• India among top 13 countries in scientific papers
• BSF going hi-tech to curb terrorist influx from Bangladesh
• Atlantis lands safely, Sunita returns to Earth
• First solar-powered mobile phone

• Indian-Australian scientist bags top invention prize
• Astronomers discover new class of stellar explosions
• New technology makes diagnosis of abnormal pregnancy cheaper

India is among the top 13 countries in terms of published scientific research papers, according to a recent study by the Science Watch team of Thomson ISI.Thomson Scientific, also known as Thomson ISI, is a global leader in providing access to high-value, essential information for researchers and scholars worldwide for over 45 years. 'India published 211,063 papers as against 422,993 by China (more than twice the number of papers as India's). India had 694 papers in the most cited 1 percent of papers whereas China had 2,189 papers in this category (more than three times the number of such papers from India),' said Subbiah Arunachalam, a long-term campaigner for enhancing the impact of Indian research. Only 0.33 percent of Indian papers could get into the one percent of most cited papers, whereas for China and South Korea the figure was 0.52 percent, noted Arunachalam. 'Apart from encouraging our scientists to do better quality work and providing them better facilities and a conducive environment, it is necessary to increase the visibility of Indian research publications, for example through placing our papers in institutional repositories or publishing them in open access journals,' he argued.

In terms of total papers in all fields from 1996 to 2006, India ranked 11th, ahead of South Korea and Taiwan. Its share was under one-tenth of the US, the leader which had almost three million papers published in this period. KnowledgeLink Newsletter of June 2007 noted that the May/June issue of Science Watch ranks 13 countries based on published scientific papers that reach the top one percent of most cited papers worldwide from 1996 to 2006. The US has produced more than 2.9 million scientific papers over this period, and took the lead in both the total papers among the top one percent and the percentage of total papers among the top one percent. Science Watch, a subscription newsletter, uses citation data from Thomson Scientific to provide rankings, interviews and reports on what it calls 'today's most significant science'. In its study, 13 countries are ranked based on both the volume and percentage of published scientific papers - in journals listed in Thomson Scientific's Web of Science - that reached the top one percent of most-cited papers worldwide. 'This survey takes a different approach when ranking elite papers both overall and in specialty fields,' Chris King, editor of Science Watch, was quoted as saying. 'We examined these papers on a global scale and identified which nations are leading scientific thought across all concentrations. Considering the sheer volume of papers published by the US, it is no surprise to see it top the rankings of total number of papers among the top one percent,' said King. He also suggested that the US leading the rankings in percentage of papers among the top one percent 'demonstrates its tremendous influence on modern scientific thought'. Japan ranked second with 790,510 published papers, or roughly a third of the US output. Britain also had a profound influence by placing second highest in both total number of papers, and percentage of papers among the top one percent by having published 660,808 papers. Thomson Scientific says: 'Our goal is to increase the impact of research by empowering researchers with the information they need to accelerate discovery.'

Courtesy: www.indiaenews.com, June 29, 2007

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An Indian-Australian scientist has been awarded the prestigious top invention prize for 2006 for his work on stem cell research. Kuldip Sidhu, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, was acknowledged for the work on the derivation of a new human embryonic stem cell line, Endeavour-1, and the cloning technique, according to a statement released by the University. Both innovations are now protected by international patents, it said. 'We will endeavour to take these IPs to the next level -- commercialisation -- with the primary aim of better care for patients,' Sidhu said in the statement. The prize is awarded by BioMed North Limited, a not-for-profit agency for the management and commercialisation of intellectual property generated within the state of New South Wales. Sidhu has produced a human embryonic stem cell line without the use of any animal product. The breakthrough eliminates the risk of animal-to-human contamination in potential stem cell therapy treatments. "These lines could eventually lead to safer treatments for conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury and even breast cancer," Sidhu claimed. "This cloning of cells involves a new technique, which is a very accurate way of extracting and then growing a single cell," Sidhu, who is leading the research and is based at the Diabetes Transplant Unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital, said. Hailing from Moga in Ferozepur district of Punjab, Sidhu completed his doctorate from Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana and did his post-doctoral work in reproductive physiology at Washington University.

Courtesy: www.sify.com, June 29, 2007

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The Border Security Force (BSF) is equipping itself with hi-tech electronic gadgets to strengthen ground-level security along India's eastern border to tackle increasing influx from Bangladesh, including of suspected militants. "Since the focus of terrorist outfits' infiltration has shifted from the western borders and Jammu and Kashmir to this part of the country (India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal), we have decided to electrify the entire 1,145 km-long fencing of the South Bengal Frontier (SBF) in the east," BSF Inspector General (SBF) Somesh Goyal told IANS. He said the proposal has received the go-ahead from the higher authorities and "we are now waiting for the funds to come from the union home ministry." On Saturday, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon held a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya ahead of his trip to Dhaka where he is likely to discuss the issue of terrorism. India shares a 4,095 km-long border with Bangladesh, including the longest 2,216 km with West Bengal, part of which is porous, riverine and unfenced and prone to frequent infiltration and skirmishes.

