BORGZA'S Science & Technology UPDATES

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Apple announces ultra-thin laptop

The laptop weighs 1.3 kilograms and costs £1,200
Apple boss Steve Jobs has unveiled the world's thinnest laptop, called the MacBook Air.
The computer, which is 0.76 inches (1.93cm) at its thickest point, was unveiled at an event in San Francisco.

The Apple head also launched online film rentals for iTunes users in the US from almost every major film studio, including Disney and Fox.

"We're dying to get this international as well," said Mr Jobs, saying it would roll-out worldwide later in the year.

Of the laptop, Mr Jobs said: "It's an amazing feat of engineering."

It does not have a CD or DVD drive in order to save space. "It was built to be a wireless machine," he added.

The laptop will compete with a range of portable devices, from companies such as Sony, Dell and Asus, which are already building so-called sub-notebooks, designed to be lighter and more mobile.

The machine goes on sale in two weeks and costs from $1,799 in the US (£1,199 in the UK) and comes with either an 80 Gigabyte hard disc drive as standard or 64 Gigabyte solid state drive for an added $999.


FROM THE DOT.LIFE BLOG
This is important because it opens a new front in Apple's battle to be as big in digital video as it is in music.
Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technology correspondent


Apple worked with chip maker Intel to produce a smaller version of its Core2Duo processor for the laptop.

Movie rentals from the key Hollywood movie studios will be available in the US immediately. Until now customers have had to buy movies outright but now they rent them for up to 30 days, or for 24 hours once viewing has started.

Movie lovers will be able to download films to their computers, and transfer them to the latest iPods and iPhone, in standard and high-definition, for between $3 and $5.

The company also announced it was revamping the Apple TV device so that it can now download content independently of a computer and display it on a widescreen TV.

Mr Jobs admitted that Apple's first attempt to put online video in the living room had failed.

"[Apple TV] was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer.

"It is not what people wanted. What people really wanted was movies, movies, movies."

He added: "We weren't delivering that. We're back: With Apple TV Take Two."

He announced the firm had sold 125 million TV shows and seven million movies via iTunes.

"It's more than everyone else put together, but it didn't meet our expectations," said Mr Jobs. "I think we've got it right this time."

Mr Jobs also announced a wireless back-up system called Time Capsule, offering a combined wi-fi router and hard drive.

New software for the iPhone was unveiled, including an update to Maps, which can plot the phone owners spot on a map without using GPS.

Apple announced it had sold four million iPhones in the first 200 days on sale, putting it on target to sell 10 million by the end of 2008.




Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Apple announces ultra-thin laptop

Published: 2008/01/15 19:22:36 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Apple Macbook Air 2008

 

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Sony VAIO X505 Extreme

 

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Warning on stealthy Windows virus
Security experts are warning about a stealthy Windows virus that steals login details for online bank accounts.
In the last month, the malicious program has racked up about 5,000 victims - most of whom are in Europe.

Many are falling victim via booby-trapped websites that use vulnerabilities in Microsoft's browser to install the attack code.

Experts say the virus is dangerous because it buries itself deep inside Windows to avoid detection.

Old tricks

The malicious program is a type of virus known as a rootkit and it tries to overwrite part of a computer's hard drive called the Master Boot Record (MBR).

This is where a computer looks when it is switched on for information about the operating system it will be running.

"If you can control the MBR, you can control the operating system and therefore the computer it resides on," wrote Elia Florio on security company Symantec's blog.

Mr Florio pointed out that many viruses dating from the days before Windows used the Master Boot Record to get a grip on a computer.

Once installed the virus, dubbed Mebroot by Symantec, usually downloads other malicious programs, such as keyloggers, to do the work of stealing confidential information.

Most of these associated programs lie in wait on a machine until its owner logs in to the online banking systems of one of more than 900 financial institutions.

The Russian virus-writing group behind Mebroot is thought to have created the torpig family of viruses that are known to have been installed on more than 200,000 systems. This group specialises in stealing bank login information.

Security firm iDefense said Mebroot was discovered in October but started to be used in a series of attacks in early December.

Between 12 December and 7 January, iDefense detected more than 5,000 machines that had been infected with the program.

