The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
A WHOLE new world of recording on a blank compact disc (CD) is now emerging. Researchers in Japan and The Netherlands are working on the concept of using a CD recorder at home to copy favourite music tracks on blank CDs or record film sequences on blank video CDs. Hi-fidelity …
THE US is likely to build the world's fastest supercomputer capable of carrying out 1.8 trillion calculations a second - to ensure that it never again needs to carry out underground nuclear tests. The us $46 million computer will be built for the us Department of Energy by Intel, the …
Six different broadcasting systems and five video tape recordh systems, incompatible with 4,10 another, currently functions al ovem the world. Unless one's video"26 VCR and TV are mutually conspsffC! ble, the result will be a black-asubb white picture, no picture at all, oW just sound! Only Matsushita of Japan sis …
JAPANESE robots are getting better and better. Among the many showpiece robots is the one recently released by the NEC. It is a snake-like robot which can worm its way into tight spaces, such as collapsed buildings or nuclear power stations where more conventionally designed robots have not much use. …
IN A recent study, scientists at the On-based Columbia University have disproved the belief that cells in multicelular organisms do not stick together in a glue-iike fashion, but where to one another in the manner of bond formed by a zip (Discover, vol W NO 9). Life on earth evolved …
Named Baby Dopplex 3000 (or A Parturn Fetal Monitor), a hi-a foetal monitor has been devel" by UWs HNE Dignostics compa The monitor uses the advam Doppler technology, where c6q in sound pitch are used to moni the foetal development, (Specirs No 247, july-August 1995). The equipment is a safe …
WIND power has been used for centuries to lift water in farms, especially in countries like Australia and the us. Some problems inherent in the existing windpump designs - high initial cost, difficulty in local manufacturing, and the need for regular maintenance - have rendered this age-old technology nonviable in …
IN VIEW of the rising electric rates and regulations banning CFC-based refrigerants, absorption cooling which can help reduce electrical loads during peak demand and which uses water, the cleanest refrigerant around, seems the viable choice. Acknowledging this advantage, researchers at the us-based Gas Research Institute (GRI) have set out to …
A TRAGEDY of Indian planners as also of those from some other developing countries is that they have considered agricultural development synonymous with rural development. Development is a must for alleviation of rural poverty, but ironically, conventional development pro- grammes have exacerbated the pressures on the rural poor and unwittingly …
A hacksaw, a wrench, a couple of metres of 3 cm wide galvanised iron pipe and, Mohanlal Madan's ingenuity did the trick. He became the intellectual property rights holder of the only autorickshaw inspired by the Mitshubishis and Canters. Of the 60,000 three-wheeler autorickshaws in Delhi, vehicle number DL-IR-A 5176 …
AN IDENTITY-CARD with a unique individual citizen code could be of immense use for security purposes especially in checking border infiltration and impersonation, as also during elections. With these specifications in mind, security systems specialists at the Bombay-based Bhabha Atomic Research Centre have designed a cost-effective computer laser 1-card printing …
If you want to look at the world's smallest microscope, using your own eyes may not be enough: you would need another microscope to do that. This microscopic microscope has been developed by Neol McDonald and his students at the Cornell University in the US, and is a scaled-down version …
T MAY soon be possible to clean up oil spills that contaminate the soil in and around petrol pumps, thanks to the efforts of Dutch researchers. Koen Weytingh and his colleagues from the Technical University of Delft and De Ruiter Milieutechnologie in Halfweg, ,he Netherlands, have developed a technique that …
Keeping the standard kilogram - a 4 cm high and 4 cm wide platinum iridium cylinder in Paris - clean is a formidable task. The cylinder has to be kept free from dust and contaminants like hydrocarbons (from air pollution) which can change its weight (Science, Vol 268, No 5212). …
The ingenuity of Tracy Phillips, an 18-year-old senior of Long Beach High in Lido Beach, New York, usa, has ensured that sightless people are no longer bamboozled. Tracy has invented a wallet-sized gadget which reads the number in the corner of a currency bill and announces it over a little …
From environment-friendly cars, researchers move on to an environment-friendly aircraft, which derives all its energy from sunlight. Developed by a team of scientists from AcroVironment, an engineering company based in Simi Valley, California, this new version of Pathfinder, a 18 1 -kg acroplane, is to begin test flights soon (Nature, …
For people who have always been fascinated by tattoos but have never braved them, a combination of 2 quick and painless methods of tattooing has been devised by the UK-based Dreadco. The spray immuniser method fires a shot of vaccine at the skin, making the dye penetrate the skin surface. …
ONE of the most challenging tasks in the wake of devastating earthquakes, floods and other such natural calamities is the repair of roads and railway supply lines. In particular, mending bridges poses the greatest problem because conventional methods to construct bridges require a lot of time and expenditure. But now, …
Another particle has been smoked out of the woodwork. The Eureka yell on March 2 this year that the top quark had been caught en flagrante at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, USA, was another milestone in the search for the fundamental building blocks of nature: …
The bedrock of our present day understanding of particle physics is the Standard Model. This model seeks to understand the interactions of elementary particles by building up on the 2 pillars of 20th century physics: quantum mechanics and relativity; and abstract concepts of internal symmetries. Electromagnetic interaction has been well …
