Technology Sector

King David’s kingdom was as grand as the Bible describes it to be

King David’s kingdom was as grand as the Bible describes it to beWashington, Nov 21 : The discovery of the second gate of a 3,000-year-old fortress unearthed outside Jerusalem, is being claimed by archaeologists as further evidence that the first kingdom of King David was as grand as the Bible describes it to be.

“Here we are in the footsteps of David,” said archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel. “It’s facing Jerusalem, another indication that it is part of the Judean kingdom,” he added.

New material would make methane gas more transportable

Washington, Nov 21 : Chemists at the University of Liverpool have developed a material made out of a mixture of silica and water which can soak up large quantities of methane molecules, which would make methane gas more transportable.

The material looks and acts like a fine white powder which, if developed for industrial use, might be easily transported or used as a vehicle fuel.

Methane is the principal component of natural gas and can be burnt in oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water.

The abundance of the gas and its relatively clean burning process makes it a good source of fuel, but due to its gaseous state at room temperature, methane is difficult to transport from its source.

New species of Ebola virus discovered

Washington, November 21 : A research team has announced the discovery of a new species of Ebola virus, provisionally named Bundibugyo bolavirus.

Writing about the discovery in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens, the researchers revealed that the same virus was responsible for a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in western Uganda in 2007.

The team — comprising of researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia the Uganda Virus Research Institute; the Uganda Ministry of Health; and Columbia University — have revealed that the new virus is genetically distinct from all other known Ebola virus species, differing by more than 30% at the genetic level.

Women workforce in IT-BPO industry growing: Nasscom

Women workforce in IT-BPO industry growing: NasscomNumber of women workforce is rapidly increasing in Indian IT and business process outsourcing industry. It accounts for 28 per cent of the total two million workforce in 2007-08 as per data of National Association of Software and Service Companies. It stood at 24 percent in 2005-06.

Many companies have also provided the leadership roles to women in their senior management.

Yahoo negotiating to buy AOL

Yahoo negotiating to buy AOLNew York - Troubled US web portal firm Yahoo! is in negotiations to buy Time Warner Inc.'s AOL business, the financial news agency Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

Yahoo!, which earlier in the week rejected a 47.5-billion-dollar takeover bid by Microsoft in a move that saw the resignation of CEO Jerry Yang, is according to Bloomberg bidding for AOL's web advertising business in return for a stake in a new combined company.

Executives from Yahoo! and Time Warner have met in the past few weeks to negotiate terms for the prospective deal, Bloomberg said, citing unnamed sources.

Geckos’ ability to coordinate joint angles on limbs may help improve robots’ gait

Washington, November 20 : A team of researchers used a 3-D locomotion video-recording and measuring system to observe and measure the angular rotation of joints in gecko''s limbs, as they ran on horizontal floor and climbing on vertical wall.

Scientists at Institute of Bio-inspired Structure and Surface Engineering (IBSS), Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) believe that their work may help understand gecko''s locomotion from the view point of angle change of joints, and provide a direct reference to plan the gait of gecko-robots.

Geckos’ excellent locomotion abilities to move on various surfaces are highly desired for creating such robots as will be able to move in unstructured environments, especially legged robots.

Pages