Analysis of Mebroot has shown that it uses its hidden position on the MBR as a beachhead so it can re-install these associated programs if they are deleted by anti-virus software.

Although the password-stealing programs that Mebroot installs can be found by security software, few commercial anti-virus packages currently detect its presence. Mebroot cannot be removed while a computer is running.

Independent security firm GMER has produced a utility that will scan and remove the stealthy program.

Computers running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 that are not fully patched are all vulnerable to the virus.


Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Warning on stealthy Windows virus

Published: 2008/01/11 16:33:43 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Scientists unveil 'supercarrot'
Scientists in the US say they have created a genetically-engineered carrot that provides extra calcium.
They hope that adding the vegetable to a normal diet could help ward off conditions such as brittle bone disease and osteoporosis.

Someone eating the new carrot absorbs 41% more calcium than if they ate the old, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study suggests.

The calcium-charged vegetable still needs to go through many safety trials.

"These carrots were grown in carefully monitored and controlled environments," said Professor Kendal Hirschi, part of the team at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.


Much more research needs to be conducted before this would be available to consumers
Professor Kendal Hirschi
Baylor College of Medicine


"Much more research needs to be conducted before this would be available to consumers."

But the scientists nonetheless hope their carrot could ultimately offer a healthier way of consuming sufficient quantities of the mineral.

Dairy foods are the primary dietary source of calcium but some are allergic to these while others are told to avoid consuming too much due to their high fat content.

A gene has been altered in the carrot which allows the calcium within it to cross more easily over the plant membranes.

On its own, the carrot would not meet the daily requirement of 1,000mg of calcium, but if other vegetables were similarly engineered, intake could be increased dramatically.

Changing colour

It is not the first time the carrot has been tampered with.

The orange colour we know is the result of Dutch cultivation in the 17th Century, when patriotic growers turned a vegetable which was then purple into the colour of the national flag.

Nor is it the first vegetable to receive a healthy make-over.

Genetic engineering is being used to develop potatoes with more starch and less water so that they absorb less oil when fried, producing healthier chips or crisps.

Work is also being carried out on broccoli so that it contains more sulforaphane, a chemical which may help people ward off cancer.

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait of the University of East Anglia said genetically engineering foods to increase their nutrient content was becoming an increasingly important avenue.

"People are being told to eat more modestly to prevent weight gain, and many diets now no longer contain everything we need.

"There has been great resistance to genetic engineering, but gradually we are moving away from the spectre of 'Frankenstein food' and starting to appreciate the health benefits it may bring."


Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Health | Scientists unveil 'supercarrot'

Published: 2008/01/15 10:36:42 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Ocean rocket returns to business
The Sea Launch company has returned to flight with a mission to loft a telecoms satellite to serve the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.
The firm's Zenit 3SL rocket lifted off from its converted oil rig platform stationed in the Pacific at 1149 GMT.

The Thuraya 3 satellite separated from the vehicle some 98 minutes later.

The flight was the first for Sea Launch since the catastrophic explosion in January 2007 which destroyed a Zenit and its passenger on the pad.

Sea Launch is based in Long Beach, California, but is operated by an international consortium, including the Boeing aerospace company and the Russian spacecraft manufacturer Energia.

It uses a floating platform and a command ship for launches. Both are sailed out of California to the equator at 154 degrees West.

The position, close to the Pacific island of Kiritimati, means the Zenit rocket can take full advantage of the Earth's rotational speed and launch more mass for less effort, compared with the world's major land-based spaceports.

Tuesday's successful mission was the 25th for Sea Launch.

"It feels good to be back," said company president Robert Peckham.

Sea Launch is seen as an important competitor for the European launch services company Arianespace, which, in the absence of the Pacific Ocean system, lofted 80% of the world's commercial payloads in 2007.

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Ocean rocket returns to business

Published: 2008/01/15 14:29:02 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Hypersonic jet could reach Australia in under five hours Tue Feb 5, 7:05 AM ET

British engineers unveiled plans Tuesday for a hypersonic jet which could fly from Europe to Australia in less than five hours.

