Detroit, October 14: Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will add 4.5 million older-model vehicles to the long list of those recalled because a defective cruise control switch could cause a fire.
The latest voluntary action pushes Ford’s total recall due to faulty switches to 14.3 million registered vehicles over 10 years, capping the company’s largest cumulative recall in history involving a single problem.
Germany, October 14: It was already widely assumed, but German experts provided confirmation Grtoday: women cry more often than men, for longer – and in a more dramatic fashion.
According to the German Society of Ophthalmology, which has collated different scientific studies on the phenomenon, women shed tears on average between 30 and 64 times a year and men six to 17 times.
Men tend to cry for between two and four minutes, but for females sessions last around six minutes.
Washington, October 14: Researchers have devised an advanced programme for biomolecular computers that enables them to think’ logically.
Research students Tom Ran and Shai Kaplan, students of Ehud Shapiro at Weizmann Institute’s biological chemistry lab have found a way to make these devices ‘user friendly,’ even while performing complex computations and answering complicated queries.
The team introduced the first autonomous programmable DNA computing device in 2001.
Tehran, October 14: In line with the peaceful aims of Iran’s nuclear activities, Iranian scientists at the Nuclear Science and Technology Research Center have produced two new radio-medicines.
“Following sanctions imposed on Iran on the purchase of certain radio-medicines, scientists of the center moved to conduct their own research and development of the new products,” Mehr news agency quoted the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran as saying.
Bangalore, October 14: Indian Space Research Organisation has reached an understanding with Arianespace under which the European space consortium would scout for small satellites in Europe to be launched by ISRO.
ISRO is a long-time customer of the European aerospace giant, which has launched 12 Indian satellites from 1988 to 2007. Another heavy Indian satellite in the present series is expected to be launched by Arianespace, but the date has not yet been finalised, ISRO Chairman, G Madhavan Nair said.
North Korea, October 12: North Korea has test-fired five short-range missiles off its east coast and banned ships from the area from October 10-20, a South Korean official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a Yonhap news agency report of the launches from south of Musudan-ri on the northeast coast today.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff refused to comment. Yonhap said the “no-sail” zone covered both the east and west coasts.
The agency quoted military experts as saying the launches appear to be part of regular military exercises.
Bhopal, October 11: A case has been slapped against two senior scientists of the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, who were accused of attempting to use their junior colleague as a human sacrifice, police said Sunday.
Shradha Sharma, wife of Sushil Kumar, a junior scientist at the DRDE, in her complaint to the police Saturday night accused two senior scientists at the DRDE of being involved in witchcraft and attempting to make a human sacrifice of her husband.
New Delhi, October 11: India’s hope for a H1N1 vaccine has got a shot in the arm with Serum Institute beginning animal trials for the vaccine, a prelude to the much tougher human trials.
“Animal trials for the H1N1 vaccine have started,” Rajeev M Dhere, Senior Director, Serum Institute of India, told PTI.
Around 500 doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be administered to animals over a period of 40 to 50 days and the report on toxicity and immunogenicity will be submitted to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for permission to undertake Phase I human clinical trials.
Washington, October 10: Footprints from sauropod dinosaurs, giant herbivores with long necks, were found in Plagne, near Lyon, France.
The dinosaur footprints in Plagne are circular depressions surrounded by a fold of limestone sediment. These depressions are very large, up to 1.50 metre in total diameter, suggesting that the animals were larger than 40 tonnes and 25 metres in length.
Beijing, October 10: The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea on Saturday said they would “work closely together” to make crucial global climate talks in Copenhagen in December a success.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak said they would “work closely together… to contribute to the successful achievement of the Copenhagen conference”.
Washington, October 10: NASA’s great lunar fireworks finale fizzled.
After gearing up for the space agency’s much-hyped mission to hurl two spacecraft into the moon, the public turned away from the sky Friday anything but dazzled. Photos and video of the impact showed little more than a fuzzy white flash.
In social media and live television coverage, many people were disappointed at the lack of spectacle. One person even joked that someone hit the pause button in mission control.
San Francisco, October 10: Google’s online video site YouTube now gets a billion hits a day, the site’s founder Chad Hurley said in a video posted Friday.
“Three years ago today (YouTube co-founder) Steve (Chen) and I stood in front of our offices and jokingly crowned ourselves the ‘burger kings’ of media,” read the post, which was titled Y,000,000,000uTube.
Washington, October 09: In what scientist Amitabha Ghosh called an “incredible moment”, NASA successfully crashed its rocket into a crater near the lunar south pole of the moon’s surface in search for hidden ice.
No light flash was visible in the thermal images broadcast on NASA television, as the 2.3-tonne rocket impacted the Cabeus crater at 1131 GMT.
