E-Kiss (internet ainthawka in Kiss-na)

Khawvel thiemna a hung insang peia, mihriem dit zawng hai khawm a changkai ve peia. Internet khawvela chenghaiin ei sawr tangkai le thilthaw theitak tak hieng e-mail le video chat hai khawm dittawk ta lovin, hmun hla taka um inngaizawng hai in fawp theina ding E-Kiss (internet fetlenga in fawp theina hmangruo a nih) chu Japanese Scientist Nobuhiro Takahasi chun a siem suok tah niin Daily Mail chanchinbu chun 2011, May thla khan alo hril taa. Hi hmangruo hi Kajimoto Research Laboratory Japan ramah siem le ensin mek a nih. Khawvel ram changkang a police haiin an hmang hlak, Breathalyser ( Hi hmangruo hi, inrui sunga motor khal hai an manna hmangruo a nia, zu an inruia, an bau an ka a, zu rim an nam deu chun an hriet thei nghal hlak a nih). Hi e-Kiss khawm hi chu Breathalyser sin thaw dan entawna siem suok chu a nih.
E-kiss hi Naute nene nekna anga hmuom ding ani a, chu hmangruo chu a hmangtu ding mi pahni hai chun an nei veve a ngai ding a nih. Chu hmangruo an nei hnunga Internet fetlenga in kiss theina software pakhat an nei veve a ngai bawk. E-kiss hmangruo nau nene nekna anga siem chu hmuom anta, khingtieng ainthawka an lei le hmur in a hung suk vir dan ang ang in khingtieng panga mi khawm alo in vir ve pei ding a nih. Chu chun in kiss huna lei le lei intawk tir ang'n an lo hlimpui/inhawi anlo ti thei ve ding a nih. A tak taka in kiss ang chu ni naw sienkhawm, a ang thei dan ang taka siem chu a nih. Hi thil hi internet fetlenga taksa inthem/intawk theina tienga hmathuoitu (full person-to-person web experience) pakhat a lo ni ta a nih.

A siem dawktu pa Nobuhiro Takahashi chun hun sawtnawte hnunga hi hmangruo hi la suk changkang ni vat ata, in fawp hun, a zaia infawp le nasa deua in fawp hai, inthuok dan hai, thil inhnik hriet theina, lei a hul le hullo hai chen khawm hriet thei ala ni ding thu a hril. Hi hmangruo hi mipui vantlang hmang thei dinga zawr suok vat beisei a nih.

Ahnuoia video hi an demonstrate na a nih.

'Red Deer Cave' people, possibly a new human species?

[caption id="attachment_7821" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="An artist's reconstruction from Chinese fossils illustrates what may be a newly discovered human species, experts say."][/caption]

Newly identified partial skeletons of "mysterious humans" excavated at two caves in southwest China display an unique mix of primitive and modern anatomical features, scientists say.

"Their skulls are anatomically unique. They look very different to all modern humans, whether alive today or in Africa 150,000 years ago," said evolutionary biologist Darren Curnoe, the lead author of the study, from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

The fossils found at excavation sites in Longlin Cave, in Guangxi Province, and the Maludong Cave, in Yunnan Province, indicate that the stone-aged people had short, flat faces and lacked a modern chin. They had thick skull bones, a rounded brain case, prominent brow ridges and a moderate-size brain.

They were dubbed the "Red Deer Cave" people because scientists say these prehistoric people hunted extinct red deer and cooked them in the cave at Maludong, where four of the five partial skeletal fossils were found.

Whether the Red Deer Cave people are indeed a new species indicating a new evolutionary line or whether they are a very early population of modern humans remains a controversial topic of discussion among scientists.

The team of Australian and Chinese researchers remains cautiously optimistic when it comes to classifying what they have unearthed.

"The evidence is quite fairly balanced at the moment. It's weighted towards the idea that the Red Deer Cave people might represent a new population, possibly a new species," Curnoe said.