The A2 plane, designed by engineering company Reaction Engines based in Oxfordshire, southern England, could carry 300 passengers at a top speed of almost 4,000 mph (6,400 kmh), five times the speed of sound.

The LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project, backed by the European Space Agency, could see the plane operating within 25 years, the firm's boss Alan Bond told the Guardian daily.

"The A2 is designed to leave Brussels international airport, fly quietly and subsonically out into the north Atlantic at mach 0.9 before reaching mach 5 across the North Pole and heading over the Pacific to Australia," he said.

The plane, which at 143 metres (469 feet) long would be about twice the size of the biggest current jets, could fly non-stop for up to 12,500 miles (20,000 km).

It operates on liquid hydrogen, which is more ecologically friendly as it gives off water and nitrous oxide instead of carbon emissions.

Passengers would have to put up with having no windows, due to problems with heat produced at high speeds. Instead designers may put flat screen televisions where the windows would be, giving the impression of seeing outside.

Fares would be comparable with current first class tickets on standard flights, of around 3,500 pounds (4,700 euros, 6,900 dollars).

The flight time from Brussels to Australia would be four hours and 40 minutes. "It sounds incredible by today's standards but I don't see why future generations can't make day trips to Australasia," he said.

"Our work shows that it is possible technically; now it's up to the world to decide if it wants it."

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Hypersonic jet could reach Australia in under five hours - Yahoo! News

 

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EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn


The European Commission has fined US computer giant Microsoft for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour.
Microsoft must now pay a record 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m) after it failed to comply with a 2004 ruling that it abused its position.

The ruling said that Microsoft was guilty of not providing key code to rival software makers.

EU regulators said the firm was the first to break an EU anti-trust ruling.

The fines come on top of earlier fines of 280m euros imposed in July 2006, and of 497m euros in March 2004.

"Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the Commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision," Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

Future improvements?

An investigation concluded in 2004 that Microsoft was guilty of freezing out rivals in products such as media players, while unfairly linking its Explorer internet browser to its Windows operating system at the expense of rival servers.

The European Court of First Instance upheld this ruling last year, which ordered Microsoft to pay 497m euros for abusing its dominant market position.


DISPUTE TIMELINE
March 2004: EU fines Microsoft 497m euros and orders it to release key Windows code to rival software developers
September 2004: Microsoft tries to have the ruling temporarily suspended
April 2006: Microsoft appeals the ruling in the European Court of First Instance
September 2007: Microsoft loses its appeal

Last week, the firm announced that it would open up the technology of some of its leading software, including Windows, to make it easier to operate with rivals' products.

"As we demonstrated last week with our new interoperability principles and specific actions to increase the openness of our products, we are focusing on steps that will improve things for the future," Microsoft said.

Further cases

But the firm is still being pursued by Brussels.

Last month, the European Commission launched two new anti-competition investigations against Microsoft into similar issues.

The first will look at whether there are still problems regarding Microsoft abusing its dominance of the PC market to grab market share of the internet.

The Commission will also investigate the continued interoperability of Microsoft software

BBC NEWS | Business | EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn

 

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New search powers lead Firefox 3
The latest version of web browser Firefox will make changes to the way people search for information online, says its developer.
Mozilla has told the BBC's World Service that the new browser has been designed around the importance of search to users.

Firefox 3, currently going through its third stage of beta testing, will offer a combined search and bookmark tool via the url bar.

It will also allow offline working.

Chairman of the Mozilla Foundation Mitchell Baker told BBC World Service's Digital Planet programme:

"It's clear that when people are looking for information on the web, search is the number one activity," she said.

"We've devised ways to bring that power into areas that are closer to your individual life."

'Faster, sleeker'

Typing "cameras", for example, into the url bar, will bring up a list of the sites that the user recently visited that have cameras in their names.

"If you buy shoes, that's all you need to remember - we will use search, as you've come to expect it, to help you find the places that you have been visiting," Ms Baker said.


Ms Baker said that other changes have been made that are invisible in terms of look, but will improve overall performance.
"It will be faster, sleeker, and even easier to use," she said.

"In terms of features, we've tried very hard not to bloat the interface but to keep it simple, the way people like it, and to have new things appear when you need them."