A second shepherding spacecraft flew through the debris plume, collecting and relaying key data back to Earth before it too plowed into the lunar surface, according to the US space agency.
Bhopal, Ocotber 09: Alarmed at the spread of mosquito-borne dengue fever, Madhya Pradesh has constituted a committee to tour affected districts and give recommendations to control the dreaded disease which has claimed nine lives in the state so far.
An investigating committee has been constituted which will work under the supervision of Sharad Tiwari, Dean, Sagar Medical College, and will after investigations give the recommendations to control the dreaded disease, said Health Minister Anoop Mishra.
Washington, October 09: The United States blasted the surface of the moon on Friday with two rockets on a mission to look for water below the lunar surface that could be used by astronauts on future space missions, NASA said.
At 1130 GMT the LCROSS satellite crashed into the Cabeus crater floor near the moon’s south pole at around 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) per hour, followed four minutes later by a shepherding spacecraft equipped with cameras to record the impact.
Bangalore, October 09: Infosys Technologies Ltd. posted net profit of Rs.15.40 billion (Rs.1,540 crore) for the second quarter (July-Sep) of this fiscal, registering 7.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth as per the Indian accounting standard.
In a regulatory filing Friday, the IT bellwether said its consolidated income for the quarter under review (Q2) increased by 3.1 percent YoY to Rs.55.85 billion (Rs.5,585 crore) under the Indian accounting standard.
New Delhi, October 09: Mobile handset sales in India recorded a 6.7 percent increase to 100.9 million in the year ended June 30, as compared to 94.6 million the year before, according to an IT market intelligence firm.
In terms of units shipped, Nokia sold the most with a market share of 56.8 percent, followed by Samsung with a 7.7 percent share and LG with 5.4 percent share in the 12-month period ended June 30, said a report by IDC’s India Quarterly Mobile Handsets Tracker.
Washington, October 09: In what scientist Amitabha Ghosh called an “incredible moment”, NASA successfully crashed its rocket into a crater near the lunar south pole of the moon’s surface in search for hidden ice.
No light flash was visible in the thermal images broadcast on NASA television, as the 2.3-tonne rocket impacted the Cabeus crater at 1131 GMT.
A second shepherding spacecraft flew through the debris plume, collecting and relaying key data back to Earth before it too plowed into the lunar surface, according to the US space agency.
Washington, October 09: Scientists hope to make a splash by “bombing” the Moon with two spacecraft today.
The plan is to slam the projectiles into a dark crater at the lunar south pole, kicking up a six-mile high dust cloud that may contain water.
British researchers helped Nasa pick the spot for the drama, which will be broadcast live on the American space agency’s website.
The Cabeus south polar region was identified by the University of Durham team as a site with high concentrations of hydrogen – a key component of water.
Washington, October 09: Scientists have discovered a bacteria species that forms metallic gold — but it’s unlikely to make anyone rich.
An international team has found that the bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans catalyses the biomineralisation of gold by transforming toxic gold compounds to their metallic form using active cellular mechanism.
According to the scientists, they have found evidence indicating that there may be a biological reason for the presence of these bacteria on gold grain surfaces.
Washington, October 09: A US rocket is to crash into the moon Friday in an experiment scientists hope will provide data about ice hidden in the perpetually dark lunar craters.
Astronomers around the world are prepared to capture the impact of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) into the moon’s Caebus crater at 1130 GMT. The rocket will deliberately crash into the moon, kicking up a plume of dust that scientists hope to analyse for traces of water that they believe are abundant in the
cold, shadowy craters.
Washington, October 08: A new type of green rocket propellant, comprising frozen mixture of water and “nanoscale aluminium” powder, is being developed that could be manufactured on the moon, Mars and other water-bearing bodies, says a new study.
The aluminium-ice, or ALICE, propellant might be used to launch rockets into orbit and for long-distance space missions and also to generate hydrogen for fuel cells, said Steven Son, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University.
Chennai, October 08: The optical fibre has been a prerequisite for the extremely rapid development in the field of communications, a development that Charles Kao predicted over 40 years ago.
Just a few years later, Willard Boyle and George Smith radically altered the conditions for the field of photography.
Their invention of digital image sensor – CCD, or charge-coupled device changed the way images were captured by cameras. The CCD became the made it possible for digital transfer of images.
New Delhi, October 08: A Canadian university has developed a new technology that may help identify people facing the risk of breast cancer, enabling them to take early preventive measures
The technology, developed by the University of Toronto in collaboration with the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Canadian Cancer Society, could provide a breakthrough for patients in India where one out of every 22 women is diagnosed with breast cancer.
New Delhi, October 08: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. on Wednesday announced the latest version of its mobile phone software Windows Mobile 6.5. Starting at Rs. 11,000, the new software will be available across a range of styles and prices.