“Nanofiber yarn” makes for stretchy, protective artificial tissue

Wow! this is next one! If proven would be a great relief to a lot of people!!!

As the article explains! - “When you repair muscle or tendon, you really have to fix their movement for a period of time, by wearing a boot, for example,” says Ming Guo, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “With this nanofiber yarn, the hope is, you won’t have to wearing anything like that.”

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“We may be able to one day embed these structures under the skin, and the [coil] material would eventually be digested, while the new cells stay put,” Guo says. “The nice thing about this method is, it’s really general, and we can try different materials. This may push the limit of tissue engineering a lot.”

Read here: “Nanofiber yarn” makes for stretchy, protective artificial tissue

Engineers 3-D print flexible mesh for ankle and knee braces

A major development that could help creating customized implants is a great news for the mankind! Hope it can be cost effective as well that it benefits all part of the society and could be implemented in almost all hospital facilities with an OT!. A it reads in the article - "Now MIT engineers have designed pliable, 3-D-printed mesh materials whose flexibility and toughness they can tune to emulate and support softer tissues such as muscles and tendons.""Engineers 3-D print flexible mesh for ankle and knee braces

With these nanoparticles, a simple urine test could diagnose bacterial pneumonia

Samsung May Soon Launch Foldable Touchscreen Smartphone By January 2016

http://focusnews.com/tech-gadgets/samsung-may-soon-launch-foldable-touchscreen-smartphone-by-january-2016/126518/

Facebook initial public offering expected 'within hours'-Herald Sun

FACEBOOK is expected to file within hours to sell stock on the open market in what will be the most talked-about initial public offering since Google in 2004, maybe since the go-go 1990s.

Around the nation, regular investors and IPO watchers are anticipating some kind of twist - perhaps a provision for the 800 million users of Facebook, a company that promotes itself as all about personal connections, to get in on the action, which is expected as early as today.

"Pandemonium is what I expect in terms of demand for this stock," says Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPO Boutique, an advisory firm. "I don't think Wall Street would want to anger Facebook users."

The most successful young technology companies have a history of doing things differently.

Google's IPO prospectus contained a letter from its founders to investors that said the company believed in the motto "Don't be evil".

Facebook declined to comment, but Reena Aggarwal, a finance professor who has studied IPOs at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, believes Mark Zuckerberg will emulate Google's philosophy, at least in principle.

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted an IPO accessible to all investors, and said so in their first regulatory filing.

Facebook may say something similar when it files to declare its intention to sell stock publicly.

Facebook is expected to raise as much as $US10 billion ($A9.45 billion), which will value the company at $US75 billion to $US100 billion, making it one of the largest IPOs.

A stock usually starts trading three to four months after the filing.

The highly anticipated filing will reveal how much Facebook intends to raise from the stock market, what it plans to do with the money and details on its own financial performance and future growth prospects.

Along with Wall Street investment banks, Google used a Dutch auction, named for a means of selling flowers in Holland, to sell its shares. It took private bids and allowed investors to say how many shares they wanted and what they were willing to pay.

The process wasn't smooth, though, and Google had to slash its expected offer price at the last minute. If you bought at the IPO, for roughly $US85 a share, you still did well: Google closed today at $US580.

More recently, when it filed for an IPO last June, Groupon, which emails daily deals on products and services to its members, added a letter from its 30-year-old founder, Andrew Mason.

It's almost become conventional for tech companies to include an unconventional letter when they make their stock market debut. It's widely expected that Mr Zuckerberg, in the very least measure of showmanship, will write one.

But IPO watchers wonder whether there might be a provision specifically designed to give the little-guy investor, even the casual Facebook user who doesn't invest, a piece of the debut.

"There is a feeling that there will be something unique in store for Facebook users," Ms Aggarwal says.

When most companies go public, they let Wall Street investment banks handle everything, with the sweet ground-floor stock price reserved for big institutional investors.

But that probably won't do for Facebook, created in a Harvard University dorm room eight years ago.

Or Mr Zuckerberg, whose anti-establishment credentials include spurning a $US15 billion takeover offer from Microsoft.

Few expect Zuckerberg to offer a Dutch auction because of the Google experience. But he is at least as unorthodox as Google's founders.

People expect him to be in the driver's seat on Wall Street, rather than hand over the controls to bankers.