The other substantial change will be the ability to do much more offline, with the browser "remembering" key data that is usually lost when an internet connection goes down.

This is designed to allow the user to continue to work when travelling or in remote areas where wireless access is patchy.

Firefox is currently the second most popular browser, although its 12% share is dwarfed by that of Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

It has, however, substantially grown from its launch - first as Phoenix in 2002, then as Firebird, and finally ending up as Firefox in February 2004.

Ms Baker said that when Mozilla issued Firefox 1 they had one staff member, but hundreds working on different aspects of it.

Now they have 150 employees around the world, and "tens of thousands" working on the software.

Mozilla is run as a not-for-profit organisation, and advocate of open source coding.

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Technology | New search powers lead Firefox 3

Published: 2008/02/26 12:27:02 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Nokia morphs itself from within
By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website, in San Francisco

Developers predict phones powered from grass
Nokia is the world's largest mobile phone maker and with more than one billion handsets shipped is by extension the world's largest computing platform.
Every day Nokia sources 329 million parts and builds a million phones in 100 plus handset models and distributes these phones in 70 different languages to 150 countries.

But as phones become less about making calls and more an extension of our connected lives, Nokia is transforming itself from a hardware company into something more converged. It's not the parts that matter but what use those parts are put to.

"We're not a cell phone company we're a software and services company as well," Anssi Vanjoki, executive vice president at Nokia, told BBC News.

He said: "We are already living in the converged world; the spearhead consumers, about 200m people, are using their devices to be present in the internet 24/7, using their handsets as multimedia computers."

Morph concept video

For Mr Vanjoki Nokia's transformation is just another change in direction for the firm.
"The company was established in 1865 and since then we have changed the course of the company several times from the original wood chip factory, to what is our main business, monetising our software know-how by selling devices."

He added: "It's very obvious in a converging internet world that when software, media and hardware come together it allows us to monetise our know-how in multiple ways."

To aid this latest genesis Nokia has invested in research centres around the world, building relationships with universities and academic institutions.

In the UK Nokia has partnered with Cambridge University and is focusing on the application of nanosciences to the mobile phone market, and has partnered with Professor Mark Welland, one of the world's leading nano experts.

Earlier this week the firm unveiled Morph, a concept phone that revealed the company's long-term ambitions; a mixture of high technology and services.

Morph is the product of nanosciences - a handset that can be folded, stretched, used to sense the world around it, and deliver the high end functions of a future communications device.


Morph is a beguiling vision
Technology editor Darren Waters


In the US Nokia has built a research centre in Palo Alto, at the heart of Silicon Valley. This centre is focused on developing internet and web applications, leveraging the local talent and expertise found at Stanford and Berkeley universities.

Professor Henry Tirri, head of System Research Centers, is tasked with fostering the collaborative research between Nokia and partner universities worldwide.

"Our research scope is very wide - but we're not focusing on display, radio technology or battery life - it goes from nanosciences in the UK to services and software in Palo Alto."

The research centres work outside the roadmap Nokia has for handsets, looking at future technologies and applications from one to three years ahead, three to eight years and beyond.

"An enormous amount of the patents found in today's handsets originated in Nokia's Research Centres - from the interface design to improvements in audio quality on the phones to applications."


These devices can connect the physical world with the digital world
Professor Henry Tirri

He added: "A lot of things that you will see in the future, as Nokia moves to be an internet company, will come from the research labs."

Mr Tirri said: "Nokia sells 18 phones every second of every day; that is a humungous computing platform.

"Voice is one function of these devices, but we are moving to a data centric world. These devices can connect the physical world with the digital world.

"But what are the services which will marry the two?"

One such project trying to do just that is under development at Palo Alto. Nokia's researchers are using the GPS technology in some of their phones to help create a real-time picture of traffic flow.

The lab is working with Berkeley University and state authorities to trial software on mobile phones which will hopefully lead to a better understanding of how traffic moves through a system, and ultimately lead to better information for motorists as they drive.



