New Delhi, Dec 18: More that 32 planets have been discovered outside the solar system but “most of them” are not conducive for possible existence of life, Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan informed parliament today.
“Though the number of extra-solar system planets discovered is more than 32, most of them do not have the temperature and environment conducive for possible existence of life,” Chavan said in the Rajya Sabha.
Riyadh, December 18: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) are joining forces in lunar and asteroid science research.
The partnership recognizes the Saudi Lunar and Near-Earth Object Science Center as an affiliate partner with the Lunar Science Institute at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
Britain, December 17: Two common forms of cancer have been genetically mapped for the first time, British scientists say, in a major breakthrough in understanding the diseases.
The maps have exposed the DNA mutations that lead to skin and lung cancers, in a discovery scientists said could transform the way these diseases are diagnosed and treated in coming years.
All cancers are caused by damage to genes – mutations in DNA – that can be triggered by environmental factors such as tobacco smoke, harmful chemicals or ultraviolet radiation, and causes cells to grow out of control.
Europe, December 17: Asians and Africans may be less likely to benefit from pioneering stem cell research than people of European origin, thanks to a lack of racial diversity in cell stocks, a US study says.
A University of Michigan research team found that stem cell lines came overwhelmingly from individuals of European descent, which could leave the impact of diseases on other races understudied, the team said.
Washington, Dec 17: The US space agency have released seven years of carbon emissions data that link rapidly accelerated global warming to increased humidity, a move well timed to quell growing controversy about data connected to global warming.
As world leaders prepared to meet Friday in Copenhagen at the end of two weeks of slow negotiations on climate change, NASA researchers in Pasadena, California, said late Tuesday that the data on carbon dioxide had been “extensively validated.”
Washington, December 17: The US Federal Trade Commission sued Intel Wednesday alleging that the computer chip-making giant used anti-competitive practices to maintain its dominance.
The suit claimed that the Silicon Valley pioneer coerced computer makers not to buy rival chips and redesigned software to stunt the performance of non-Intel computer processors. Such actions were part of a systematic campaign to “put the brakes on superior competitive products that threatened” Intel’s market share, the FTC said.
Washington, Dec 16: Scientists at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have recently noticed that Twitter users in seismically active areas of the world were quick to note and report any temblors and movements of the earth that they felt.
The experts say tapping into their ‘tweets’ on the website helps them pinpoint where and how brutally earthquakes hit.
“Not only were ‘Twitterers’ quick to note quakes, there were reports that they were beating the USGS at getting out alerts of earthquake activity,” USGS scientist Paul Earle was quoted as saying.
Copenhagen, Dec 16: Soot and dust contribute as much to a temperature rise in the Himalayas as greenhouse gases do, according to a new study by the US space agency NASA.
Most of the soot goes from the thousands of wood- and dung-burning cooking stoves in use all over South Asia, says the study led by William Lau, head of atmospheric sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.
New Delhi, December 16: With its operating system Windows 7 and other popular software products being increasingly targeted by cyber pirates, Microsoft has launched an initiative to curb the menace, primarily because customers are asking it to intervene.
“We are seeing an upsurge in consumers coming back to us and saying I have been a victim of piracy. So long as data pointing to the source of piracy is there, we will take some measure,” said Vipul Pant, director of Microsoft’s “genuine software initiative”.
Copenhagen, December 16: Soot and dust contribute as much to a temperature rise in the Himalayas as greenhouse gases do, according to a new study by the US space agency NASA.
Most of the soot goes from the thousands of wood- and dung-burning cooking stoves in use all over South Asia, says the study led by William Lau, head of atmospheric sciences at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Copenhagen, December 15: With no signs of breakthrough in the tough negotiations in climate change conference here, India fears that the talks could collapse, but for a miracle.
As negotiators raced against time to hammer out a deal, four developing countries — India, Brazil, South Africa and China — on Tuesday issued a joint statement accusing the rich nations of trying to derail the talks.
Copenhagen, December 15: The first of over 100 heads of state and government and other leaders arrived Tuesday in Copenhagen for the closing days of the United Nations climate change talks.
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was one of the first heads of states to arrive Tuesday as did UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Danish organisers expect some 110 heads of state and government by Friday when the conference is scheduled to end, including US President Barack Obama.
Hyderabad, December 15: The National Institute of Technology (NIT-W) at Andhra Pradesh’s Warangal plans to establish a development centre to study a new area of electromagnetic spectrum, said to be first of its kind in India.
The technical partner of this centre will be Hyderabad-based TeraHertzTechnology, which is collaborating with Britain’s TeraView, the global leader in this cutting edge technology.