Ann Sherman, associate professor and IPO expert at DePaul University, raised the possibility that Facebook could set aside a portion of its shares for the small investor and use a lottery system if there is a lot of demand.

But Mr Zuckerberg will also probably be careful how he plays his cards. He doesn't want to anger Facebook users, but his primary goal is to raise money.

The recent experience of Groupon's faltering IPO holds tough lessons for young entrepreneurs.

After analysts started questioning its accounting, Groupon had to amend its regulatory filing several times.

Other companies have encountered problems when they went public and tried to reward customers.

Upstart internet phone company Vonage wanted to give customers a chance to buy up to 15 per cent of its 31 million shares at its IPO at $US17 apiece.

But when the shares fell 13 per cent on the first day of trading, many of its small investors that had put in orders to buy didn't want to pay the offer price.

It gained the dubious title of one of the worst IPOs that year, something Facebook wants to avoid. REF: "http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/facebook-initial-public-offering-expected-within-hours/story-e6frf7ko-1226259216780"

Smallest extra solar planet discovered

LONDON: A European satellite has discovered the smallest planet outside of our solar system, which is twice as large as earth and orbiting a star slightly smaller than the sun.

The planet is believed to be composed of rock and water, and takes 20 hours to orbit its host star, the shortest orbital period of all exoplanets found so far. Astronomers infer its temperature over 1,000 degree Celsius, hot enough to make it covered in lava or superheated water vapour.

Most of the 330 or so exoplanets discovered so far are giant planets, primarily composed of gas, like Jupiter and Neptune. This new object, named CoRoT-Exo-7b, is very different, said an LESIA release.

"Finding such a small planet wasn't a complete surprise," said Daniel Rouan, from Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA) in Paris, who announced the discovery on Tuesday.

Alain Leger from the Institut d'Astrophysique de Marseille, leader of the discovery paper, explained: "It could be an example of a so-called ocean planet, whose existence was predicted some years ago. A Neptune-like planet, made of ice around a rocky core, drifts so close to its star, the ice melting to form a fluid envelope." Such small planets are extremely difficult to detect.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health__Science/Science/Smallest_extra_solar_planet_discovered/articleshow/4074983.cms

Africa the birthplace of human language, analysis suggests

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2011) — Psychologists from The University of Auckland have just published two major studies on the diversity of the world's languages in the journals Science and Nature.

The first study, published in Science by Dr Quentin Atkinson, provides strong evidence for Africa as the birthplace of human language.

An analysis of languages from around the world suggests that, like our genes, human speech originated -- just once -- in sub-Saharan Africa. Atkinson studied the phonemes, or the perceptually distinct units of sound that differentiate words, used in 504 human languages today and found that the number of phonemes is highest in Africa and decreases with increasing distance from Africa.

The fewest phonemes are found in South America and on tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean. This pattern fits a "serial founder effect" model in which small populations on the edge of an expansion progressively lose diversity. Dr Atkinson notes that this pattern of phoneme usage around the world mirrors the pattern of human genetic diversity, which also declined as humans expanded their range from Africa to colonise other regions.

In general, the areas of the globe that were most recently colonised incorporate fewer phonemes into the local languages whereas the areas that have hosted modern humans for millennia (particularly sub-Saharan Africa) still use the most phonemes.

This decline in phoneme usage cannot be explained by demographic shifts or other local factors, and it provides strong evidence for an African origin of modern human languages -- as well as parallel mechanisms that slowly shaped both genetic and linguistic diversity among humans.

The second study, published in Nature by University of Auckland researchers Professor Russell Gray and Dr Simon Greenhill and their colleagues Michael Dunn and Stephen Levinson at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands challenges the idea that the human brain produces universal rules for language.

"The diversity of the world's language is amazing," says Professor Gray. "There are about 7,000 languages spoken today, some with just a dozen contrastive sounds, others with more than 100, some with complex patterns of word formation, others with simple words only, some with the verb at the beginning of the sentence, some in the middle, and some at the end."

"Our work shows that the claims some linguists have made for a really strong role of the innate structure of the human mind in shaping linguistic variation have been hugely oversold," he says.

Using computational methods derived from evolutionary biology, Gray and his team analysed the global patterns of word-order evolution. Instead of universal patterns of dependencies in word-order features, they found that each language family had its own evolutionary tendencies.

"When it comes to language evolution, culture trumps cognition," Gray observes.