Details of the discovery are published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

Archeological evidence dates these prehistoric hunters and gatherers to 14,500 to 11,500 years ago, indicating that for a sliver of time in East Asia, the Red Deer Cave people may have shared the landscape with modern-looking people who displayed the beginnings of farming.

Despite Asia being the largest subcontinent, the fossil record for human evolution remains slim. The vast majority of prehistoric archeology has focused on Europe and Africa, scientists say.

"Understanding the fossil records of East Asia is the missing link to our overall understanding of human evolution," Curnoe said.

The Maludong site had actually been excavated the first time by the Chinese in 1989. At that time, several bags of fossils were found, but it was only in 2008 that the site was studied and the remains analyzed by Curnoe and his team of researchers.

The age of the cave sites was determined by collecting sediment samples and tested using radioactive carbon dating.

At the Longlin Cave, the remains of a lower jaw set in a bed of sediment were found by a geologist back in 1979 and rediscovered in a the basement laboratory of one of the Chinese researchers in 2009. The bones first had to be removed from the sediment rock. Then, using a CT Scan 3D, models of the skull were made, showing both the prominent primitive and modern features.

Due to the uncertainty surrounding the human fossil record, paleoanthropologists say, more conclusive DNA testing is required.

Initial DNA testing conducted on the fossils did not show evidence of human DNA, but Curnoe and his team will push forward.

"If we are successful in extracting DNA, it will give us a really accurate understanding of precisely who these people are and where they might fit in the human evolutionary tree," he said.

"We are trying to understand the common story. What unites us all? Where do we come from? In understanding our evolutionary past, this might help us understand where we are today and where we might be going," Curnoe added.

~cnn

'Doomsday' ticks closer on nuclear, climate fears

[caption id="attachment_6352" align="aligncenter" width="512" caption="The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists created the "Doomsday Clock" as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end. Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have forced the "Doomsday clock" one minute closer to midnight, leading international scientists said Tuesday."][/caption]

Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change have forced the "Doomsday clock" one minute closer to midnight, leading international scientists said Tuesday.

 

"It is now five minutes to midnight," said Allison Macfarlan, chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end.

The last decision by the group, which includes a host of Nobel Prize winning scientists, moved the clock a minute further away from midnight in 2010 on hopes of global nuclear cooperation and the election of President Barack Obama.

However, Tuesday's decision pushes the clock back to the time where it was in 2007.

"It is clear that the change that appeared to be happening at the time is not happening, not materializing," said co-chair Lawrence Krauss.

"And faced today with the clear and present dangers of nuclear proliferation, climate change and the continued challenge to find new and sustainable and safe sources of energy, business as usual reigns the norm among world leaders."

The clock reached its most perilous point in 1953, at two minutes to midnight, after the United States and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another.

It was a far-flung 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 after the two signed the long-stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and announced further unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

Increasing nuclear tensions, refusal to engage in global action on climate change, and a growing tendency to reject science when it comes to major world concerns were cited as key reasons for the latest tick on the clock.

The nuclear accident at Japan's Fukushima plant also highlighted the volatility of relying on nuclear power in areas prone to natural disasters, scientists said.

Robert Socolow, a member of the BAS science and security board and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, said a common theme emerged in the scientists' talks this year.

He cited a "worrisome trend, notably in the United States but in many other countries, to reject or diminish the significance of what science says is the characteristic of a problem."

"The world is in a pickle. Many people want to live better than they live now on a planet of finite size," he added.

The group said it was heartened by a series of world protest movements, including the Arab spring, the global Occupy demonstrations and protests in Russia which show people are seeking a greater say in their future.

However, there is plenty of uncertainty in the nuclear realm, and even a renewed START deal between Russia and the United States has not achieved the progress scientists would like, said BAS board member Jayantha Dhanapala.

