ISRO to outsource rocket-work to private companies

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is ready to outsource high-end work to private companies – from building more complicated systems to assembling it. Proposals are being readied wherein private participation will be invited to build and run competing systems. The commercial-aerospace industry is now eager to play a larger role in the space missions and tap the outsourcing work offered by ISRO which has an annual budget of $1.01 billion for 2009-2010. It has a spending blueprint of Rs 12,400 crore ($3 billion) for its manned space exploration and around Rs 425 crore will be spent for the second unmanned lunar mission — Chandrayaan-2. It also has huge spending plans for missions to Mars and various domestic and international satellite launches.

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Read More: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

 

Rapid Supernova Could Be New Class Of Exploding Star

Artist's impression of an AM-CVn star system. (Credit: Tony Piro)

An unusual supernova rediscovered in seven-year-old data may be the first example of a new type of exploding star, possibly from a binary star system where helium flows from one white dwarf onto another and detonates in a thermonuclear explosion.In a paper first published online Nov. 5 in the journal Science Express, University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) astronomer Dovi Poznanski and his colleagues In a paper first published online Nov. 5 in the journal Science Express, University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) astronomer Dovi Poznanski and his colleagues  and why they believe SN 2002bj is a new type of explosion.

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Alps Growing Or Shrinking?

The Matterhorn, in the Alps. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The Alps are growing just as quickly in height as they are shrinking according to a new study by a group of German and Swiss geoscientists.Due to glaciers and rivers, about exactly the same amount of material is eroded from the slopes of the Alps as is regenerated from the deep Earth’s crust. In the latest volume of the science magazine Tectonophysics ( No. 474, S.236-249) the scientists show that today’s uplifting of the Alps is driven by  climatic variations.The Alps are constantly rising, although they have been deemed “dead” in a tectonic sense. Instead of plate forces it is the strong climatic variations since the beginning of the so-called quaternary glacial before approximately 2.5 million years, to which mountain slopes in particular have been reacting so sensitively. This holds the Alps in motion.

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Sprites

Sprites are large scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to  varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground. Sprites are colored reddish-orange in the upper regions, with bluish hanging tendrils below, and can be preceded by a reddish halo.  Sporadic visual reports of sprites go back at least to 1886, but they were first photographed on July 6, 1989 by scientists from the University of Minnesota and have subsequently been captured in video recordings many thousands of times.

Sprites have been observed over North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Southern Africa (Zaire), Australia, the Sea of Japan, and Asia and are believed to occur during most large thunderstorm systems. Sprites appear as luminous reddish-orange flashes, last longer than normal lower stratospheric discharges (typically a few milliseconds)(an unconfirmed observation of 4 sprites lasting over 1 hour in Zaire circa 1995), and are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between the thundercloud and the ground. They often occur in clusters of two or more, and typically span the altitude range 50 kilometers (31 mi) to 90 kilometers (56 mi), with what appear to be tendrils hanging below, and branches reaching above.

Sprites are actually clusters of small, decameter-sized (10-100 m, 30-300 ft) balls of ionization that are launched at an altitude of about 80 km and then move downward at speeds of up to ten percent the speed of light, followed a few milliseconds later by a separate set of upward moving balls of ionization.

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wikipedia

African Desert Rift is New Ocean In The Making

New research confirms that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world's oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea. (Credit: Imagery (c) 2009 TerraMetrics. Map data (c) 2009 Europa Technologies / Courtesy of Google Maps)

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial.

Now, scientists from several countries have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world’s oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea.A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a sea is in the region’s future.