Location detection

Dr John Shen, head of the Palo Alto Research lab, said his team was helping Nokia's development as a services company.
"We see the intersecting of the internet and mobility. Nokia has been a device company and that will remain a lucrative business for years to come, but instead of waiting until we have to change, Nokia is looking ahead and making changes now."

He said the focus for the firm was a "total solution", encompassing hardware and software, but focusing on a "compelling user experience".

"The company that understands the end user experience is going to have an edge," he added.

In Palo Alto 50 researchers are working on future mobile services.

Professor Tirri said the challenge for Nokia as it alters its focus was dealing with the issue of scale, and how best to use the information in the digital world that phones were able to gather in the physical world.


"If one billion devices each produced one message every minute, it would swamp the network capacity.
"And what do we choose to measure in the physical world? We could measure everything, using the camera and sensors like GPS, which is perfectly possible.


"But the challenge then is indexing that data. How do we sort and deliver that data back to people?"

"And then there is a humungous user interface problem - how do keep the experience simple enough for consumers?"

Dr Shen added: "When technology is below the user requirement, technology drives the industry.

"But once you cross over to the mainstream then you have to look at services and the user experience.

"The real focus now is compelling user experiences. It has to be user experience driven rather than technology driven."


How mobiles became multimedia devices

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Nokia morphs itself from within

Published: 2008/02/27 10:16:41 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Sony and Sharp forge TV alliance
Sony and Sharp have forged an alliance to help them meet the growing demand for liquid crystal display televisions.
Sony is to take a one-third stake in Sharp's $3.5bn (£1.8bn) LCD panel factory, which is due to be completed in March 2010.

Sony does not currently make the LCD panels for its flat-screen televisions, relying instead on a joint venture with South Korea's Samsung.

Sony shares rose more than 1% on the news, while Sharp closed unchanged.

Sony and Samsung branded televisions are competing for the number one spot in LCD sales, with Sharp trailing behind them.

Global sales of LCD televisions are expected to double to 155 million units by 2012, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Association.

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Business | Sony and Sharp forge TV alliance

Published: 2008/02/26 10:50:44 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Sea reptile is biggest on record
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News
A fossilised "sea monster" unearthed on an Arctic island is the largest marine reptile known to science, Norwegian scientists have announced.
The 150 million-year-old specimen was found on Spitspergen, in the Arctic island chain of Svalbard, in 2006.

The Jurassic-era leviathan is one of 40 sea reptiles from a fossil "treasure trove" uncovered on the island.

Nicknamed "The Monster", the immense creature would have measured 15m (50ft) from nose to tail.


A large pliosaur was big enough to pick up a small car in its jaws and bite it in half
Richard Forrest, plesiosaur palaeontologist

And during the last field expedition, scientists discovered the remains of another so-called pliosaur which is thought to belong to the same species as The Monster - and may have been just as colossal.
The expedition's director Dr Jorn Hurum, from the University of Oslo Natural History Museum, said the Svalbard specimen is 20% larger than the previous biggest marine reptile - another massive pliosaur from Australia called Kronosaurus .

"We have carried out a search of the literature, so we now know that we have the biggest [pliosaur]. It's not just arm-waving anymore," Dr Hurum told the BBC News website.

"The flipper is 3m long with very few parts missing. On Monday, we assembled all the bones in our basement and we amazed ourselves - we had never seen it together before."


Pliosaurs were a short-necked form of plesiosaur, a group of extinct reptiles that lived in the world's oceans during the age of the dinosaurs.

A pliosaur's body was tear drop-shaped with two sets of powerful flippers which it used to propel itself through the water.

"These animals were awesomely powerful predators," said plesiosaur palaeontologist Richard Forrest.


"If you compare the skull of a large pliosaur to a crocodile, it is very clear it is much better built for biting... by comparison with a crocodile, you have something like three or four times the cross-sectional space for muscles. So you have much bigger, more powerful muscles and huge, robust jaws.
"A large pliosaur was big enough to pick up a small car in its jaws and bite it in half."

"There are a few isolated bones of huge pliosaurs already known but this is the first find of a significant portion of a whole skeleton of such a giant," said Angela Milner, associate keeper of palaeontology at London's Natural History Museum

"It will undoubtedly add much to our knowledge of these top marine predators. Pliosaurs were reptiles and they were almost certainly not warm-blooded so this discovery is also a good demonstration of plate tectonics and ancient climates.

