Science

Wellington, July 01: Australian and New Zealand scientists have used prehistoric feathers to help map the colour of giant extinct birds and they believe their method could help reconstruct the appearance of other extinct bird species.

The researchers retrieved ancient DNA from four species of New Zealand’s extinct Moa from feathers found in caves and rock shelters and believed to be at least 2,500 years old.

The native Moa – a flightless, powerfully built forager that stood over 8 feet tall and weighed 250 kilograms – ranged widely in southern New Zealand before the arrival of man.

Washington, July 01: Nasa is about to unveil one of its most stunning discoveries — new and crystal clear footage of the first moon landing.

The TV images of Neil Armstrong descending down a ladder onto the moon’s surface in 1969 is grainy, blurry and dark, giving rise to conspiracy theories that the entire Apollo 11 mission was an elaborate fraud.

But people have only ever seen such poor quality footage because the original tapes containing the lunar pictures were lost almost as soon as they were recorded.

Bangkok, June 30: One of Thailand’s major wildlife traffickers has been sentenced to two years in jail for trying to smuggle 245 Malayan Pangolins and 63 Black Marsh Turtles into Bangkok three years ago, police sources said Tuesday. The Pangolins, an endangered scaly ant-eater indigenous to South-East Asia, were believed to be destined for China where they are deemed a culinary treat.

Mumbai, June 30:The frantic hunt for the right cellphone charger will soon be a thing of the past–in Europe at least–as major manufacturers on Monday agreed to introduce a universal adaptor within six months.

Industry leaders, including Apple, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, have struck a deal with the European Union to introduce the one-size-fits-all charger by January 1, 2010, offering a solution to one of modern life’s chief frustrations.

Washington, June 29: Firefox 3.5 will be released tomorrow The developer of free and open source Firefox web browser – Mozilla has announced that it will officially release its Firefox 3.5 on Tuesday, June 30, 2009.

Codenamed as Shiretoko, the Firefox 3.5 version’s first Release Candidate was released on June 16, 2009; the second Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate was released on June 19, 2009; and the third Release Candidate of the version 3.5 of Firefox was released on June 24 2009.

Nokia’s touch-screen multimedia N97 smartphone was designed to take on Apple’s iPhone. The Finnish mobile phone giant dubbed it the “world’s most advanced mobile computer”, promising to bring users closer to the Internet on the move. But that was several months ago during its global launch.

Washington, June 27: People smell them, thump them and eyeball their shape. But ultimately, it is sweetness and a sense of healthy eating which prompt one to buy a melon.

And, now plant breeders now have a better chance to pinpoint such traits for new varieties — thanks to scientists who have mapped the melon genome with hundreds of DNA markers, the ‘Journal of American Society of Horticultural Sciences’ reported in its latest edition.

Washington, June 27: Less than 24 hours after Michael Jackson’s death, fraudsters are exploiting public interest with their attempts to spread spam and malware.

Security researchers say they’ve observed hundreds of cases of malicious messages masquerading as information about Jackson’s death. Some of them, they say, popped up within minutes of the news.

Avoiding these threats isn’t difficult, though: It’s just a matter of staying one step ahead. Here are some of the attackers’ tactics and what you can do to keep from falling victim.
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Dubai, June 27: The malicious practice of the use of blogs and SMS to defame and blackmail people or organisations is spreading fast in the country, according to senior police officers from Dubai and Sharjah

According to police in the two emirates, the trend is affecting the society to a large extent because some innocent youngsters of wealthy families, including girls, are being targeted by mischievous elements.

London, June 26: Bertrand Picard, a Swiss adventurer is all set to unveil a prototype of a solar-powered plane he hopes eventually to fly around the world.

According to a report by BBC News, the initial version of the solar plane, spanning 61m but weighing just 1,500kg, will undergo trials to prove it can fly at night.

Picard, who made history by circling the globe non-stop in a balloon in 1999, said he wants to demonstrate the potential of renewable energies.

Picard’s Solar Impulse team has invested tremendous energy in trying to find what they believe is a breakthrough design.

Beijing, June 26: China’s government accused Google Inc. of spreading pornography after Chinese Internet users were temporarily unable to gain access to the U.S. search giant’s main Web site or China-based service.

“We have found that the English version of google.com has spread lots of pornographic, lewd and vulgar content, which is in serious violation of Chinese laws and regulations,” said foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

He said authorities “summoned representatives of Google.com in China and urged them to remove the content immediately.

London, June 26: Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, has announced pricing for Windows 7, the long awaited replacement for the much disliked Windows Vista operating system.

Starting Friday consumers can pre-order Windows 7 for the next two weeks at discounts of more than 50 percent, while buyers of new computers running Windows Vista will be entitled to a free upgrade once the new operating system is released.

Germany, June 25: Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus could contain watery underground caverns, forming a potential home for alien life, say scientists.

German researchers have found salt – a signature chemical for seawater – in ice grains from vapour jets streaming out of surface cracks, providing the strongest evidence yet of a liquid water reservoir beneath the moon’s frozen crust.