NIT-W will have a memorandum of understanding with TeraHertzTechnology to set up the centre, said a statement by NIT-W here.
Geneva, Dec 15: Within 10 months, WISE will try to scan the hidden skies.
NASA’s new explorer telescope has started its journey to the outer space to provide a complete mapping of the unknown objects at the heart of the heavens.
The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), onboard of a Delta 2 rocket, was blasted off early on Monday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast.
The $320 million space project will enable the scientists to have in great details a map of the entire sky rendered by the telescope’s delicate infrared mapping system.
Hamburg,Dec 15: Forget Superman with his red cape. The red-breasted robins in your own backyard have a kind of “X-ray” vision which allows them to navigate in bad weather or even at night, according to a team of German researchers.
For decades, scientists have known that robins and many other migratory birds somehow sense the Earth’s magnetic fields, which they use as a compass to find their way to nesting grounds. Carrier pigeons are the prime examples. But no-one knew precisely how birds registered those magnetic fields.
Copenhagen, Dec 15: Al Gore has told the U.N. climate conference that new data suggests that the Arctic polar ice cap may disappear in the summertime as soon as five to seven years from now.
Clicking through a slide show Monday in a packed side event, the former U.S. vice president joined the foreign ministers of Norway and Denmark in presenting two new reports on melting Arctic ice.
Geneva, Dec 15: The world’s largest atom smasher produced 50,000 proton collisions at the highest energy level ever recorded, the operators said Tuesday.
The weekend run demonstrated how well the Large Hadron Collider is working in preparation for going to even higher energy level next year for experiments to delve further into the makeup of matter, said Rolf Heuer, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN.
Copehengen, December 14: India and China came under a concerted attack from rich nations Monday for a three-hour suspension of the Dec 7-18 climate summit, though an Indian government delegate denied that the country had anything to do with it.
The fracas occurred at an “informal” session of the summit called by the host, Denmark’s Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard, in an effort to get at least a meaningful “political declaration” from the 192 countries gathered here.
New Delhi, Dec 14: K Santhanam, a retired DRDO scientist, on Monday accused former AEC chief Anil Kakodkar of “ignoring facts” about the yield of the nuclear tests done at Pokhran in May 1998, calling him “a liar” motivated by institutional loyalties.
“Figures don’t lie, but liars will figure. He chose to ignore facts for his own reasons,” Mr. Santhanam told PTI when his comments were sought on remarks made by Mr. Kakodkar in a interview.
New Delhi, Dec 14: The Army should be fully confident as there was no doubt about the nuclear arsenal at its command, the former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Anil Kakodkar said, seeking to put at rest questions raised over the efficacy of the country’s hydrogen bomb test.
“I think that is guaranteed. The Army should be fully confident. There is no doubt about the arsenal at their command,” he told.
Hyderabad, Dec 14: Dhanush, the ship-based anti-surface missile was successfully launched from a naval vessel, INS Subhadra in the Bay of Bengal, off the Orissa coast on Sunday. The missile was fired by Indian Navy personnel as part of user training exercise.
New Delhi, December 13: Army should be fully confident as there is no doubt about the nuclear arsenal at their command, former Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar has said seeking to put at rest questions raised over the efficacy of the country’s hydrogen bomb test.
“I think that is guaranteed. Army should be fully confident. There is no doubt about the arsenal at their command,” he said to a private news channel.
Munich, December 13: All-in-one PCs are full computers in which the entire innards are stored within the casing of the display itself. The concept behind these “AIO” machines is not exactly new: Apple has been earning good money for years now through its AIO line of iMacs. And AIO computers running the Windows operating system have also been a frequent sight on the market. But now there’s a veritable invasion of AIO machines on the market. What separates the current models from devices of earlier generations is touchscreen functionality.
Washington, Dec 12: American farmers and food product maker lose millions of dollars each year in lost sales to India because of high tariffs and non-tariff measures, which raise the cost or prohibit agricultural exports to the country, an official US report has said.
The report “India: Effects of Tariffs and Non Tariff Measures on US Agricultural Exports” was released by the US International Trade Commission (USITC), an independent, non-partisan fact finding federal agency, at the request of the Senate Committee on Finance.
Bangalore, December 12: Sections of the Indian scientific community say the claims on mapping the genome of an Indian are vastly exaggerated though many agree it is a step forward.
Many scientists are also surprised that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) opted to announce its research to journalists through parliament before first publishing its findings in a peer-reviewed journal as is customary.