Electricity consumption from the manufacture of artificial intelligence (AI) chips has soared by more than 350 percent worldwide between 2023 and 2024, according to new research from Greenpeace East Asia. In East Asia, the global hub for AI semiconductor production, growing electricity demand from AI chipmaking has been met primarily …
The idea of a fundamental simplicity underlying the observed diversity of the universe is a powerful one that has stood the test of time. Admittedly, the nature of truly elementary particles has undergone a continual change, from English chemist John Dalton's atoms to the particles of the Standard Model of …
THE hexagonal shape of the bee honeycomb is often cited by engineers as the most economical use of 2-dimensional space. But now it appears the honeycomb design is ideal for saving energy, too. Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi have designed a honeycomb-type of insulation material …
Scientists at the US's Argonne National Laboratory have found a cheap and quick method to produce diamond films by using soccer ball-shaped carbon molecules called fullerenes (Science, Vol 265, No 5172). Diamond films are used in electronic circuits to remove heat and as a tough coating for machine tools. The …
Concerned about the pollution from combusting coal to generate power, the departments of science and technology and coal have set up a core group of bureaucrats and scientists to identify clean-coal technologies. Under the chairpersonship of R K Sachdeva, advisor in the ministry of coal, the group intends to draw …
Scientists at the Radio Physics department of Calcutta University have expressed resentment over a recent decision taken by university authorities to transfer technical knowhow to Tata Steel from their pioneering research on anti-collision radar. The university had earlier entered into an agreement with Tata Steel regarding the radars, which are …
DRIVERS of polluting vehicles will now find it harder to evade the long arm of the law. Remote sensing devices being developed in the US will have the capability of latching on to the exhaust plume of a polluting car or truck which exceeds the regulatory limits. Remote sensing devices …
Opening the refrigerator door can sometimes be a smelly jolt and conventional deodorants are not much help. But now a Japanese firm, Arromic Co Ltd, has come up with a ceramic-based deodorant that can take care of the offensive odours (New Technology, Vol 22, No 2). Conventional deodorants suffer from …
A misplaced cigarette butt on the polyurethane seats in an aircraft, the most inflammable material besides the fuel, could lead to an aerial disaster. But Indian Airlines can cease to worry about the problem, thanks to scientists at the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) at Roorkee, Uttar Pradesh. CBRI scientists …
INDIAN thermal power stations consume about 150 million tonnes of coal each year, generating some 50 million tonnes of highly-polluting fly ash. Particles of fly ash suspended in the atmosphere carry small amounts of toxic lead, arsenic and mercury. Fly ash from Delhi's 2 thermal power stations at Indraprastha and …
it is generally presumed that countries that lead in technological innovations will also reap the economic benefits arising from them. But history reveals that rarely have the innovators of technology done well economically. Interestingly, it also reveals that India has excelled in putting technology developed by others to her own …
SANICHAR is a smalltime grocer in the straggling, dusty town of backyard Jhumri Talaiya in Bihar. He barely manages to sell a few dozen bars of soap and detergent a month. But 1,600 km away in Bombay, a man with a computer is keeping tabs on Sanichar"s bottomline sales. With …
• global warming Showing changes in sea temperatures and sea-level rise and their effect on fish movement • philanthropy Determining how much money is donated to the arts versus impoverished areas • rural marketing Keeping track of rural outlets and plotting the best supply routes to show increasing sales • …
The greatest obstacle to the spread of GIS, feel experts, is the access, or rather the lack of it, to authentic and accurate and unstoppable information - the soul of GIS. Says Subhan Khan of NISTADS, "In India, it is particularly bad. Here, it would appear, every piece of information …
Digital palimpsest: In 1991, the National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, used GIS to undertake a pilot study for wasteland development in Bellary district of Karnataka. The wastelands were divided into 16 classes based on various parameters. Digitised maps of single parameters, such as distance to roads (top left), soil type …
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Testing in Maryland, USA, have developed an instrument that can detect gases present in infinitesimal amounts (Environmental Science & Technology, Vol 28, No 6). The instrument uses microwaves similar to those used in microwave cookers to measure as little as 10 parts …
AS COMPANIES move towards corporate profitability through technological advancements, Indian industries have come up with the Technology Platform -- a forum for the interaction of Indian and international research and development organisations, industries, and institutes involved in applied industrial research. The platform assumes importance in global markets as a forum …
NEC Corp, the Tokyo-based electronics concern, plans to dazzle consumers with a 256-megabyte flash memory chip. This "next generation" device, which will be 16 times as powerful as those now in the market, has the potential to beat the conventional dynamic random access memory chips hands down, says nec vice-president …
GERMANY is having the jitters about losing its reputation as the producer of world class technologies. In an open acknowledgement of the country's technological downslide, German chancellor Helmut Kohl is creating a National Technology Council to focus on technological shortcomings and revise policy. Kohl pointed out that in microelectronics, the …
The computer keyboard is not only a secretary's bete noire -- continuous typing leads to what is called the repetitive strain injury, characterised by the numbing of various muscles of the hand -- but all programming also presupposes a knowledge of English. Wishful though it may sound, if only computers …
SCIENTISTS at the University of California at Berkeley in the US have developed a method that cuts to 1/10th the cost of cleaning up nitrogen oxides produced when fossil fuels are burned (Nature, Vol 369, No 6476). The new technology is also environmentally less harmful than the techniques currently used …