Earlier, the BSF conducted a pilot project by electrifying a one-km stretch of border fence in the Krishnanagar area in West Bengal. The electrification continued in that particular stretch for one month and it was a big success in preventing illegal migration from across the border in that area. BSF sources said they had put forward a proposal for acquiring the hand-held thermal imager - an advanced imaging device used for low light surveillance and security - which they say would help in monitoring large areas in south Bengal through a centralised system even at night. The proposal was made quite a while ago and has yet to be sanctioned. Goyal said that there would be one extra BSF battalion along the South Bengal Frontier (earlier there were 17 battalions) to monitor the present security situation on the eastern border. The eastern border zone of BSF comprises West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Manipur and Meghalaya. On the seriousness of cross-border terrorism, Goyal said home ministry reports pointed out that Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) - linked to Pakistan-based terrorist outfits Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed - was recruiting Indian youths from the poverty-stricken border districts and sending them to Pakistan for training. They are then being re-inducted in Bangladesh to carry out terrorist attacks against India. "As a security analyst I can say that it is much easier to carry out or plan terrorist activities in this part of India since the presence of Bangladeshi nationals is very strong in West Bengal. Here they also get two major railheads - the Howrah and Sealdah railway stations - to go to any part of the country," he said. Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has spread its influence in Bangladesh due to the presence of several Islamic fundamentalist groups. In May, Minister of State for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaiswal told the Lok Sabha that the central government has taken appropriate measures to strengthen the border management system by installing electronic surveillance equipment and establishing more border outposts and has coordinated intelligence work by the lead intelligence agencies. In his report he mentioned that terrorist outfits based in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir have infiltrated into India through the India-Bangladesh and India-Nepal borders for carrying out terrorist activities. The bomb blast in Varanasi in March 2006 had been carried out by terrorists who had apparently come through the India-Bangladesh border. The serial blasts on Mumbai local trains in July 2006 also had an allegedly Bangladesh connection since at least five terrorists involved in the blasts had infiltrated into India through the India-Bangladesh border, it was later found by Indian agencies.

Courtesy: www.mangalorean.com, June 26, 2007

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Astronomers have discovered a new class of stellar explosions, which is believed to have resulted from the merger of two ordinary stars some 49 million years ago. Shrinivas R. Kulkarni from the California Institute of Technology discovered the puzzling explosion during the Lick Observatory Supernova Search with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, in a joint study with Alex Filippenko and Weidong Li of University of California, Berkeley. According to Kulkarni, the MacArthur Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science at the Institute, and team leader of the study, the discovery of M85OT2006-1, is merely the proverbial tip of the iceberg for an emerging class of cosmic transients. "Though the primary scientific goal of the program is discovering supernovae and it`s quite successful at doing that, it is gratifying to find new classes of transient objects such as M85OT2006-1," said Li, who is in charge of the daily operation of the supernova search. Prof. Kulkarni said the explosion was surprising because it was far too faint for a supernova, in which a star literally explodes, but clearly too bright for a nova or a thermonuclear explosion from the surface of a white dwarf star. Arne Rau, a postdoctoral fellow working with Prof. Kulkarni, said, "I was simply floored. In a short time we went from speculation to a real discovery. It was an exciting moment for me". Prof. Kulkarni said the finding was based on observations of a flash seen in the Virgo cluster in a galaxy known as Messier 85. The galaxy in which M85OT2006-1 exploded is composed mainly of old stars, which also indicates that the event probably arose from a population of stars with masses very similar to that of the Sun, he said. "More than a decade ago, one other similar but poorly studied event was observed in the Andromeda galaxy. Possibly, the red luminous novae result when two stars merge and undergo what is called "common envelope evolution". The common envelope phase has been inferred on strong theoretical grounds, but is now caught in flagrante delicto," Prof. Kulkarni added. Rau, who undertook separate observations of M85OT2006-1 with NASA`s Spitzer Space Telescope, said the object is a "cosmic oddball". "It is hard to imagine both a bright explosion which is also so cold. There is little doubt that the discovery of this new class of cosmic explosions will make astronomers inspect ongoing searches carefully for similar events. Future imaging surveys will likewise be energized by this discovery," Rau said.

Courtesy: www.zeenews.com, June 24, 2007

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Space shuttle Atlantis touched down at the Edwards Air Force Base in California on Saturday bringing Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams back to earth after a record 195-day stay in space.