Africa the birthplace of human language, analysis suggests

Lights and flat-panel displays: Researchers 'brighten' the future of organic light-emitting diode technology

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2011) — Chlorine is an abundant and readily available halogen gas commonly associated with the sanitation of swimming pools and drinking water. Could a one-atom thick sheet of this element revolutionize the next generation of flat-panel displays and lighting technology?

In the case of Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) devices, it most certainly can. Primary researchers Michael G. Helander (PhD Candidate and Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar), Zhibin Wang (PhD Candidate), and led by Professor Zheng-Hong Lu of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto, have found a simple method of using chlorine to drastically reduce traditional OLED device complexity and dramatically improve its efficiency all at the same time. By engineering a one-atom thick sheet of chlorine onto the surface of an existing industry-standard electrode material (indium tin oxide, ITO) found in today's flat-panel displays, these researchers have created a medium that allows for efficient electrical transport while eliminating the need for several costly layers found in traditional OLED devices.

"It turns out that it's remarkably easy to engineer this one-atom thick layer of chlorine onto the surface of ITO," says Helander. "We developed a UV light assisted process to achieve chlorination, which negates the need for chlorine gas, making the entire procedure safe and reliable."

The team tested their green-emitting "Cl-OLED" against a conventional OLED and found that the efficiency was more than doubled at very high brightness. "OLEDs are known for their high-efficiency," says Helander. "However, the challenge in conventional OLEDs is that as you increase the brightness, the efficiency drops off rapidly."

Using their chlorinated ITO, this team of advanced materials researchers found that they were able to prevent this drop off and achieve a record efficiency of 50% at 10,000 cd/m2 (a standard florescent light has a brightness of approximately 8,000 cd/m2), which is at least two times more efficient than the conventional OLED.

"Our Cl-ITO eliminates the need for several stacked layers found in traditional OLEDs, reducing the number of manufacturing steps and equipment, which ultimately cuts down on the costs associated with setting up a production line," says Professor Zheng-Hong Lu.

"This effectively lowers barriers for mass production and thereby accelerates the adoption of OLED devices into mainstream flat-panel displays and other lighting technologies."

The results of this work are published online in the journal Science on April 14, 2011.

Lights and flat-panel displays: Researchers 'brighten' the future of organic light-emitting diode technology

Soon, cell phones to be powered by conversations!

Tue, Sep 14 01:05 PM
Washington, Sep 14 (ANI): The more you talk, the longer your cell phone battery will last - that's the future scientists have predicted with a new technology that converts sound to electricity.

Scientists from Korea have turned the main ingredient of calamine lotion into a tiny material that converts sound waves into electricity, reports Discovery News.

The research could lead to panels that can charge a cell phone from a conversation or provide a boost of energy to the nation's electrical grid generated by the noise during rush hour traffic.

Using zinc oxide, the main ingredient in calamine lotion, Young Jun Park, Sang-Woo Kim and their colleagues created a field of nanowires sandwiched between two electrodes.

The researchers blasted that sandwich with sound waves, which at 100 decibels were not quite as loud as a rock concert. A normal conversation is about 60-70 decibels.

The sound waves produced a mild electrical current of about 50 millivolts. The average cell phone requires a few volts to operate, several times the power this technology can currently produce.

"Just as speakers transform electric signals into sound, the opposite process-of turning sound into a source of electrical power -- is possible," Discovery News quoted Young Jun Park and Sang-Woo Kim, the two corresponding authors of the new article, as saying.

"Sound power can be used for various novel applications including mobile phones that can be charged during conversations and sound-insulating walls near highways that generate electricity from the sound of passing vehicles," the co-authors added.

The study has been published in the journal Advanced Materials. (ANI)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100914/862/ttc-soon-cell-phones-to-be-powered-by-co_1.html

Mobile phones to be recharged wirelessly from 2012!

Thu, Sep 16 11:40 AM
London, Sep 16 (ANI): Cell phone users may soon be able to recharge their devices wirelessly.

Japanese technology company Fujitsu has developed a system capable of simultaneously charging multiple portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras and laptop computers without the need for cable connections.

Electric cars users may also eventually be able to charge their vehicles wirelessly using the same technology according to Fujitsu, which unveiled a prototype system at an Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers conference at Osaka Prefecture University.

Claiming to be the world's first of its kind, the technology works on the basis of the transmission of electricity using magnetic fields between the charger and the electronic device.

