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| Plants may adapt faster to climate change than previously thought, new study shows |
 A new study suggests that plants can adapt to changing climatic conditions more efficiently than previously thought, making the onset of climate change less of a concern for plant species around the world. Jodrell Laboratory in the London Botanical Gardens has discovered that plants can alter specific components of their genetic make-up to suit rising temperatures and varying levels of rainfall that would otherwise take hundred of years to develop through natural selection, via a process known as epigenetics .
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· subodh on August 12 2010 11:00:00 ·
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| Researcher claims solution to P vs NP math problem |
 Vinay Deolalikar, a mathematician who works for HP Labs, claims to have proven that P is not equal to NP. The problem is the greatest unsolved problem in theoretical computer science and is one of seven problems in which the Clay Mathematics Institute has offered million dollar prizes to the solutions.
The question of whether P equals NP essentially asks whether there exist problems which take a long time to solve but whose solutions can be checked quickly. More formally, a problem is said to be in P if there is a program for a Turing machine, an ideal theoretical computer with unbounded amounts of memory, such that running instances of the problem through the program will always answer the question in polynomial time — time always bounded by some fixed polynomial power of the length of the input. A problem is said to be in NP, if the problem can be solved in polynomial time when instead of being run on a Turing machine, it is run on a non-deterministic Turing machine, which is like a Turing machine but is able to make copies of itself to try different approaches to the problem simultaneously.
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· subodh on August 11 2010 11:00:00
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| Technical troubles hold up International Space Station repairs |
 A faulty ammonia line fitting delayed repairs to a cooling pump on the International Space Station Saturday during an eight-hour spacewalk.
During the spacewalk, astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson were to repair a faulty cooling system, which failed on July 31. The faulty cooling unit was to be swapped with a new one that was previously in storage to solve the problem; however, an ammonia leak in the final line to be disconnected from the unit halted attempts for a repair.
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· subodh on August 09 2010 11:00:00
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| Northern lights may appear across Canada and northern U.S. late Tuesday night |
Forecasters predict that northern lights could be visible to the naked eye late tonight and early tomorrow morning across Canada, northern parts of the U.S., and possibly the United Kingdom.
Solar storms caused a large ejection of plasma from the Sun's surface on Sunday, and the plasma is heading directly towards Earth. The plasma, a cloud of rapidly moving hydrogen gas atoms and subatomic particles, is expected to reach us late Tuesday. The plasma will interact with the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, which will cause northern lights, or aurora borealis, to be visible much further south than is usual. Northern lights usually appear as green or red rivers of lights across the sky.
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· subodh on August 03 2010 11:00:00
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| Emergency spacewalks planned to fix International Space Station |
NASA is scrambling to solidify plans to fix the broken down cooling systems on the International Space Station during two spacewalks, currently planned for Friday and Monday. The systems broke down late Saturday July 31, triggering alarms that woke the six astronauts (three Russian and three American) currently onboard the station. NASA's flight controller said the astronauts are not in any danger, but that science experiments are on hold until the problem can be fixed.
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· subodh on August 03 2010 11:00:00
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| Astronomers discover largest star on record |
European astronomers have discovered the largest star yet on record; it is approximately 300 times the mass of our sun, beyond the previously accepted limit of 150 solar masses.
Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics at the University of Sheffield, led the team of researchers that discovered the star. The team used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, and data archived from the Hubble Space Telescope. The newly discovered star, designated R136a1, was discovered in the R136 star cluster.
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· subodh on July 21 2010 11:00:00
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| Researchers discover last common ancestor of apes and monkeys |
Researchers have unearthed a new fossil primate that they think may be closely related to the common ancestor of apes and Old World monkeys, collectively known as catarrhine primates. Paleontologist Iyad Zalmout of the University of Michigan discovered the new species, Saadanius hijazensis near Mecca in Saudi Arabia; the discovery gives new insights into human evolution.
The specimen, a partial skull, dates to the Oligocene, approximately 29 to 28 million years ago, and exhibits puncture wounds from a large predator that may have killed it.
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· subodh on July 16 2010 11:00:00
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| Rosetta spacecraft passes Lutetia asteroid |
The unmanned Rosetta spacecraft made its closest approach to the Lutetia asteroid Saturday. Rosetta flew within 3,162 kilometers of the asteroid. The spacecraft took high-resolution photos and searched for traces of an atmosphere and magnetic effects. It also studied the composition and mass of the asteroid.
"As Rosetta drew close, a giant bowl-shaped depression stretching across much of the asteroid rotated into view," said Holger Sierks of the Max Planck Institute, "The images confirm that Lutetia is an elongated body, with its longest side around 130 kilometers. I think this is a very old object. Tonight we have seen a remnant of the Solar System's creation." Around 400 photographs were taken during the flyby; however, it will take several days for in-depth data to be transferred to Earth.
"Little is known about asteroid Lutetia other than it is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) wide," says American project scientist Claudia Alexander, "Allowing Rosetta's suite of science instruments to focus on this target of opportunity should greatly expand our knowledge of this huge space rock, while at the same time giving the mission's scientific instruments a real out-of-this-world workout."
The Lutetia asteroid is the largest asteroid yet visited by a spacecraft. Throughout its 4.5 billion year lifespan, its surface has been bombarded repeatedly by other space debris. Very little is known about the asteroid and scientists hope that this flyby will help determine the asteroid's origin. They hope to make their findings public at the Europlanet conference in Rome, Italy, late this September.
The Rosetta spacecraft, a project led by the European Space Agency, flew by the asteroid on its way to the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. Launched in 2004, the spacecraft is expected to arrive at its final destination in 2014. Once there, it will deploy the Philae lander to explore the comet's surface. The spacecraft's visit to this asteroid marks the final major scientific milestone before it is put into hibernation mode to be reactivated in 2011.
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· subodh on July 12 2010 11:00:00
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| Solar-powered plane completes 26-hour flight |
The Solar Impulse, an experimental solar-powered airplane, landed in Switzerland on Thursday after completing a successful 26-hour test flight. The flight was a proof-of-concept displaying that a solar-powered aircraft can accumulate enough power from the sun during the day to power it through the night. The team that designed and built the aircraft believes that, in theory, the plane could fly indefinitely, given that there is enough sunlight to power it.
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· subodh on July 08 2010 11:00:00
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| South Korean Naro-1 space rocket explodes after take-off |
South Korea has lost contact with its Naro-1 rocket, just 137 seconds after take-off. Officials believe the rocket exploded.
Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center had hoped to use a Naro-1, South Korea's first carrier rocket, to launch a STSAT-2B satellite.
South Korea had postponed the launch on Wednesday due to problems with the rocket's fire extinguisher system. Science Ministry spokesman Pyun Kyung-bum said, "We expect that it will be difficult to launch today".
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· subodh on June 10 2010 11:00:00
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| Nurseries not harmful to children, says new UK study |
A new study by a professor at the University of Oxford has concluded that attending nursery school does not have harmful effects upon "the vast majority" of children under two years old. The research contrasts with the views of other writers in the field, who argue that pre-school children achieve the best results when cared for by their parents full-time.
Kathy Sylva, Professor of Educational Psychology at the university, has based her findings upon data from the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education Project. This has been running since 1996, tracking the development of 3,000 children to discover the effects upon their development of pre-school care and education.
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· subodh on June 08 2010 11:00:00
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