London, Sept 18 : An average British adult absorbs 13 facts a day, a new research shows.

According to the study by telecom giant TalkTalk, some knowledge-hungry folk do better still, taking in up to 20 tidbits, ranging from pop gossip to politics, from the hundreds of news items that bombard them every day.

The study found that true ‘infomaniacs’ comb the web for news updates six times a day or more. But the average mind filters it all down to the 13 items it considers most important.

"We''re all exposed to a huge wealth of information every day which makes us better informed than ever about what''s going in the world,” the Mirror quoted TalkTalk''s Dominic Stinton, as saying.

London, September 18 : Electrical cars may soon have their batteries replaced by ultracapacitors that can store much higher amounts of energy, thanks to a new approach developed by Chinese researchers.

Hao Zhang at the Research Institute of Chemical Defence, and research collaborators from Peking University in Beijing say that this purpose can be served by creating nanoscale meadows of fuzzy flowers of manganese oxide (MnO), a material with a much greater capacity for ions than activated carbon.

In model created by the researchers, each flower attaches to at least two of the blades of grass that act like electron superhighways, forming strong electrical connections to the flowers.

New Delhi, Sep 18 : The Union Government has said that it will allow foreign telecom companies to bid on their own without a domestic partner for the 3G spectrum but they will have to find a local player before starting services.

Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura said according to Indian laws, foreign companies can own up to 74 per cent stake and thus they would be required to form a joint venture with an Indian company before starting the services.

‘The foreign telcos can bid for the 3G spectrum on their own but before rolling out services they should find an Indian partner,” he said.

London, Sept 18 : Babies as young as one can pass on useful information, claim German scientists, who added that infants are excellent communicators.

To reach the conclusion, researchers at the Max Planck Institute asked 49 one-year-olds to help their parent find an object that had fallen out of sight while the adult wasn’t looking.

Most of the toddlers were able to help their parent.

“One-year-olds, before they have language skills, can point informatively and communicate appropriately for ignorant adults,” the Daily Express quoted the report, as stating.

In another experiment the parent saw the object fall – and the babies knew they didn’t need to help.

Washington, September 18 : An engineer, at the Iowa State University in the US, along with his colleagues, is studying engines in an effort to reduce emissions and improve their efficiency.

The engineer in question is Song-Charng Kong, an Iowa State assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

With the help of 15 graduate students and all kinds of sensors recording engine cylinder pressure, energy release and exhaust emissions, is looking for cleaning and improving engine performance.

“There is still a lot of work to be done to improve engine performance,” Kong said. “All of this work will lead to incremental improvements,” he added.

Kong and his students are working on a lot of combustion projects in the lab.

Washington, September 18: Radiations emitting from mobile phones can distort measurements taken via the latest measuring systems, even when their individual components have passed the standardized Electromagnetic Compatibility Test (EMC).

Researchers at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) say that this is the reason why the verification of vehicle scales that are used to weigh trains, lorries or cars are rejected by the concerned authorities in certain cases.