INDIC SCIENCE PICK
SUCCESS FLIGHT: Solar Impulse Piccard celebrates after first successful night flight attempt
Technology
Mobile charging stations to ensure electric cars never run out of batteryDrivers, who are fearing they could be left stranded if the battery of their electric vehicles run out of charge, can now breath a sigh of relief, for researchers have now devised a solution to the problem- portable charging stations.
- Dark silicon GreenDroid chip to boost smartphone battery life, performance
- Now, a ‘Star Trek’-style medical ‘tricorder’ to diagnose all ills
- Wonder conductors to keep your laptops and mobiles cooler
- Mobile phone set to detect cancer
- Bomb detection technology to detect fake medicines in developing countries
Medicine and Research
Fat cells are not just dormant storage depots for calories, but an active organThe fat tissue in those spare tires and lower belly pooches – is not just a dormant storage depot for surplus calories, but is an active organ that sends chemical signals to other parts of the body, perhaps increasing the risk of heart attacks, cancer, and other diseases, according to scientists.
Environment
How noise pollution affects marine lifeAn international team of researchers has developed an approach that integrates advanced computing, X-ray CT scanners, and modern computational methods that give a 3D simulated look inside the head of a Cuvier’s beaked whale, in a bid to understand the effects of noise pollution on marine life better.
- Controlling urban growth, increasing forested land may prevent floods
- ‘Aquamation’, the greenest way to dispose off mortal remains
- New satellite images reveal how world’s mangrove forests have declined
- Scientists admit goof up in oil spill report, say 80 pc oil still remains
- No concrete proof to pin Leh cloudburst on global warming: Experts
Pure Sciences
Even bacteria exhibit charitable behaviourIn a surprising discovery researchers at Boston University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard have found that charitable behaviour exists in one of the most microscopic forms of life-bacteria.
Space
2001 Indian ‘red rain’ showered earth with ‘alien life’, claim theoristsAfter nine years of research, panspermia theorists have said that the ‘red’ rains that occurred in India in July 2001 contained bugs that were unlike anything ever found on the Earth, suggesting that it may be an alien form of life.
Automobiles
New material for crash components promises to make cars saferIn a bid to make vehicles 'crash' safe, researchers have now found a way for the automotive industry to mass-produce a particularly safe class of materials known as thermoplastic fibre composite components.
- Brothers ‘delay’ puberty in younger sisters
- Renault’s 12-second strip-tease challenge for it’s brand new car in UK
- Car lighting makeover makes driving safer and delightful: BMW engineers
- Human-powered ‘hybrid’ car can clock 30mph uphill
- Wireless systems in cars may compromise drivers’ privacy, pose security threat
Design and Gadgets
Wonder conductors to keep your laptops and mobiles coolerIt’s a common phenomenon for laptops and mobiles to become blisteringly hot after an hour or two of use, but a new wonder conductor could change all that.
- Bangalore software engineer designs computer software for illiterates
- Coming soon: A little black dress that’s also a phone
- Soon, Nike to unveil shoes that tie themselves
- After 600 years, world’s oldest clock ‘to be wound by hand for the last time’
- ‘Copenhagen Wheel’ bicycle uses peddlers’ energy to zoom uphill
Internet and ITES
Facebook ‘engagement announcement’ adds two more to its murder tallyA North Carolina woman was found shot dead by her ex-boyfriend after she recently announced her engagement to another man on Facebook.