"At a time when there are going to be elections in the United States, in Russia, in France, and a change of leadership in China, there is some uncertainty therefore about the nuclear weapons programs of these countries and the policies that the new leadership will follow," said Dhanapala, a former UN under-secretary general for disarmament affairs.

"The world still has approximately over 20,000 deployed nuclear weapons with enough power to destroy the world's inhabitants several times over," he added.

"We also have the prospect of nuclear weapons being used by terrorists and non-state actors and therefore the problem of nuclear weapon use either by accident or by design.... remains a very serious problem."

Executive director of the group, Kennette Benedict, highlighted the dangers of a continued world reliance on fossil fuels, noting that power plants built in this decade will spew pollution for the next 50 years.

"The global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in the Earth's climate," she said.

"The actions taken in the next few years will set us on a path that will be extremely difficult to redirect."

Krauss added that the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan has reminded scientists of the risks of trading one form of energy for another in a risky environment.

"With damage to a nuclear reactor in Japan, the complex issue of the relationship between nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons and sustainable energy production without global warming has become even more complex."

Towards midnight: Doomsday clock since 1947

The movements of the symbolic Doomsday Clock, set up by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a prominent group of international scientists, together with reasons cited.

- 1947: Seven minutes to midnight

The clock first appears as a symbol of nuclear danger.

- 1949: Three minutes to midnight

The Soviet Union explodes its first atomic bomb.

- 1953: Two minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another.

- 1960: Seven minutes to midnight

Growing public understanding that nuclear weapons made war between the major powers irrational amid greater international scientific cooperation and efforts to aid poor nations.

- 1963: Twelve minutes to midnight

The US and Soviet signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty "provides the first tangible confirmation of what has been the Bulletin's conviction in recent years -- that a new cohesive force has entered the interplay of forces shaping the fate of mankind."

- 1968: Seven minutes to midnight

France and China acquire nuclear weapons; wars rage in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Vietnam; world military spending increases while development funds shrink.

- 1969: Ten minutes to midnight

The US Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

- 1972: Twelve minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union sign the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

- 1974: Nine minutes to midnight

SALT talks reach an impasse; India develops a nuclear weapon.

- 1980: Seven minutes to midnight

The deadlock in US-Soviet arms talks continues; nationalistic wars and terrorist actions increase; the gulf between rich and poor nations grows wider.

- 1981: Four minutes to midnight

Both superpowers develop more weapons for fighting a nuclear war. Terrorist actions, repression of human rights, and conflicts in Afghanistan, Poland and South Africa add to world tension.

- 1984: Three minutes to midnight

The arms race accelerates.

- 1988: Six minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union sign a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces; superpower relations improve; more nations actively oppose nuclear weapons.

- 1990: Ten minutes to midnight

The Cold War ends as the Iron Curtain falls.

- 1991: Seventeen minutes to midnight

The United States and the Soviet Union sign the long-stalled Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and announce further unilateral cuts in tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

- 1995: Fourteen minutes to midnight

Further arms reductions stall while global military spending continues at Cold War levels. Risks of nuclear "leakage" from poorly guarded former Soviet facilities increase.

- 1998: Nine minutes to midnight

India and Pakistan "go public" with nuclear tests. The United States and Russia cannot agree on further deep reductions in their nuclear stockpiles.

- 2002: Seven minutes to midnight

The United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Terrorists seek to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons.

- 2007: Five minutes to midnight.

North Korea's recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons," and the continued presence of 26,000 US and Russian nuclear weapons are cited.

- 2010: Six minutes to midnight.

President Barack Obama is hailed for helping to pull the world back from nuclear or environmental catastrophe, and leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to reduce their arsenals for the first time since 1945.

- 2012: Five minutes to midnight.

Global failure to take action against climate change, mounting nuclear tensions and an increasing tendency to reject science are cited as reasons for moving the clock.