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The Red Sea Parts Again

Free GPS navigation to mobile phones

 

 

Google unveiled a free navigation system for mobile phones in a move seen as a potential challenge to the makers of standalone GPS navigation devices.US telecom carrier Verizon Wireless and US handset maker Motorola announced simultaneously that a smartphone going on sale in the United States, the Droid, would be the first to feature Google Maps Navigation.The Droid, which will cost 200 dollars and is being touted as a challenger to Apple’s iPhone and the Blackberry from Research in Motion, is powered by Android 2.0 software, Google’s next-generation mobile phone operating system.Google Maps Navigation, which will only work on smartphones running Android 2.0, includes many of the features of a traditional GPS device such as 3D map views and turn-by-turn voice guidance.Google’s Internet-connected system allows navigation using voice search in English, provides live traffic updates, includes satellite imagery from Google Maps and features “street view” — real ground-level pictures of destinations. Google Maps Navigation also allows users to conduct a search along their route for gas stations or restaurants, for example.Verizon and Motorola said the Droid, which features a touchscreen, a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, a five-megapixel camera and DVD-quality video capture and playback, will go on sale in the United States on November 6.Verizon is the latest US telecom carrier or manufacturer to adopt Android software in a bid to mount a challenge to the Blackberry and iPhone.

Source : http://tech.yahoo.com

 

 

Hurricane History Recorded in Earth’s Noise

Hurricanes leave their mark with more than just wind damage and flooded lives. According to a research in the North Atlantic Ocean, these powerful storms also make a small but detectable mark on the rhythm of the Earth’s background noise.The discovery may help scientists detect previously undocumented hurricanes in the planet’s past. Getting a more accurate picture of that stormy past,  may finally help determine whether hurricanes are becoming more frequent or more powerful as a result of global warming.Some evidence suggests a connection, but no one knows for sure, mostly because the records are so spotty.

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Culture Drives Evolution

Culture, not just genes, can drive evolutionary outcomes, according to a study  that compares individualist and group-oriented societies across the globe.The study looks at the interplay across 29 countries of two sets of data, one genetic and the other cultural.It was found that most people in countries widely described as collectivist have a specific mutation within a gene regulating the transport of serotonin, a neurochemical known to profoundly affect mood.

In China and other east Asian nations,  up to 80 percent of the population carry this so-called “short” allele, or variant, of a stretch of DNA known as 5-HTTLPR.Earlier research has shown the S allele to be strongly linked with a range of negative emotions, including anxiety and depression.It is also associated with the impulse to stay out of harm’s way.By contrast, in countries of European origin that prize self-expression and the pursuit of individual over group goals, the long or “L” allele dominates, with only 40 percent of people carrying the “S” variant.Ancient cultures in Asia, Africa and Latin America highly exposed to deadly pathogens, they conjecture, may have tended toward collectivist norms in order to better combat disease.That social transformation, in turn, could have favored the gradual dominance of the risk-avoidance S allele.

The study, published in Britain’s Proceedings of the Royal Society , offers a novel explanation as to how this divergence might have come about.
Setting aside discredited ideas linking genetics and race, the researchers suggest that culture and genes may have interacted over time to shape the process of natural selection, helping individuals — and the societies in which they lived — to survive and thrive.

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Digital ‘Ants’ Take on Computer Worms

 

Digital ants could soon be crawling through your computer’s hard drive, but don’t worry, they are there to help.Scientists from Wake Forest University and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have created an army of digital ants and their superior officers, digital sergeants and sentinels, to search out viruses, worms and other malware.The new antivirus software could provide better protection while freeing up valuable hardware….

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Google map cedes Indian Himalayan state to China

Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh, is shown on Google Maps as north of a dotted line marking the border between India and China, ie in disputed territory Photo: GOOGLE

Google, the internet search engine published a map which cedes parts of the Indian Himalayan states to China. Google’s satellite map of the border area between India and China show several Indian towns in Arunachal Pradesh listed under their Chinese names as part of the People’s Republic of China. The maps also show the state’s southern border with Assam and its northern boundary with China as broken lines, indicating disputed territory. It also appears to question India’s borders with Burma and Bhutan. The publication of the map has provoked an angry response in India, where tensions are high following a series of public statements in which Chinese officials have denounced New Delhi for refusing to discuss a border dispute. China claims vast swathes of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Arunachal Pradesh, which it says were illegally ceded to India during the British Raj. It rejects the “MacMahon Line” border drawn up by British and Tibetan officials at the 1913 Shimla Conference.

Source s: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

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