Distance between Earth and Sun

It was nine o’clock in the morning on October 8, 1771. Guillaume le Gentil was exhausted, weary after a long travel and eager to meet his wife.

Annoying the US, our way

America, the global police of all things large and grand such as human rights and democratic values the world over—leaving aside, of course, powerful oil kingdoms with barbaric laws and Latin American dictators who make huge chunks of their restive population “disappear”—also does a tough cop act on intellectual property rights (IPRs) and how well such rights are being protected.

Google booked

The US telecom regulator has fined Google $25,000 for stalling a probe into its Street View online mapping service. The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) announced the penalty, saying it was dropping the investigation into whether Street View cars gathered data from private wireless networks.

Our complex world

Brian Cox is a veritable rockstar among physicists. A keyboard virtuoso, he was a part of the now disbanded rock group, D: ream, whose music regularly featured in the UK’s hit charts in the 1990s. His current star status, however, derives from his vocation as a physicist. Cox is well-known as the presenter of two BBC TV series on physics that have attracted millions of viewers.

Science and Technology - Briefs

Astrophysics Star-eating monsters

Bowing to web

The volumes once synonymous with the word encyclopaedia are going out of print. When this magazine hits stand, Encyclopaedia Britannica would have gone out of print, bringing an end to a 244-year-old history.

Science and Technology - Briefs

ASTROPHYSICS Moon’s magnetic puzzle

Letters - April 15, 2012

Authority to fight hunger

Science and technology remain out of focus in budget

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee did not make any specific mention of science and technology during the budget speech. But the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the apex body for funding science and technology endeavours and capacity building in the country managed to  scoop Rs 2,477 crore up from Rs 2,349 crore last year. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the public funded body for scientific and industrial research, under Department for Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) has been allocated Rs 2,013 crore.

Alien hunt gets serious

A website has been launched to get the public involved in the search for extraterrestrial life. The site, SetiLive, will stream radio frequencies transmitted by Allen Telescope Array of Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute, a US non-profit. Participants will be asked to report if they notice unusual frequency.