The Internet is Now 20 Years Old
The World Wide Web (www) on March 13, 2009, marked its 20th anniversary. British computer software genius Tim Berners Lee and his CERN Colleagues such as Robert Cailliau, who originally created and set up the systems to allow thousands of scientists around the world to stay in touch with one another participated in the celebratory commemorations on March 13, 2009. It is to be noted that in March 1989, the young Mr. Berners Lee gave his supervisor in Geneva a document titled Information Management : a proposal. The supervisor described it as vague but exciting and later gave it go-ahead. In the words of Mr. Cailliau—a former CERN system engineer who teamed up Mr. Berners Lee—“It was really in the air that had to happen sooner or later.” They drew up the global hypertext language—which is behind the ‘http’ in website addresses and came up with the first web browser in October 1990, which looks similar to the ones used in present. The www technology was first made available for wider use on the Internet from 1991 after CERN was unable to ensure its development. Then CERN made a landmark decision two years later not to levy royalties. Mr. Tim Berners Lee is now a researcher at Massachusetts. Institute of Technology in the USA and a Professor of Computer Science at Southampton University in Britain and still heads the World Wide Web consortium that coordinates development of the web.
Crop Fungus May Cause Famine
The world’s leading crop scientists have given a warning that a deadly airborne fungus could devastate wheat harvests in countries including India and lead to famines and civil unrest over significant regions. Global wind models suggest as the scientists say that the crop disease may now spread into Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. The crop fungus is named Ug 99 because it was first seen in 1999. It is a new variety of an old crop disease called stem rust and has spread on the wind from Africa to Iran. According to the scientists the crop fungus can infect crops in just a few hours and vast clouds of invisible spores can be carried by the wind for hundreds of miles. Scientists met in Mexico in March 2009 at a summit on Ug 99 and expressed concern at the possibility of the crop fungus to travel east and to infect major wheat growing centres in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These countries together produce nearly 15% of the world’s wheat and feed more than a billion of world’s poorest people. Plant breeders are racing against time to develop resistant wheat strains and distribute the seeds around the world. It is believed now that from 80 to 90 per cent of all wheat varieties grown in developing countries are susceptible to the fungus. In the words of Norman Borlaug—the Nobel Prize winner—“This thing has immense potential for social and human destruction. It is capable of damaging virtually all of the world’s commercial breed wheat. It is a problem that goes far beyond wheat production in developing countries. Sooner or later it will be found throughout the world.”
Brain See Blunders before we Commit them
A team of scientists led by a researcher at the University of California, Davis, have disclosed that a way can be found out to prevent common blunders such as spelling a cup of coffee or failing to notice a red light. According to a new research the human brain is capable of signalling when an error is about to happen. The scientists have found a distinct electric signature in the brain which predicts when an error is about to be made. It may be mentioned here that the new discovery could prove useful in a variety of applications from developing monitoring devices that alert air traffic control operators that their attention is flagging to devising new strategies to help children cope with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Red Meat Dangerous for Life : A Research
U.S. researchers have recently reported that people who eat the most red meat and the most processed have the highest risk of death from all causes including heart disease and cancer. The scientists further revealed that the heaviest meat-eaters are more likely to die over next 10 years that the people who eat the least amount of meat.
Crop Fungus May Cause Famine
The world’s leading crop scientists have given a warning that a deadly airborne fungus could devastate wheat harvests in countries including India and lead to famines and civil unrest over significant regions. Global wind models suggest as the scientists say that the crop disease may now spread into Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. The crop fungus is named Ug 99 because it was first seen in 1999. It is a new variety of an old crop disease called stem rust and has spread on the wind from Africa to Iran. According to the scientists the crop fungus can infect crops in just a few hours and vast clouds of invisible spores can be carried by the wind for hundreds of miles. Scientists met in Mexico in March 2009 at a summit on Ug 99 and expressed concern at the possibility of the crop fungus to travel east and to infect major wheat growing centres in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. These countries together produce nearly 15% of the world’s wheat and feed more than a billion of world’s poorest people. Plant breeders are racing against time to develop resistant wheat strains and distribute the seeds around the world. It is believed now that from 80 to 90 per cent of all wheat varieties grown in developing countries are susceptible to the fungus. In the words of Norman Borlaug—the Nobel Prize winner—“This thing has immense potential for social and human destruction. It is capable of damaging virtually all of the world’s commercial breed wheat. It is a problem that goes far beyond wheat production in developing countries. Sooner or later it will be found throughout the world.”
Brain See Blunders before we Commit them
A team of scientists led by a researcher at the University of California, Davis, have disclosed that a way can be found out to prevent common blunders such as spelling a cup of coffee or failing to notice a red light. According to a new research the human brain is capable of signalling when an error is about to happen. The scientists have found a distinct electric signature in the brain which predicts when an error is about to be made. It may be mentioned here that the new discovery could prove useful in a variety of applications from developing monitoring devices that alert air traffic control operators that their attention is flagging to devising new strategies to help children cope with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Red Meat Dangerous for Life : A Research
U.S. researchers have recently reported that people who eat the most red meat and the most processed have the highest risk of death from all causes including heart disease and cancer. The scientists further revealed that the heaviest meat-eaters are more likely to die over next 10 years that the people who eat the least amount of meat.
The scientists divided the volunteers into five groups, called quintiles,. Between 1995 and 2005, 47,976 men and 23,276 women died : The quintile who ate the most red meat had a higher risk for overall death, death from heart disease and cancer than the men and women who ate the least red meat. For the overall mortality 11% of deaths in men and 16% of deaths in women could be prevented if people decrease their red meat consumption to the level of intake in the first quintile. The research indicates that the red meat contains several cancer causing chemicals as well as the unhealthiest forms of fat.
Test for Gene Doping Developed
A German Research laboratory said on March 20, 2009 that it had successfully developed a test for gene doping tracing a substance that increases muscle tissue and boosts endurance levels. Gene doping is the practice of using genetic engineering to artificially enhance athletic performance. It is seen as the next major drugs threat to sport as doping becomes more sophisticated. For the first time a substance for gene doping has been traced through mass spectrometry. The World Anti-Doping Agency said that it had been informed about the test which it said finetuned existing procedures to test for substance. According to WADA science director Olivier Rabin, “When we added this substance, GW1516, to the list of banned substances it was clear those substances were detectable.” But now the method of detection has been improved. GW1516 traced by scientists at the DSHS’s centre for preventive doping research had already been placed on WADA’s 2009 banned substances list. The GW1516 increases the volume of so called endurance muscles as well as enzymes to gain energy from fat. In sport this substance could be abused to increase stamina.
Goce Launched to Unlock Earth’s Deepest Secrets
A European satellite which was launched in March 2009 aims at showing the scientists the inner working of the Earth ranging from movements of ocean currents to the location of oil deposits.
Goce short for Gravity field and steady–state Ocean Circulation Exploration, was declared fully operational. Goce will yield details of the Earth’s gravity field to an accuracy and resolution that is simply in obtainably by existing terrestrial and space techniques. The satellite will measure tiny anomalies in Earth’s gravity caused by anything ranging from mountain ranges to subterranean lava flows or ocean trenches. For geologists, perhaps the most exciting prospect is of being able to peer deep below the Earth’s crust. It will exploit the fact that minerals in the crust vary in density and hence in the amount of gravity they generate. It means that oil and mineral deposits or ground water reservoirs will all leave their own subtle signature on the Earth’s gravitational field.
0 Comments