality – Canadian scientists have successfully connected brain cells to a silicon chip to “hear” conversation between brain tissue.

The neuro-chip, which has been developed by medicine scientists at the University of Calgary, will network brain cells and thus record brain cell activity at a resolution never achieved before, according to Naweed Syed who led the team that made the breakthrough.

New Delhi, August 10: Scientists and students from across the world will participate in an Asian Science Camp organised in India for the first time Aug 17-19, an official said Tuesday.

The Asian Science Camp aims to enlighten talented science students through discussions and dialogue with top scholars of the world.

‘Eleven world renowned scientists from India and abroad, including Nobel Laureates Prof. Richard R Ernst (Switzerland) and Prof. Makoto Kobayashi (Japan) will be the speakers at the camp,’ said H.C. Pradhan, director of the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.

Hyderabad, August 10: Now you can get crime updates of the locality in your mobile. The service has been started in Madhapur locality where a resident can visit the local police station and register their name and mobile number.

With the crime rate increasing in the Information Technology (IT) hub of Madhapur, police have come up with the idea of enforcing a project called ‘Crime Prevention- SMS Alert’. It would help to keep a vigilant eye on crime taking place regularly by alerting residents, including IT, realty, banking and other business establishment owners and employees.