The spacecraft touched down at 0119 IST.
Mission managers had to divert Atlantis to Edwards in the Mojave Desert as poor weather at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral forced mission managers to skip three landing attempts there over the last 24 hours. The spacecraft began its fiery descent to earth with Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Lee Archambault firing the space shuttle's engines at 0113 IST. The de-orbit burn slows down the shuttle for its return through Earth's atmosphere. Williams was riding back to Earth lying on her back to ease the transition back to gravity as she had lived in the weightless conditions aboard the International Space Station since December. Williams crossed the milestone for longest uninterrupted stay by a woman in space on Saturday last surpassing the 188-day, four-hour mark set by US astronaut Shannon Lucid in 1996 on a mission to the Russian Mir space station. As Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided over the runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California, several people recalled the tragic memories of the Columbia disaster of 2003, in which India-born Kalpana Chawla and six others perished. During its 13-day mission, Atlantis delivered a truss segment for the international space station and a replacement for Williams. Atlantis also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson who replaced Williams. During their stay, the Atlantis crew worked on the on-orbit construction of the station with the installation of the Starboard 3 and 4 truss segment. The crew installed the truss on Monday last and conducted four spacewalks to activate it and assist in the retraction of solar array. During the third spacewalk, the crew repaired an out-of-position thermal blanket on the left orbital manoeuvring system pod. Earlier on Tuesday, the crew overcame a computer-meltdown and repaired the heat shield of the shuttle, before undocking from the space station.

Courtesy: Times of India, June 23, 2007

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Indian scientists have developed a new technology that will help diagnose at a very early stage and at affordable cost abnormal pregnancies that can lead to miscarriages and stillbirths. Such cases, called ectopic pregnancies, can be detected even before it can be spotted by an ultrasound machine, said scientists at the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), a government organisation under the ministry of health and family welfare. They say they have developed the technology, the first of its kind across the globe, after two decades of labour to help millions of women who suffer. "Our technology is more accurate and cheaper than the present ultrasound machine. This will help women to know their pregnancy status in the fifth week after they conceive," T.G. Srivastava, who has developed the technology, told IANS

A professor at the Reproductive Biomedicine Department of NIHFW, Srivastava claimed that technologies that were currently available could give a clear picture about the pregnancy only after the fifth week and at a much later timeframe in cases of ectopic pregnancies. "Our technology will prove to be a boon for people suffering from ectopic pregnancies where fertilised eggs are found outside the uterus. It leads to miscarriages and stillbirths. An early diagnosis will ensure women do not suffer much." In ectopic pregnancy, the foetus may get attached to fallopian tubes, abdomen or even the cervix area. As none of these areas have enough space, the mother suffers pain. When the foetus grows, it can even result in bursting of the organ, leading to major complications, the doctors explained. It causes severe bleeding and in many cases endangers the mother's life. Most such pregnancies lead to stillbirth, they added. "People pay at least Rs.7,000 for such tests but our technology will certainly be 10 times cheaper. Many people in rural India earn less than Rs.4,000 a month. How can they pay so much for a test?" Srivastava queried. The new kit can survive relatively high temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius for a period of three months and continue to give best results. If kept at temperatures between 2-8 degrees Celsius, it can remain effective for use for over two years. NIHFW director Deoki Nandan said the institute has transferred the technology to the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), a wing of the Ministry of Science and Technology. "It will now be the responsibility of NRDC to make it available on a large scale." Somenath Ghosh, NRDC chairman and managing director, said: "Now we will consult both Indian and foreign companies to make it available for the masses. I am sure it will reduce the time and cost of pregnancy related diagnosis drastically."

Courtesy: www.mangalorean.com, June 18, 2007

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A Chinese company has claimed to have developed the world's first solar-powered mobile phone that uses sun's energy to recharge itself. The company says a scale-like solar panel on the top side of the clamshell-designed phone can also be recharged by light from other sources including candles. It can provide 40 minutes of talk-time after sitting in the Sun for an hour.Hi-tech wealth, a well-known telecommunication products supplier in china, claims its mobile phone is the world's first to use solar power to recharge its battery. The company says it has developed the most advanced solar power technology and owns eight patents and has applied for numerous others. Many companies around the world are working on similar mobile phones but their products are still at the experimental stage, Xinhua news agency quoted a company official as saying. "With more than 400 million mobile phones in the country, china would save a great amount of electricity if all its mobile phones were recharged by light," chairman of Hi-Tech Wealth, Zhang Zhengyu said. He claimed that the lifespan of the battery in the new phone is 2.5 times longer that traditional batteries. The cost of the solar-powered mobile phone was not provided. The company plans to put six of its light energy mobile phones on the market this year, and another 30 next year, the report said.

Courtesy: www.zeenews.com, June 07, 2007

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