The system enables wireless charging at distances of up to several metres, with the ultimate aim of installing public "charging spots" on the streets in order to enable easy charging around the clock.

Scientists at Fujitsu Laboratories are planning to commercially sell products incorporating the new wireless charging system as early as 2012 but did not disclose how much they would cost.

"This technology paves the way to integrating compact wireless charging functions into mobile phones and enabling multiple portable devices to be charged simultaneously without any restrictions on their position with respect to the charger," the Telegraph quoted the company as saying in a statement. (ANI)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100916/868/ttc-mobile-phones-to-be-recharged-wirele_1.html

Scientists develop alternative to X-rays

Wed, Sep 22 06:09 PM
Doctors may soon be able to see a patient's innards in normal light without X-rays, as French scientists claim to have found a new way to decipher the little light that passes through opaque materials.

When light passes through materials that we consider opaque, such as paint, biological tissue, fabric and paper, it is scattered in such a complex way that an image does not come through.

But, now physicist Sylvain Gigan and his colleagues at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution in Paris said they have that found they can actually reconstruct complex images from light passing through these barriers.

The key, they said, is to know precisely how the barriers interfere with this light, the LiveScience reported.

For their research, Gigan and his team first shone a green laser beam at a layer of zinc oxide -- a common ingredient in white paints -- that was roughly 80 microns thick, or slightly thinner than a human hair.

By analysing the pattern of light that passed through, the researchers generated a formula called a "transmission matrix" that made sense of the seemingly random way the light was scattered by the barrier.

With this knowledge, they were able to reconstruct a 32-pixel by 32-pixel image of a five-petal flower projected onto the zinc oxide.

However, the researchers said the see-through vision was not perfect as a lot of the information needed to reconstruct images gets lost when the light gets scattered, making the images look grainy.

It also won't find use in trying to look through walls, unless they are very thin indeed -- looking through a 100-millimeter wall would prove a million times harder than looking through a wall 100 microns thick.

Still, their method could one day be used to peer inside bodies, Gigan said.

That would require their system to be roughly 1,000 times faster than it currently is, to make up for all the scattering generated by the movements of living tissue.

"A microelectromechanical array that uses tiny mirrors to quickly divert laser beams back and forth over a surface to scan it should provide for the 1,000 times speed increase we are looking for," Gigan said.

The new findings are published online in the journal Nature Communications.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100922/1243/ttc-scientists-develop-alternative-to-x_1.html

Soon, swipe cell phone to pay for shopaholics' purchases

Thu, Sep 23 05:26 PM
A mobile phone that can be swiped at the till to make instant purchases may soon end the need to carry cash or even a wallet.

Although it has yet to go into full commercial use, after five months of a six-month trial in the Spanish resort of Sitges near Barcelona, the results of the hi-tech new payment method look impressive.

Locals were given 1,500 Samsung phones fitted with special SIM cards and security chips for use at 500 businesses, reports the Sun.

And more than half of users are still regularly paying by phone, with the average sale an impressive 31 euros (26.50 pounds).

The innovation is the result of collaboration between payment company Visa, mobile operator Telefonica - the owners of O2 - and Spanish bank la Caixa.

For anything under 20 euros, the retailer just keys in the amount or scans the barcode before the phone is swiped across the front of a sensor.

Larger purchases require a four-digit PIN number, which adds security should the phone fall into the wrong hands.

Phones can be pre-loaded with cash or linked directly to a bank account.

As well as being a payment system, security passes for work, gym membership or even Oyster cards for London commuters can also be added.

However there are still some major obstacles. For the system to work, the mobile needs to use a SIM card with a payment function built in, plus a supporting secure chip similar to a top-up memory card. And there needs to be enough financial incentive for the mobile operators to join in.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20100923/1243/ttc-soon-swipe-cell-phone-to-pay-for-sho.html

India switches over to cleaner petrol, diesel

Thu, Sep 23 05:45 PM
New Delhi, Sep 23 (PTI) The country has fully switched over to cleaner Euro-III and Euro-IV petrol and diesel as of yesterday and well ahead of the October one deadline, Minister of State for Petroleum Jitin Prasada said today. "We launched Euro-IV grade petrol and diesel in 13 big cities from April 1 and Euro-III grade fuel was to be introduced in the rest of the country in phases by October one.

We introduced Euro-III petrol and diesel in North Eastern states (the last of the regions) yesterday," he told reporters here. With this, the launch of ultra low sulphur and benzene fuel has been completed ahead of schedule, he said.