~(c) 2012 AFP (physorg.com)

Sun’s ‘killer flare’ won’t end earth: NASA

WASHINGTON, NOV 13 (IANS): For all the doomsayers predicting that the world will come to an end in 2012, at least one of the potential reasons for earth’s destruction has been knocked off. US space agency NASA has said a gigantic solar ‘killer flare’ will not devastate earth.

Many people have been worrying about the gigantic ‘killer flare’ which could be hurled by the sun and finish off life on earth. But the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says there simply isn’t enough energy in the sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles away.

Given the fact that solar activity is currently ramping up its standard 11-year cycle, there is a belief that 2012 could be coinciding with such a flare.

But this same solar cycle has occurred over the millennia. Anyone over the age of 11 has already lived through such a solar maximum with no harm. Besides, the next solar maximum is predicted to occur in late 2013 or early 2014, not 2012, according to a NASA statement.

This is not to say that space weather can’t affect our planet. The explosive heat of a solar flare can’t reach our globe, but electromagnetic radiation and energetic particles can.

Solar flares can temporarily affect signal transmission from, say, a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite to earth causing it to be off by many yards. Another phenomenon produced by the sun could be even more disruptive.

Known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), these solar explosions propel bursts of particles and electromagnetic fluctuations into earth’s atmosphere.

Those fluctuations could induce electric fluctuations at ground level that could blow out transformers in power grids. The CME’s particles can also collide with crucial electronics onboard a satellite and disrupt its systems.

In an increasingly technological world, where almost everyone relies on cell phones and GPS controls not just your in-car map system but also airplane navigation and the extremely accurate clocks that govern financial transactions, space weather is a serious matter.

But it is a problem the same way hurricanes are a problem. One can protect oneself with advance information and proper precautions. During a hurricane watch, a homeowner can stay put ... or he can seal up the house, turn off the electronics and get out of the way.

PSLV-C18 puts four satellites in orbit

Along with Indo-French satellite Megha-Tropiques, PSLV-C18 rocket on Wednesday successfully placed in orbit three nano satellites —VesselSat1-1 from Luxembourg, SRMSat from SRM University, Chennai, and Jugnu from IIT, Kanpur

[caption id="attachment_4997" align="alignright" width="318" caption="PSLV-C18 lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Wednesday. Photo: K.V. Srinivasan"][/caption]

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C18) demonstrated its reliability once again when it put successfully four satellites in orbit on Wednesday. The satellites were: Megha-Tropiques, an Indo-French satellite to study the weather and climate in the tropical region of the world; SRMSat built by the students of SRM university, near Chennai; Jugnu, built by the students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur; and Vesselsat from Luxembourg. This was the 19th consecutively successful mission of the PSLV out of 20 launches from 1993.

It was a flawless a mission with the PSLV-C18 rising from the first launch pad at the spaceport at Sriharikota at the scheduled time of 11 a.m. As the vehicle sped up from the launch pad, it disappeared briefly into the clouds to knife out into the sky again. Applause broke out in the Mission Control Centre as the four stages of the vehicle ignited on time and fell into the Bay of Bengal. At the end of more than 21 minutes of flight, the PSLV-C18 first catapulted the 1,000 kg Megha-Tropiques satellite into a precise orbit at an altitude of 867 km. The satellite was slung into orbit at a velocity of more than 26,000 km an hour. A few seconds later, SRMSat flew out, followed by VesselSat and Jugnu.

Consistency

K. Radhakrishnan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organistion (ISRO) called it “a grand success". P.S. Veeraraghavan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, said the latest success demonstrated the consistency of the PSLV rocket. S. Ramakrishnan, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO, described the flight as “one more magnificent mission from the PSLV.”

Dr. G. Raju, project Director, Megha-Tropiques, said the satellite’s solar-panels had deployed and the satellite was in good health. The satellite would have a life-span of five years. T.K. Alex, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, said that even though SRMSat and Jugnu were small satellites, they were complex spacecraft built by the students.

