Technology News for June 13, 2008

Report reveals digital divide in Canadian internet usage
While a large part of Canadian population is using the internet, factors such as age, income, education and place of residence have contributed to a digital divide in the country, says a new Statistics Canada report. ANI

Aroma of coffee may be enough to wake you up
No doubt sipping a strong cup of coffee can help do away with drowsiness, but can the aroma of the beverage also perform the same task? Well, Japanese scientists say yes, it may. ANI

Lizards do a wheelie as they accelerate!
While studying how dragon lizards run on two legs, a team of researchers has realised that there is a strong correlation between the lizards acceleration and their front legs pulling off the ground. ANI

Use of native grasses in roughs benefits golfers, golf courses
While golfers prefer a well-manicured golf course with short and green grass, two new studies at University of Illinois have suggested that the use of native grasses in roughs has many benefits for golfers as well as golf courses. ANI

Many unknown species may have already been wiped off the face of the Earth
A biologist has suggested that due to lack of proper research, entire populations of unknown species may have already been wiped off the face of the Earth. ANI

Ancient Hindu temples had musical pillars
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the USA have discovered that some of the Hindu temples, dating back as far as the 7th century, had musical pillars. ANI

New standard to check visual capability of life-saving robots
The use of rescue robots may prove to be a great technological achievement in saving lives, as these robots search through rubble of a collapsed building or survey a chemical spill area. However, emergency planners, working away from the immediate disaster site face difficulty in co-ordinating with these robots due to lack of the images sent by them from the site. ANI

Microsoft scientist highlights urgent need for new computer models to address climate change
A Microsoft scientist has highlighted the urgent need for new computer models that would bring about a new generation of realistic forest modelling to address climate change. ANI

Research aircraft to study climate change in remote atmospheric region
Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a remote atmospheric region that influences climate change by affecting the amount of solar heat that reaches Earths surface. ANI

Spiders decorate their webs with light waves to trap prey
Australian scientists have discovered that spiders trap their prey by luring it with light waves that they use to decorate their webs with structures like with crosses, zigzags and spirals. ANI

Forest conservation may have negative impacts on some ecosystems
Scientists have suggested that plans to conserve forests may have potential negative impacts on some ecosystems. ANI

NASA scientists find new type of comet dust mineral
NASA researchers and scientists from the United States, Germany and Japan have found a new mineral in material that likely came from a comet. ANI

British PM says 1,000 extra nuclear power stations can end global oil addiction
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that the world needs 1,000 extra nuclear power stations, as part of an effort to end the global addiction to oil. ANI

Chinas major panda habitat severely damaged by May 12 quake
Chinas major giant panda habitat, home to about 1,400 of the wild bears, suffered great damage in the recent earthquake, according to a senior official from the State Forestry Administration (SFA). ANI

Chinese astronaut to conduct inaugural spacewalk in October
China has announced the launch of its historic third manned space mission, which would take off in October, and would involve the first time that an astronaut from the country conducts a spacewalk. ANI

Compressed web phone calls vulnerable to eavesdropping
US experts warn that compressed web phone calls may be easy to bug. ANI

Experts broadcast Doritos chips ad in space for aliens!
Experts at the EISCAT European space station on the Norwegian island of Svalbard recently sent an advertisement of the famous Doritos tortilla chips into space, hoping that some aliens might identify the message. ANI

Spanish researchers unveil cloak of silence
Being disturbed in the middle of the night by noisy neighbours blasting out music could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to researchers in Spain, who have shown that metamaterials i.e. materials defined by their unusual man-made cellular structure, can be designed to produce an acoustic cloak that can make objects impervious to sound waves, literally diverting sound waves around an object. ANI

Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than previously believed
A new study has suggested that the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than previously believed, and as a result, freshwater runoff from the area will more than double by the end of the century. ANI

New technique seals diseased blood vessels with a zap of laser light
An international team of researchers has developed a laser sensitive drug, which can close of blood vessels to treat certain tumours or a common eye disease.The new technique developed by the team of Canadian, American and British researchers is an advancement of the present photodynamic therapy (PDT) in which a light-sensitive compound is injected into the diseased tissue. ANI

Ozone hole recovery to have profound impact on climate change
A new study, using computer models, has found that the closing of the ozone hole may significantly affect climate change in the Southern Hemisphere, and therefore, the global climate. ANI

2,000-year-old seed yields date palm ancestor in Israel
Israeli experts have grown a 4-foot-tall plant from a 2,000-year-old seed in a protected laboratory in Jerusalem, and thus made a record of sprouting the worlds oldest seed. ANI

70-mln-yrs old dinosaur may represent a new species
The recent examination of a partial dinosaur skeleton unearthed in 1971 from a remote British Columbia site, has suggested that the 70 million years old dinosaur may represent an altogether new species. ANI

Crude oil from pig manure may one day power vehicles, heating
Experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) claim that they have analysed what processing would be required to transform crude oil made from pig manure into fuel for vehicles or heating. ANI

Scientists unveil evidence of brain wave Tsunami following a stroke
German experts have for the first time shown that waves of electrical discharge that spring up in the human brain after a stroke, known as depolarisation waves, pose a risk even to the unaffected areas of the organ. ANI

Wisdom really does come with age
A collaborative study has shown that wisdom really does come with age, at least in case of emotions. ANI

NASA aircraft examine contribution of forest fires to arctic pollution and climate change
NASA aircraft are set to follow the trail of smoke plumes from some of Earths northernmost forest fires, examining their contribution to arctic pollution and implications for climate change. ANI

Scientists decode and rewire bacteria communication pathways
A research team at MIT have figured out the mechanisms that ensure specificity when bacteria decipher and communicate messages from their environment. ANI