"One hundred and fifty million years ago, Svalbard was not so near the North Pole, there was no ice cap and the climate was much warmer than it is today."
The Monster was excavated in August 2007 and taken to the Natural History Museum in Oslo. Team members had to remove hundreds of tonnes of rock by hand in high winds, fog, rain, freezing temperatures and with the constant threat of attack by polar bears.

They recovered the animal's snout, some teeth, much of the neck and back, the shoulder girdle and a nearly complete flipper.

Unfortunately, there was a small river running through where the head lay, so much of the skull had been washed away.

A preliminary analysis of the bones suggests this beast belongs to a previously unknown species.

Unprecedented haul

The researchers plan to return to Svalbard later this year to excavate the new pliosaur.

A few skull pieces, broken teeth and vertebrae from this second large specimen are already exposed and plenty more may be waiting to be excavated.

"It's a large one, and has the same bone structure as the previous one we found," said Espen Knutsen, from Oslo's Natural History Museum, who is studying the fossils.


Dr Hurum and his colleagues have now identified a total of 40 marine reptiles from Svalbard. The haul includes many long-necked plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs in addition to the two pliosaurs.

Long-necked plesiosaurs are said to fit descriptions of Scotland's mythical Loch Ness monster. Ichthyosaurs bore a passing resemblance to modern dolphins, but they used an upright tail fin to propel themselves through the water.

Richard Forrest commented: "Here in Svalbard you have 40 specimens just lying around, which is like nothing we know.


"Even in classic fossil exposures such as you have in Dorset [in England], there are cliffs eroding over many years and every so often something pops up. But we haven't had 40 plesiosaurs from Dorset in 200 years."
The fossils were found in a fine-grained sedimentary rock called black shale. When the animals died, they sank to the bottom of a cold, shallow Jurassic sea and were covered over by mud. The oxygen-free, alkaline chemistry of the mud may explain the fossils' remarkable preservation, said Dr Hurum.

The discovery of another large pliosaur was announced in 2002. Known as the "Monster of Aramberri" after the site in north-eastern Mexico where it was dug up, the creature could be just as big as the Svalbard specimen, according to the team that found it.

But palaeontologists told the BBC a much more detailed analysis of these fossils was required before a true picture of its size could be obtained.

Paul.Rincon-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Sea reptile is biggest on record

Published: 2008/02/27 00:54:54 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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Day to 'save energy and climate'
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
Energy Saving Day, a 24-hour initiative aiming to reduce the UK's electricity use, begins on Wednesday evening.
A coalition of environmental groups, religious leaders and energy companies is asking people to curb climate change by turning off devices not in use.

The National Grid will monitor how much difference it makes to consumption, while power companies will identify customers wanting home insulation.

The BBC News website will be displaying results in close to real time.


Organisations from all sectors of society have been prepared to see what they can do to help tackle climate change
Matt Prescott

Energy Saving Day, or E-Day, will be launched on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral in central London at 1800GMT.
The Bishop of London is due to speak, and the event will feature a bicycle-powered cinema showing short films relating to climate change.

Responsible reward

"I'm delighted by the way in which so many organisations from all sectors of society have been prepared to see what they can do to help tackle climate change," said Matt Prescott, a long-time campaigner for low-energy lightbulbs and the E-Day originator.

"They have offered to set aside their day-to-day differences in order to highlight that they accept the available science, agree that saving energy is a good idea, and want to simplify and widen access to some of the other potential solutions to climate change."


Those organisations include some of the UK's principal energy retailers, and the environmental groups that sometimes lambast them for their greenhouse gas emissions.
"We do call on companies to take more action," said Ashok Sinha, director of Stop Climate Chaos, an umbrella campaigning group on climate change.

"But we think it's welcome that they're encouraging their customers to save energy - that's responsible behaviour for an energy company."

The government obliges energy providers to offer energy saving measures to their customers.

People can use the E-Day website to register their interest in receiving help from these companies with loft and wall insulation.

