Technology News

Chemical reaction in landslide rocks may start wildfires
A new research has suggested that a chemical reaction in rocks in landslides may be responsible for starting wildfires. ANI

Now, a project to encourage visually-impaired pupils to take up computer science
The U.S. National Science Fioundation (NSF) is funding an initiative at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) that has been designed to help prepare visually impaired middle school and high school students participate in computer science programs at the collegiate level. ANI

New invention to neutralize hurricanes with help from supersonic jet
Scientists have put forward a patent application about developing a supersonic hurricane neutralizer, which can put a spanner in the atmospheric works by flying supersonic jet aircraft in concentric circles around a hurricanes eye, the calm area around which the storm rotates. ANI

Arctic would be ice-free by 2013

Researchers have predicted a grim prognosis for the Arctics so-called perennial sea ice, given the expanding rate at which global warming is taking place.

Washington, Dec.15 : Researchers have predicted a grim prognosis for the Arctic's so-called perennial sea ice, given the expanding rate at which global warming is taking place.

Wieslaw Maslowski of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, has warned that if temperatures remain the same as they are now, the Arctic would ice-free by the year 2013.

The Arctic's perennial sea ice has been shrinking since the 1980s, reports the National Geographic.

Before then, ice filled the whole Arctic Ocean throughout the summer, occupying an area the size of continental United States.

But the melt this year brought it to a new low in September, melting an area larger than all of the U.S. states east of the Mississippi River.

The new record blew the old record, set in 2005, out of the water, shrinking to just three-quarters the size of that earlier low.

The decline in ice growth could increase how much melts in future years, noted John Walsh of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks.

Donald Perovich of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers likened the situation to a losing football game.

"A comeback is possible, but it's like the fourth quarter, and we're down by two touchdowns," said Perovich.

ANI