"The roll-over happened without a glitch. There are no disruptions of fuel (supplies) anywhere in the country.

" When Euro-IV grade fuel was launched in April, petrol prices were increased by Rs 0.50 a litre and diesel by Rs 0.26 per litre. For introduction of Euro-III grade, petrol prices have been raised by Rs 0.26 per litre and diesel by Rs 0.21 a litre in phases as the fuels were introduced throughout the country.

"There will be no further increase in prices as a result of introduction of Euro-III fuel. Whatever had to be done, has already been done," Prasada said.

He said public sector firms spent over Rs 32,000 crore in upgrading refineries to produce higher quality fuel. "This (introduction of Euro-III and IV grade fuel) will considerably improve the air quality with reduction in emission of pollutants in fuels.

" As against the approved scheduled of introducing Euro-III fuel by October one, introduction of higher grade petrol was advanced in 20 states and that of diesel in 23 states. In the last leg, Bharat Stage-III (the India equivalent of Euro-III) petrol and diesel has been introduced in the seven North Eastern States on September 22, he said.

The government had already introduced BS-IV (the India equivalent of Euro-IV grade) petrol and diesel in all 13 identified cities (NCR of Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Solapur, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) on a single day effective April 1, 2010. The Auto Fuel Policy had prescribed a road map for introduction of BS-IV and BS-III grades of petrol and diesel (equivalent to Euro III and Euro-IV Petrol and Diesel) in the country.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20100923/1416/tnl-india-switches-over-to-cleaner-petro.html

3D soccer arrives in Germany after England

The soccer fans of England watched the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester United on a television, broadcasted live by Sky Sports, at a pub in London, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010. British pay-TV broadcaster Sky transmitted their first 3D soccer match to selected venues around the UK on that.
After successful testing in Englan, the German pay-TV Channel Sky Deutschland has announced their plans to broadcast the Bundesliga football game between Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburger SV on 14 March to a select audience in Munich in HD 3D. This will be the first time effort of 3D football teleast in the world . The game will be produced in 3D by DFL and Sportcast.Former German international Franz Beckenbauer will present in the match.

Deputy CEO of Sky Deutschland told “ We're going one step further,with the first live HD 3D production in Germany." The match will be telecasted in BWIN, ESPN HD UK, ESPN UK, German Sports, Setanta Sports Australia.

A separate version of the match will be captured for the 3D audience. Presenter Jessica Kastrop and commentator Kai Dittmann will host the transmission that will use multiple 3D cameras.Samsung's first 3D models - 46-inch and 55-inch flat panels starting at $2,340 - are available for pre-order on Amazon.com and Sears. com

Fifa has signed an agreement with Sony to film up to 25 games from the finals in South Africa in 3D. Fans will be able to watch the games on 3D-ready televisions at home or at special public screens in seven cities around the world, including London, using special glasses.

Now, you can recommend places to click on Mars!

Fri, May 29 02:05 PM
Washington, May 29 (ANI): Arizona State University (ASU) researchers and scientists have created a new feature for Google Earth 5.0, which would enable anyone, anywhere, to recommend places on Mars to photograph. Google Earth 5.0 is the popular online application that lets users tour Earth, the starry sky, and the Red Planet Mars. The ASU team has created two new features for the application, one of which lets anyone, anywhere, recommend places on Mars to photograph with ASU's THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. The second new feature shows the most recent infrared images of Mars sent back to Earth from the THEMIS camera.HEMIS is the Thermal Emission Imaging System, a multiband infrared and visual camera designed at ASU by Dr. Philip Christensen. According to Dr. Christensen, "These two features, developed by our staff in cooperation with programmers at Google, will help everyone have a lot more fun exploring the Red Planet. It's public engagement at its best." "We wanted to give the general public a way to suggest places on Mars for THEMIS to photograph," he added. "Using the new feature, people can recommend sites, and these recommendations go to mission scientists who will decide what areas THEMIS images. If a public suggestion matches what the researchers choose, we'll notify the person who suggested the site and let them see the image as soon as we do," he further added. To suggest a place for THEMIS to photograph, viewers need two things: Google Earth 5.0 and a file that is updated each week giving the spacecraft's Mars orbital ground track. To get the orbital track, users should go to http://suggest.mars.asu.edu and follow the simple steps to register. With the orbital track file downloaded, viewers start Google Earth and switch the globe to Mars (via the Planets toolbar button, which resembles the planet Saturn). Then, viewers open the orbital track file from within Google Earth. Viewers can also just double-click on the orbital file once Google Earth has been set to Mars as its planet. The places where THEMIS can take images during the coming week appear as stripes wrapped onto the Martian globe. Viewers click on stripe segments to recommend places for THEMIS to photograph. "Each viewer can make up to 10 imaging suggestions per week," said Christian Yates, software engineer at the Mars Space Flight Facility. (ANI)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090529/981/tsc-now-you-can-recommend-places-to-clic.html

