Washington, Jan 5: The face of war is all set to transform, with American armed robots predicted to patrol on the battle ground in a matter of few years, killing without any remorse.

According to a report in the Washington Post, this advancement in American military prowess is a fact that comes under Moore's law.

Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel, noticed nearly half a century ago that computing power seemed to be doubling about every two years.

London, Jan 3 : New evidence, uncovered by oceanographers, is all set to challenge one of the most long-standing theories about how species evolve in the oceans.

Most scientists believe that allopatric speciation, where different species arise from an ancestral species only after breeding populations have become physically isolated from each other, is the dominant mode of speciation both on land and in the sea.

The key to this theory is the existence of some kind of physical barrier that operates to restrict interbreeding (gene flow) between populations, so that, given enough time, such populations diverge until they are considered separate species.

London, Jan 1 : Thanks to an innovation from British engineers, cement, a vast source of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2), could be transformed into a means of stripping the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

According to a report in the Guardian, Nikolaos Vlasopoulos, chief scientist at London-based Novacem, made the invention.

The new environment friendly formulation means the cement industry could change from being a significant emitter to a significant absorber of CO2, said Vlasopoulos.

Making the 2 billion tonnes of cement used globally every year pumps out 5 percent of the world's CO2 emissions, which is more than the entire aviation industry.

London, Jan 1 : Housewives in Britain spend almost half their free time online - more than any other social group in the world, a new study has shown.

The survey of more than 27,000 web users in 16 countries has shown that the Chinese spend the largest fraction of their leisure time online. However, UK housewives spend even more than China''s average - 47percent.

Germans are the most likely to meet someone in real life that they first met online; more than three quarters have done so.

London, Dec. 31 : Five of the world''s deadliest conventional weapons have been revealed, and according to Fox News, some of them are terrifying, while others are silent but very effective.

All five are part of the U. S. Armed Forces'' arsenal. Some date back to World War II in concept, but they are still lethal and continue to be used in battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The fearsome five are:

Berlin, Dec 30 : The world is gearing up to celebrate 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy.

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) has been launched by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) under the theme, "The Universe, yours to discover".

Thousands of IYA2009 events are described on the national websites, as well as on astronomy2009. org.

The official IYA2009 Opening Ceremony will take place in Paris on 15 and 16 January 2009.