Grid lines

E-Day started life as a Planet Relief, which was to have been an awareness-raising BBC TV programme with a large element of comedy.

But in September the BBC decided to pull the project, saying viewers preferred factual or documentary programmes about climate change.

The decision came after poor audiences for Live Earth, and public debate over whether it was the corporation's role to "save the planet".


Dr Prescott then decided to see whether he could mount E-Day as an independent operation, and secured the backing of important partners such as the energy companies and the National Grid.
Its role is crucial, acting as an independent and credible monitor of how much difference E-Day makes to the UK's electricity consumption.

Part of the Grid's job is to forecast demand for electricity. It says its forecasts are usually accurate to within 1% - so comparing demand across the 24 hours of E-Day with its predictions should provide an accurate measure of whether the initiative has made much difference.

Dr Prescott believes savings are likely to be small, up to 3%.

But even this could be the equivalent of taking a coal-fired power station off line for the day.

And he hopes the event will help confirm the idea that personal action can make a noticeable impact on energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.


Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk


Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Day to 'save energy and climate'

Published: 2008/02/27 14:51:51 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

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New twist in Hobbit-human debate
The row over the origins of "Hobbit" fossils found on the Indonesian island of Flores has taken a new twist.
An Australian team claims the little people were not a new human species, but modern humans with a form of dwarfism caused by poor nutrition.

In 2004, international researchers announced the discovery of the ancient remains in the Liang Bua Cave.

There has been debate since then over whether the bones are from diseased humans or a new human "cousin".

The latest theory, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, claims the Hobbits were true humans, but did not grow to normal size because of environmental factors.


The conclusions in this paper are not supported by the facts
Professor Peter Brown

Dr Peter Obendorf from the School of Applied Science at RMIT University, Melbourne, and colleagues, believe the little people developed a dwarfism condition because of severe nutritional deficiencies.

Environmental link

Severe iodine deficiency in pregnancy can cause people to grow little more than a metre tall with bone characteristics very similar to those of the Flores hobbits, said Dr Obendorf.


He added: "Our research suggests that these fossils are not a new species but rather the remains of human hunter-gatherers that suffered from this condition."

They came to this conclusion after studying images of skulls of the Flores fossils. Anatomical features were compared with museum specimens of humans suffering from a condition known as congenital hypothyroidism. The Australian group did not examine the original fossils.

The hypothesis has been described as "sheer speculation" by some experts, including Professor Peter Brown of the University of New England in Armidale, Australia, one of the original members of the team that discovered the remains.

"The conclusions in this paper are not supported by the facts," he said. "The authors have not examined the original fossil, have little and no experience with fossil hominids and depend upon data obtained by others."

Genetic clue

Dr Jeremy Austin, deputy director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at Adelaide University, said genetic data might provide the "casting vote" in the debate.

It would clarify the evolutionary relationship between the Hobbit ( Homo floresiensis ) and modern humans, he said.

Genetic data has not been forthcoming so far, he admitted, mainly due to poor preservation of the Liang Bua material and extensive contamination by modern human DNA of material recovered from the site.

"Collection of fresh, better preserved, Hobbit remains using strict anti-contamination measures currently is the best hope for testing the status of Homo floresiensis using genetic data," said Dr Austin.

The little people were nicknamed Hobbits after the fictional creatures in the writings of JRR Tolkien.

They were about a metre tall, with a brain about the size of a chimpanzee's.


Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New twist in Hobbit-human debate

Published: 2008/03/05 10:48:46 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

 

[genmirajborgza786]

Space truck set for maiden voyage
By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News



The development of Europe's ATV has taken 11 years
Launch preparations
Europe is set to launch the biggest, most sophisticated spacecraft in its history.
The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is an unmanned ship that can carry up to 7.6 tonnes of supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).

Its other primary role is to push the orbiting outpost higher into the sky to keep it from falling back to Earth.

The ATV will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 0403 GMT on Sunday.

Its mission will be a huge statement of capability.

The maiden voyage will announce that Europe now has some important new technical competencies to rival the very best in the space exploration business.