Cape Town, June 24: An insect pest that wrought havoc in the California fruit industry two decades ago has made its appearance in the Western Cape, a University of Stellenbosch entomologist announced on Tuesday.

The Pomegranate or Ash whitefly could severely damage garden shrubs, and apple, pear, olive, citrus and pomegranate trees, Professor Jan Giliomee said in a statement.

Giliomee discovered the insect recently for the first time in South Africa on a wild olive on the Overberg coast, and it was then formally identified by a taxonomist of the National Insect Collection in Pretoria.

Washington, June 24: In an ocean teeming with life, scientists have discovered a barely inhabited sea floor desert.

Researchers curious about the limit to sea floor life turned to the deadest spot in the oceans, the South Pacific Gyre, explained University of Rhode Island oceanographer Steven D’Hondt.

Sediment cores from the region carried as few as 1 000 living cells per cubic centimetre, D’Hondt explained in a telephone interview.

By comparison, nearshore sediments can contain 1 billion living cells per CC and even offshore sediments can have 1 million per CC, he said.

Washington, June 24: A space probe that scientists hope will provide new information about the moon ahead of future manned US moon missions entered lunar orbit on Tuesday, four and a half days after it was launched aboard a rocket, Nasa said.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) space probe successfully entered orbit around the moon at 1027 GMT, the US space agency said in a statement.

Engineers had to perform a mid-course correction while the probe was en route, to ensure it would successfully slip into orbit.

New Delhi, June 24: Gigantic dinosaurs, as shown in Hollywood movies, may not have been as huge when they actually walked on the earth, scientists have said.

Scientists at the Colorado University in the US claimed to have found that the original statistical model, used to calculate dinosaur mass, was flawed.

New Delhi, June 24: Gigantic dinosaurs, as shown in Hollywood movies, may not have been as huge when they actually walked on the earth, scientists have said.

Scientists at the Colorado University in the US claimed to have found that the original statistical model, used to calculate dinosaur mass, was flawed.

The model showed dinosaurs as oversized animals due to the imperfection of the evaluating techniques, they said.

Washington, June 24: If you spend a lot of time talking on your cell phone, you could be harming your skin. Findings of the British Association of Dermatologists point at a new skin disorder — mobile phone dermatitis — caused by nickel found in popular cell phone handsets.

It results in a rash on the cheeks, chin and ears. Prevent the problem by shileding it with an ear plug, or check with your cell phone manufacturer if your phone is nickel-free. To treat, apply a 1% OTC hydrocortisone cream; see your dermat if the symptoms persist.

–Agencies–

San Francisco, June 24: Hoping to dispel fears about the vulnerability of Windows to viruses and other malware, Microsoft Tuesday released a trial version of a new free security package called Microsoft Security Essentials.
The software is designed to replace the Windows Defender tool that Microsoft released in 2007, but which was widely derided as being inadequate to protect computers from the constant and ever-evolving threats posed by hackers.

Mumbai, June 23: Google India, the Indian subsidiary of US-based software giant, on Monday contended in the Bombay High Court that it does not control the publication of content on blog-hosting website ‘blogger’, and is not liable for the same.

Blogger, popular blogging service, is owned by Google Inc.

Earlier, a single judge of High Court had restrained Google from hosting any blog containing defamatory material about Dr Aswhin Mehta, a city-based cardiologist.

California, June 23: The most powerful camera that has ever been used to survey another planet is capturing spectacular pictures of the surface of Mars to reveal a rich tapestry of geological features. Located on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, a Nasa probe launched in 2005, the HiRise camera has already taken detailed images of the outlines of ancient extra-terrestrial seas and rivers – the first unambiguous evidence that shorelines once existed on the Red Planet.

New York, June 23: The world’s smallest car, the Peel 50, debuted Monday at Ripley’s Believe it or Not museum in Times Square, New York.

Designed as a “city car” for Ripley’s by the London-based Peel Engineering Company, the one-seater Peel Trident is battery-operated and travels about 64 km per hour. It weighs about 68 kg and costs nearly $25,000.

The Peel P50 is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest road legal car ever produced.

Washington, June 23: NASA will take a giant step toward bringing humans back to the moon Tuesday as a new orbiting satellite arrives there to search for water. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is expected to reach the moon’s orbit at 0943 (GMT).

The LRO will send back data to help scientists find the best location for a manned landing. The question of whether there is water on the moon, in the form of ice deep inside lunar craters, is key to the mission.

Washington, June 22: Great white sharks have some things in common with human serial killers, a new study says: They don’t attack at random, but stalk specific victims, lurking out of sight.

The sharks hang back and observe from a not-too-close, not-too-far base, hunt strategically, and learn from previous attempts, according to a study being published online on Monday in the Journal of Zoology.

Researchers used a serial killer profiling method to figure out just how the fearsome ocean predator hunts, something that’s been hard to observe beneath the surface.