"Missing link" found

Yesterday, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, a revolutionary discovery -- one that will stand as a milestone for paleontologists and evolutionists everywhere -- was announced. Scientists based at the University of Oslo have discovered “Ida,” also known as Darwinius masillae, a 47-million-year-old fossil that has been proclaimed the “missing link” in connecting human skeletal structure to early mammals.

Scientists found Ida in Messel Pit, Germany and soon found out that she is about twenty times older than most fossils related to human evolution. What makes Ida so special is that despite her classification as an early prosimian (lemurs), she has certain undeniable human characteristics such as forward facing eyes and even an opposable thumb.

This is an exciting and validating day for scientists everywhere. Broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough has said: “This little creature is going to show us our connection with all the rest of the mammals.”

Head on over to The Link for pictures, video and more information about Ida and the team of researchers behind her. Also don’t miss what’s up at the open source journal PLoS One to read about the scientists’ findings.
News link: http://blog.ted.com/2009/05/darwin_validate.php
Photo link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090519-missing-link-found.html

Now, software that allows laptops to shout for help when stolen!

London Mar 2 (ANI): Scientists have developed a computer program that allows laptops to shout for help if they have been stolen.
The program, called Retriever, has been developed by a software company called Front Door Software Corporation, reports the Telegraph.
Retriever enables users to display alerts on the missing computer's screen and even to set a spoken message such as a shout or a warning.
Tracking software for stolen laptops has been on the market for some time, but this is understood to be the first that allows owners to activate recorded messages, according to The Times.
Owners must report their laptop missing by logging on to a website, which sends a message to the computer, triggering on-screen messages of warning to the thief and voice alerts.
The 21-pound software, designed by the Colorado-based firm, also collects information if the stolen laptop is being used to access the Internet so that the police can be alerted to its location. (ANI)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20090302/862/ttc-now-software-that-allows-laptops-to.html

cricket live

UAE is building network of driverless electric taxis

United Arab Emirates, land awash in petroleum, why are you so ahead of us with your gasoline-free Masdar City (near Abu Dhabi)? Well, the Emirates are awash in another key ingredient — petrodollars. But look at what they’ve done with all that cash: PRT (personal rapid transit), driverless electric taxis that take to the streets later this year. When the system’s fully built, planners say the podcars will be able to deliver riders within 100 meters of any location in the city. The whole network of tracks for the cars will be two stories beneath street level.

The cost? Its creators say the system will pay for itself by charging riders the same price they’d pay for an equivalent taxi ride. Similar podcars are in use at Heathrow Airport near London, but never have they been deployed on such a city-wide scale.
http://www.gadgetted.com/msn/?p=3998

NASA, Google launch Mars exploration

WASHINGTON: NASA and Google announced the release of a new Mars mode in Google Earth that brings to everyone's desktop a high-resolution, three-dimensional view of the red planet. Besides providing a rich, immersive three dimensional view of Mars that will aid public understanding of Mars science, the new mode, Google Mars 3D, also gives researchers a platform for sharing data similar to what Google Earth provides for Earth scientists. The mode enables users to fly virtually through enormous canyons and scale huge mountains on Mars that are much larger than any found on Earth. Users also can explore the planet through the eyes of the Mars rovers and other Mars missions, providing a unique perspective of the entire planet. Users can see some of the latest satellite imagery from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other probes orbiting the planet. Viewers can learn about new discoveries and explore indexes of available Mars imagery. The new Mars mode also allows users to add their own 3D content to the Mars map to share with the world. The announcement is the latest benefit from a Space Act Agreement that NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, signed with Google in November 2006. Under its terms, NASA and Google agreed to collaborate to make NASA's data sets available to the world.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health__Science/Science/NASA_Google_launch_Mars_exploration_/articleshow/4068689.cms