ATV is a marriage of human spacecraft and satellites
Alan Thirkettle, Esa's space station programme manager

The most notable is the ATV's automatic rendezvous and docking technology - the ship can find its own way to the station and attach itself without any human intervention.
"The ATV is how we contribute to the operations costs of the space station - by taking up several tonnes of logistics," says Alan Thirkettle, the European Space Agency's (Esa) ISS programme manager.

"It's also very important as a development. ATV is a marriage of human spacecraft and satellites. It's a very complicated spacecraft; and European industry has had the opportunity to develop new technologies and new techniques as a result of ATV," he told BBC News.

The vehicle has been dubbed "Jules Verne" for Sunday's flight and will weigh some 20 tonnes at launch. Its booster, the Ariane 5, has had to be specially strengthened for the task.


PUTTING THE ATV ON THE RIGHT PATH TO THE ISS
(1) The Ariane 5's first thrust phase lasts 17 minutes; the strap-on solid boosters and the main stage fall into the Atlantic Ocean
(2) Upper-stage re-ignition occurs 1hour and 2 minutes into the flight, and circularises the 260km orbit. The ISS is about 340km high
At 1 hour and 6 minutes, the ATV is ejected; and a final burn (3) deorbits the upper-stage. The ATV must now raise its own orbit



The rocket will put the vehicle - the size of a double-decker bus - into a 260km-high (160 miles) orbit, underneath and behind the space station. The ATV will then raise its height and edge closer and closer to the platform over a series of orbits.
For the Ariane 5, the mission also marks an important milestone - that of the heaviest single payload it has ever attempted to put in orbit.


The rocket is more used to lofting telecommunications satellites into equatorial orbits that go out to 35,000km above the Earth. For this flight, it will have to take a highly inclined trajectory out over the Atlantic to put the ATV on the correct low-altitude path to the ISS.
Ariane's upper-stage will also have to reignite twice - once to circularise the orbit before ejecting the ship; and a second burn to take itself safely out of the sky and into the Pacific Ocean.

The ATV will essentially then be parked in space. It must wait until Space Shuttle Endeavour has completed its forthcoming mission to the ISS before moving in to make a docking, probably on 3 April.

The ship's own computers will be in charge as an advanced form of GPS and, in the latter stages, optical sensors guide it into position on the end of the Russian Zvezda module.

Mission controllers in Toulouse, France, will keep a watching brief but will not intervene unless they see a problem arising.

Likewise, on the station itself, the astronauts will view the approach but will have no role other than in an emergency. If they do sense danger they can order the ATV to reverse by pushing a large red button on a panel positioned in the Zvezda module.



Fly with the ATV on a mission to the space station


The ATV will stay at the station for six months. At intervals of 10 to 45 days, the vehicle's thrusters will be used to boost the platform's altitude.
Over time, the ISS crew gradually deplete its stock of food, fuel, water, air and equipment.

"And that's when we also act as a dustbin," explains John Ellwood, Esa's ATV project chief.

"All the stuff that the crew has used during the six months that we are attached, they will put in ATV and then we will dump this in a very controlled re-entry into a completely unpopulated area of the Pacific."

Europe has high hopes for the ATV and its technology. Although astronauts will not launch to the ISS in the ship, the vehicle is human-rated - they can go inside its pressurised vessel without wearing spacesuits.

The ATV is a starting point, therefore, if Europe wants to develop its own independent, crew transportation system.

At the moment, no Esa astronaut can get into orbit without the US space shuttle or the Russian Soyuz vehicle.

At their meeting in The Hague in November, Europe's space ministers will be asked to build on the knowledge gained on ATV by approving a research programme that would investigate further technologies which could be used in a possible future human-launch system.


Cost: Total bill was 1.3bn euros (at least 4 more ATVs will be built)
Total cargo capacity: 7.6 tonnes, but first mission will fly lighter
Mass at launch: About 20 tonnes depending on cargo manifest
Dimensions: 10.3m long and 4.5m wide - the size of a large bus
Solar panels: Once unfolded, the solar wings span 22.3m
Engine power: 4x 490-Newton thrusters; and 28x 220N thrusters


Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Space truck set for maiden voyage

Published: 2008/03/08 17:29:01 GMT

© BBC MMVIII