Predicting the monsoon

Megha-Tropiques, with four scientific instruments, will help in predicting the Indian monsoons, floods, cyclones and droughts, besides estimating the weather in the short-term and climate in the long-term in the tropical countries of the world. The 11-kg SRMSat will address the problem of global-warming and the pollution levels in the atmosphere by monitoring the carbon-dioxide present there. The 3-kg Jugnu isa remote-sensing satellite that will minor vegetation and water-bodies. VesselSat will help in locating ships cruising in the sea-lanes of the world.

~The Hindu

 

Nobel Prize in Physics 2011

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBCNews

The three researchers' work has led to an expanding knowledge of our Universe

Three researchers behind the discovery that our Universe's expansion is accelerating have been awarded this year's Nobel prize for physics.

Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess of the US and Brian Schmidt of Australia will divide the prize.

The trio studied what are called Type 1a supernovae, determining that more distant objects seem to move faster.

Their observations suggest that not only is the Universe expanding, its expansion is relentlessly speeding up.

Prof Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded half the 10m Swedish krona (£940,000) prize, with Prof Schmidt of the Australian National University and Prof Riess of Johns Hopkins University's Space Telescope Science Institute sharing the other half.

'Weak knees'

Prof Schmidt spoke to the Nobel commitee from Australia during the ceremony.

"It feels like when my children were born," he said.

"I feel weak at the knees, very excited and somewhat amazed by the situation. It's been a pretty exciting last half hour."

The trio's findings form the basis of our current understanding of the Universe's origins, but raises a number of difficult questions.

In order to explain the rising expansion, cosmologists have suggested the existence of what is known as dark energy. Although its properties and nature remain mysterious, the predominant theory holds that dark energy makes up some three-quarters of the Universe.

But at the time the work was first being considered, no such exotic explanations were yet needed.

"It seemed like my favourite kind of job - a wonderful chance to ask something absolutely fundamental: the fate of the Universe and whether the Universe was infinite or not," Prof Perlmutter told BBC News.

He led the Supernova Cosmology Project beginning in 1988, and Prof Schmidt and Prof Riess began work in 1994 on a similar project known as the High-z Supernova Search Team.

Their goal was to measure distant Type 1a supernovae - the brilliant ends of a particular kind of dense star known as a white dwarf.

Because their explosive ends are of roughly the same brightness, the amount of light observed from the supernovae on Earth should be an indication of their distance; slight shifts in their colour indicate how fast they are moving.

At the time, the competing teams expected to find that the more distant supernovae were slowing down, relative to those nearer - a decline of the expansion of the Universe that began with the Big Bang.

Instead, both teams found the same thing: distant supernovae were in fact speeding up, suggesting that the Universe is destined for an ever-increasing expansion.

Prof Perlmutter said the fact that the two teams were rivals was probably best to set the scene for a surprising outcome.

"It was fierce competition in those last four or five years of the work," he said.

"The two groups announced their results within just weeks of each other and they agreed so closely; that's one of the things that made it possible for the scientific community to accept the result so quickly."

That result in the end sparked a new epoch in cosmology, seeking to understand what is driving the expansion, and Prof Perlmutter is enthusiastic that such fundamental problems have been highlighted by the Nobel committee.

"It's an unusual opportunity, a chance for so many people to share in the excitement and the fun of the fact that we may be on to hints as to what the Universe is made out of. I guess the whole point of a prize like this is to be able to get that out into the community."

Commenting on the prize, Prof Sir Peter Knight, head of the UK's Institute of Physics, said: "The recipients of today's award are at the frontier of modern astrophysics and have triggered an enormous amount of research on dark energy."

"These researchers have opened our eyes to the true nature of our Universe," he added. "They are very well-deserved recipients."

The Nobel prizes have been given out annually since 1901, covering the fields of medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace.

Monday's award of the 2011 prize for physiology or medicine went to Bruce Beutler of the US, Jules Hoffmann from France and Ralph Steinman from Canada for their work on immunology.

This year's chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday.

 

~BBC